The Point:  The state of  Suozzi

Rep. Tom Suozzi, running for governor, traveled to Buffalo during the fall to rally for Byron Brown, the incumbent who lost the Democratic primary but won an unlikely write-in campaign. Unfortunately for the Long Island Democrat, Brown this week endorsed Gov. Kathy Hochul, Suozzi’s primary rival.

That was to be expected. Hochul, herself a Buffalonian, stayed on the fence in Brown’s race against avowed socialist India Walton, while Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand backed Walton. But Nassau Democratic chairman Jay Jacobs was instrumental to Brown’s victory, and even as it frays their longtime alliance, Jacobs is avidly behind Hochul against Suozzi.

With Democrats due to convene next month for nominations and petitions to go out in early March, that pretty much crystallizes how things stand for the congressman and former Nassau County executive. She’s getting party, institutional and union support and raising millions for her campaign — the residue of incumbency — while he hasn’t disclosed yet exactly how much he's raised. "It’ll be better than people expect," he told The Point, in addition to the $2 million or so he’s transferring into the state coffers from his federal campaign account.

So on Thursday, Suozzi held a Zoom news conference from his Glen Cove home in which he tried to turn Hochul’s edge in the race to his moral advantage. In doing so, he reached for a long-running issue — the use of state aircraft by elected officials to fly on "official business" to places where they also happen to be campaigning. He cited 45 occasions in which Hochul seemed to have done so without reimbursing the state, and called for her to refer the matter to Attorney General Tish James’ office for investigation. James, of course, dropped out of the primary for governor and is seeking reelection.

Attorneys general, governors and helicopters have been a thing in Albany before, most pungently in 2007. Then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer sought to probe nemesis Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno’s use of state-funded copters to fly to New York City when GOP fundraisers happened to be going on. But then-AG Andrew M. Cuomo threw Spitzer this fastball: He issued a report slamming Spitzer and aides for using a press request for information to work up a political hit against Bruno.

Ironically, it was only a year earlier, in 2006, that Suozzi last tried to win a primary for governor, and Spitzer got 81% of the vote against the then-county executive’s 18%.

Slim chance Hochul would now bite on assigning a new AG-copter probe anyway. According to the Albany Times Union, which questioned the propriety of the trips last week, Hochul’s team today reimbursed the state $19,949 for three trips. Her office said in a statement: "The Governor's new deputy counsel who oversees ethics is completing a thorough review of all aircraft usage and necessary reimbursements identified thus far have been made, and we are creating additional controls and processes to better ensure consistent adherence to the strictest ethical guidelines."

A Hochul official added: "Regarding mixed-use flights, counsel's analysis identified three trips so far that merit reimbursement, issued an invoice yesterday, and payment was made this morning. Those trips are on the dates September 19, September 24 and October 4."

But that wasn’t the extent of Suozzi’s brief against Hochul, the essence of which was more focused in recent months on fundraising from and meeting privately with lobbyists than setting up a comprehensive plan to respond to COVID-19 spikes in cooperation with local officials.

Suozzi released a 30-second video, which he played twice at the news conference, mocking Hochul’s pledge of transparency, noting her "45 flights in 45 days" and ending with the posted words: "Open and ethical governing?"

It will be a steep challenge for Suozzi to make these objections catch on, with the clock to the primary starting to tick down.

By Dan Janison

dan.janison@newsday.comDanJanison

Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.