Phebe Wahl Phebe Wahl | June 25, 2022 | People,
New York gubernatorial candidate Tom Suozzi PHOTO BY CQ-ROLL CALL/GETTY IMAGES
WITH A SEASONED BACKGROUND AS A POLITICIAN, ATTORNEY AND ACCOUNTANT, CONGRESSMAN AND NEW YORK GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE TOM SUOZZI (SUOZZIFORNY.COM) KNOWS HOW TO GET THE JOB DONE. WE ASKED THE LOCAL LEADER AND COMMON SENSE DEMOCRAT TO PREVIEW HIS PLATFORM AHEAD OF THE PRIMARIES ON JUNE 28 (EARLY VOTING JUNE 18 TO 26).
This has been such a challenging time for so many people. What message do you have for people these days? People were very anxious about crime and about affordability. To solve the problems in New York State, you need a proven executive—somebody who knows how to run things. I’m trained as a CPA and attorney. I was the mayor of my hometown for eight years where I did my 10,000 hours and learned how to run a small government. And then I was a county executive of Nassau County for eight years, which was a county larger than 11 states. And I turned it around… I turned my city around… I turned my county around… and I turned Congress around for the past five and a half years. So I’m a proven executive who knows how to get things done. Number two is that I’m a common sense Democrat. I’m not going to pander to the left. I’m not going to back down to the right. I’ll work with anybody—if you actually want to try to get the job done. I work with Democrats or Republicans or progressives. I work with moderates. If you want to solve problems and help people, I’ll work with you. I won’t change my values. I’m a Democrat. But I’ll try and find common ground. And number three, I’ve been very clear on my agenda. Kathy Hochul has been in office since August, and I don’t know what her priorities are. My priorities are very clear. We’ve got to reduce crime. We have to reduce taxes and make New York State more affordable, because everybody’s leaving. We have to help our kids in our troubled schools that have been left behind for generations. And we have to go after what is the most corrupt state in the United States of America.
For those who feel compelled to act, how can people best help? The best thing you should do is vote. Very few people are going to vote this race. Less than a million people are going to vote this race. [With] five and a half million Democrats in New York State, less than a million are going to vote in this election because it’s always historically low in primaries.
What do you have to say about the issue of gun violence? I have an F rating from the NRA. Our state has been flooded with guns. And a lot of it is because of the national laws, because we have some of the strictest laws in the country in our state. We have one law called the Red Flag Law that passed three years ago, after the Parkland shooting. It says that a police officer, a teacher, a social worker, a mental health worker or a family member can go to court to take the guns away from somebody who’s mentally unbalanced or has a drug or alcohol problem. It’s a great law. I said in my 15-point crime intervention and prevention plan that my point number 14 was we have to actually implement that law. There’s a lot of laws that are passed—but you have to implement the laws. We need to train the cops, train the teachers, train the social workers. And let the public know that we have this great law available to us. We just have to use it.
Why are you compelled to run for governor? I could stay in Congress for a long time. It’s a great honor to be in Congress, among the Ways and Means Committee. I’m giving it up because I’m so frustrated. Everyone’s just fighting with each other instead of getting the job done. Everybody’s leaving New York State. You know, I live in New York State. I love not leaving, but a lot of people are leaving. I want to fix that. I just want people to work in Congress. I’m the vice chairman of a thing called the Problem Solvers Caucus—29 Democrats and 29 Republicans. We meet every week to try and find common ground until we passed this big infrastructure bill. If we’re ever going to get anything done, it’s got to be bipartisan.
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