Avlon Amasses More Endorsements as Primary Election Nears

On Friday, one day before the start of early voting for the Democratic Party primary election for New York’s 1st Congressional District, Jay S. Jacobs, chairman of the New York State Democratic Committee, issued a statement criticizing Nancy Goroff for negative attacks against her primary opponent, John Avlon.

With the primary election on Tuesday, June 25, Democrats are choosing their candidate to challenge Representative Nick LaLota, the Republican incumbent who is seeking reelection.

“John Avlon has built a campaign that draws on real local support and enthusiasm — in contrast to Nancy Goroff, who loaned herself $1.2 million to just run negative attacks against John,” Jacobs said in a statement.

Avlon, he said, “outraised Nancy Goroff and Nick LaLota in this filing period, and that should tell you everything you need to know about who is the right candidate to flip this seat and help Democrats take back the House majority this fall.”

Jacobs referred to Democrats attacking fellow Democrats “solely in the hope of winning that primary but with no care to the consequences if they do not,” which he called “selfishness” and “unbecoming to public service.”

He urged all Democrats in primary contests to “focus on policy differences and remember that when the primary is over our real opponents are the right-wing extreme MAGA Republicans.”

“The better choice to take on Nick LaLota in November is clear for Democrats,” he said.

Jacobs’s statement followed by one day another endorsement for Avlon, this one from Southampton Town Supervisor Maria Moore.

Avlon, she said, “is not only an advocate on the pressing national issues, but he also has a well-informed perspective on the unique needs of our local communities. With John, we have a candidate who is committed to both our nation’s future and the prosperity of our district.”

Maggie Touchton, Goroff’s campaign manager, countered on Monday that “Nancy Goroff has been in Suffolk County fighting for Long Islanders. She’s the only candidate in this race with a record of fighting for choice, beating MAGA extremists, defending our public schools and kids, and working to build a better economy for everyone. Those are the issues we’re focused on in this race.”

Touchton referred to statements supporting Goroff’s candidacy from Brookhaven Town Councilman Jonathan Kornreich and Dave Calone, the 2023 Democratic nominee for Suffolk County executive.

Goroff also has been endorsed by 314 Action, which works to elect scientists, and Emily’s List, which works to elect Democratic female candidates who support abortion rights.

Avlon’s endorsements also include Congressmen Tom Suozzi, Greg Meeks, Dan Goldman and Joe Morelle, all from New York’s Democratic delegation; the Democratic committees of East Hampton, Southampton, Shelter Island, Riverhead, Southold, and Huntington towns; all five members of the East Hampton Town Board; Southampton Town Councilman Tommy John Schiavoni; and State Assemblymen Fred W. Thiele Jr. and Steve Stern.

“Primaries are all about who votes, and he’s just got to get people to vote,” Perry Gershon, the Democrats’ 2018 nominee, who lost to Representative Lee Zeldin by 4 percentage points, said last week. “As long as no one takes for granted that he will win, he will win.”

Gershon, who sought the Democrats’ nomination in 2020, was critical of Goroff’s campaign mailings that emphasize Avlon’s work for then-New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a Republican who went on to work for former President Donald Trump and was a key figure in Trump’s efforts to overturn the result of the 2020 election.

“She’s gone out and said it, ‘He’s a closet Republican,’” Gershon said. “She doesn’t believe that. That’s most galling to me. The stuff she’s saying, she knows in her heart of hearts is untrue, and she doesn’t care.” Gershon was also a candidate for the Democrats’ 2020 nomination, losing that contest to Goroff.

The deadline to request an early mail or absentee ballot was Saturday, June 15. According to the Suffolk County Board of Elections, 5,643 absentee ballots were sent. As of Monday, 2,051 had been returned.

For early mail ballots to be received in-person, applications must be received by the Board of Elections no later than the day before the election, according to the Board of Elections website.

Avlon, an author and former CNN anchor who lives in Sag Harbor, and Goroff, a scientist and former professor who lives in Stony Brook, faced off in another debate last week, which aired on Sunday, June 16, on News12 Long Island.

As in the League of Women Voters-hosted debate on June 10, the candidates did not attack one another; rather, they criticized LaLota and Trump, the Republicans’ presumptive nominee for president, whom LaLota endorses.

Both emphasized their ability to motivate the Democratic base and win over independent voters, and both criticized LaLota for his support of Trump and what they said was LaLota’s failure to restore the full state and local tax deduction, which was capped at $10,000 per year in the Republican-led tax reform of 2017. Both spoke of the need to protect abortion rights and address an affordability crisis in the district.

“Nick LaLota is just interested in talking,” Goroff said. “He doesn’t actually want to do the work, he’s interested mostly in political stunts.”

She said that she is running “because we need to defend reproductive freedom and democracy. We need to make sure that our communities are safe from gun violence and from the effects of climate change and extreme weather, and we need to make sure that we have an economy that works for everybody.”

“Republicans don’t know how to run against a candidate like me,” said Avlon. “And, yes, I’m not a typical candidate, but I care deeply about our country. I care deeply about our history. I care deeply about solving problems, and that’s why I’m running as common-sense Democrat.”

He added that “we’ve never had a major party nominee run on an authoritarian platform, and Nick LaLota’s been a lapdog to Donald Trump.”