Mild surprises among Suozzi, Pilip donors

Daily Point

Suozzi got from ex-Trump aide; Lauder brothers split sides

Ron Lauder, a longtime New York State Conservative Party ally, is known to be a major supporter of Mazi Melesa Pilip, the GOP candidate in the 3rd Congressional District special election.

But what’s attracted far less attention in the widely watched race to complete George Santos’ term is that Lauder’s older brother Leonard contributed $3,300 to Pilip’s opponent, Democrat Tom Suozzi.

The billionaire Lauder brothers are, according to published accounts, the sole heirs to the Estée Lauder Companies cosmetics fortune with a major presence on Long Island.

Whatever their family’s differences in world view, the Lauders are among the better-known boldface names contributing to the candidates, whose preferences are not always predictable by party affiliation.

Take Anthony Scaramucci, who served very briefly in the Trump White House and recently supported Chris Christie for president before the latter dropped out of the Republican primaries. Scaramucci is the founder of SkyBridge Capital who moved into a Manhasset manse a few years back.

According to Federal Election Commission filings reviewed by The Point, Scaramucci gave $3,300 to Suozzi’s congressional fundraising committee on Dec. 5.

Another gift to the seasoned Democrat comes from Bernadette Castro of Locust Valley, who served as commissioner of the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. An appointee of Republican Gov. George E. Pataki, she’s listed as contributing $500 on Jan. 15. As a child, she was featured in ads for the family’s Castro Convertible sofa business. In 1994, she was the GOP candidate for U.S. Senate against the late four-term Democratic Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan.

Last week, Suozzi’s filings showed he raised $4.5 million between Oct. 1 and Jan. 24, while Pilip raised $1.3 million between Dec. 1 and Jan. 24.

Much of Pilip’s fundraising strength comes from Republican Party committees, both local and national, as House Speaker Mike Johnson, following Santos’ expulsion, seeks to keep New York’s CD3 in the thin majority his caucus now holds. These funders range from Washington PACs including the National Republican Campaign Committee and the Republican Jewish Coalition to regional Republican clubs such as those of the Town of Oyster Bay, Merrick and Rockville Centre.

Former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato contributed $3,300 to Nassau Legis. Pilip. Her elected GOP colleagues, including Legis. Thomas McKevitt, State Sen. Steve Rhoads and County Clerk Maureen O’Connell, contributed as well.

Suozzi’s contributors also included longtime county party activists from Diane Yatauro, former county legislative minority leader, to Robert Zimmerman, the previous Democratic candidate for CD3, among others.

With early voting underway and a week to go before Election Day, the suspenseful question is how all the funds will be spent — and how much it will matter to the outcome. Get ready for the final publicity blitz.

— Dan Janison dan.janison@newsday.com

Pencil Point

GOP Venn diagram

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Final Point

Early voting: Day 4

With four days of early voting in the books in the 3rd Congressional District, 27,419 voters have come out to the polls. And blanks — those who are not registered with a specific party — continue to play a pivotal role, making up 19% of the total, according to statistics from Nassau County’s Board of Elections released after polls closed Tuesday.

The totals show that 11,717 Democrats, 43% of the total, 9,545 Republicans, or 35% of the total, and 5,158 blanks have voted at the county’s 11 early voting sites. The remaining voters were registered in other parties.

As observers on both sides of the aisle parse the numbers, trying to assess what it means for the race between Democrat Tom Suozzi and Republican Mazi Melesa Pilip, some of the more interesting analysis comes in a look at each early voting site. In Nassau County, voters are not assigned to an early voting polling place, and can go to any one of them, no matter where they live, but voters do tend to end up at a site close to home.

At three sites — in New Cassel, Plainview and Port Washington — Democrats made up the majority of voters. A Republican majority turned out to vote at locations in Massapequa and Bethpage. The most voters in total showed up in Plainview, with Great Neck, Port Washington and Massapequa not far behind.

The “blanks,” however, continue to tell the story, especially as conventional wisdom has suggested that more of them tend to vote Republican. At four early voting locations, blanks made up 20% or more of voters, a possible indication of just how widely the actual vote could swing from what the party breakdown seems to show.

The New York City Board of Elections, meanwhile, reported that a cumulative total of 4,116 Queens residents have voted early in CD3 through Tuesday. Democrats so far have outpaced Republicans there, too, though an updated breakdown by party was not available Tuesday evening.

— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com

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