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The field for the June 26 Democratic primary in the 1st Congressional District remains as crowded as ever heading into late February—six candidates are campaigning and fundraising in the hopes taking on incumbent U.S. Representative Lee Zeldin in November.
Money-wise, Perry Gershon, chief investment officer at Jefferies LoanCore LLC of East Hampton, is currently in the lead with $1,009,858 raised and $812,350 cash on hand. According to Federal Election Commission records, Mr. Gershon loaned $402,700 to his campaign for the primary and made a pair of $2,700 contributions, one for the primary and one for the general election.
“I’m very happy,” Mr. Gershon said on Friday of his campaign war chest so far. However, he concedes that any challenger to Mr. Zeldin—who is currently supplied with $1,991,803 for the campaign, nearly $1.3 million of that on hand—faces an uphill battle.
“It’s difficult for any Democrat to compete head to head with Zeldin, as he is so well-funded,” Mr. Gershon said. “But I am confident that I’ll keep raising enough to stay in the race and be competitive.”
Like all the challengers, he faces a competitive primary season to get the chance to take on the Republican, who is running for his third term. Mr. Gershon says he plans to stay positive during the primary, and to “hold the attacks for Lee Zeldin.”
He added that he sees Kate Browning, the former Suffolk County legislator from Shirley, as his biggest Democratic competitor, due to her record and name recognition.
Despite the upcoming intra-party battle, Mr. Gershon reported the same ground conditions as many of his fellow Democratic candidates, citing packed candidate forums and palpable energy from voters. “We’ve been speaking to full houses, and the people change with each event—it’s not just the same people coming to all of them,” he said. “They see beating Zeldin as the path to beating Trump.”
Mr. Gershon added that voters’ concerns run the gamut, from health care to immigration to a lack of quality jobs, the last an economic issue heightened by the recently passed Republican tax plan. “The tax plan that just passed is harmful to regular people and might just be their undoing,” he said of the Republicans.
Across all of the campaigning he has done, Mr. Gershon, a 35-year businessman, markets himself as the jobs candidate. “I’m the Democrat with the progressive and economic message that can bring better-paying jobs to Suffolk County and can communicate that message to a large number of people,” he said.
David Pechefsky, a New York City Council staffer, follows Mr. Gershon in the financial race, but is well back, with $204,200 total, $175,474 cash on hand. According to FEC records, $101,100 of that is his own money, loaned to his campaign for the primary.
“You’d always like to have more, but I’m happy to be in second,” he said on Friday.
Mr. Pechefsky said he intends to move away from “friends and family” donations to focus on building an infrastructure to attract and retain small donors. “It takes longer when people are giving you $20 instead of $1,000, but we hope to have a multiplier effect at our events, and to be sure to cycle back to people who couldn’t come,” he said.
Mr. Pechefsky grew up in Patchogue and then spent years living primarily in Brooklyn. In November, he bought a house in Port Jefferson. “I had to pay that hefty tax bill,” he said, laughing. “No one can tell me I’m not a District 1 resident.”
Now that he’s back in his home district, Mr. Pechefsky said he is thinking ahead to the general election and facing another homegrown candidate, Mr. Zeldin, a Shirley native. “His money is irrelevant right now—we’re not running against Zeldin yet,” said Mr. Pechefsky. “I’m sure the general election will be very expensive. But when I win the nomination, I will have national Democrats to tap into, and I feel confident that I will be the kind of candidate who attracts national money.”
Before that, he would have to emerge the victor of the six-way primary race. Instead of identifying one strong competitor, Mr. Pechefsky took a broader perspective on the primary field as a whole.
“Both the primary and general elections are about galvanizing people with a strong, clear progressive message and to win by emphasizing Democratic values,” he said. “I’m concerned that the progressive vote will get split in such a crowded primary, and that we won’t ultimately get that progressive candidate.”
Mr. Pechefsky echoed Mr. Gershon in indicating that the energy on the campaign trail is unusually high. “There is a hunger for a different type of politics,” he said. “Will that translate to the polls? That’s the big question.”
Ultimately, Mr. Pechefsky said he believes that to emerge victorious, the Democratic candidate must recognize the party’s ideological roots. “The way we’ll win is by being true to the core values of the Democratic Party, the party of working people, fairness and inclusion,” he said. “The path to victory will be found by being unafraid and uncompromising.”
Former Suffolk County legislator Vivian Viloria Fisher of East Setauket comes in third, as far as fundraising, having collected $183,120, with $166,660 cash on hand. She has donated $110,891 to her campaign for the general election.
When asked if she was pleased with the amount she’d raised, Ms. Viloria Fisher had a distinctly different answer. “Oh my gosh, no!” she said on Friday. “I am working so hard to bump that number up.
“You wish that you could clone yourself,” she continued. “The forums are good for giving it a personal touch, and I spend time walking and knocking on doors to reconnect with people.”
Ms. Viloria Fisher served as a county legislator from 1998 to 2011, when she reached her term limit.
She says that she’s spurred on to engage voters by the unprecedented energy on the ground. “I’ve been involved in nine campaigns, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” she said.
That energy will come into play on June 26 when the Democrats face off at the primary election. Ms. Viloria Fisher shares Mr. Pechefsky’s concern that so many progressives in the field could “water down” the progressive voice, producing a more moderate candidate that she thinks will depress Democratic enthusiasm during the general election campaign.
“There are two flanks I’m fighting right now: from the right, I have Kate Browning,” she said. “We’re both legislators, and not many people know the difference between us, in our records.
“From the left, I have David, who’s also a progressive,” she said. “Perry has the money but not the excitement,” she added. In the end, though, Ms. Viloria Fisher thinks that her record will speak for itself. “I have electability because I stand for progressive values and I have proof—under difficult circumstances—that I have acted upon those values.”
Close behind her former legislative colleague is Shirley native and former Suffolk County legislator Kate Browning, the last candidate to enter the race. Ms. Browning has raised $163,738 total and has $142,322 cash on hand. She has not loaned her campaign any of her own money.
“I can’t lend myself money—because I don’t have much,” she said on Friday. “My husband gave me $1,000 and that was a stretch.
“People see politicians as out of touch and very wealthy,” she continued. “We get the day-to-day struggles of a working family.”
Ms. Browning pointed out that most of her donations have come from residents of the 1st District, though she has garnered some high-profile supporters, including U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand from New York. “It’s a good sign,” Ms. Browning said of the local donations, adding that she knows Ms. Gillibrand from past days in the legislature. She expressed particular enthusiasm for the union support she has received.
As to Mr. Zeldin’s war chest, Ms. Browning said she is unconcerned. “Many people have talked to me, disappointed in his performance,” she said. “You can have all the money in the world and not represent your constituents well.”
She brings a similar nonchalance to the likelihood of a competitive primary. “I do have primary opponents, but I’ll just let people get to know me and not be negative to my opponents,” she said. “I’ve just got to keep my eye on the ball to beat Lee Zeldin.”
Ultimately, Ms. Browning believes she will soar to electoral victory on the wings of an extensive career in the legislature. “This is who I am and this is the work I will continue to do,” she said. “I will fight for infrastructure, jobs, clean water, safe schools and the environment.”
Next in line is Elaine DiMasi, a former physicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory who lives in Ronkonkoma, and who has raised $71,296, with $15,784 cash on hand. She has loaned $19,176.75 to her own campaign for the primary.
“There’s always better,” said Ms. DiMasi of her fundraising efforts so far. She added that she is most effective in convincing donors to give to her campaign when she speaks in front of the other candidates. “The voters hear the difference,” she said in an interview on Monday. “They see that my message will not have to change for the general election, that I’m working to reinvigorate the economy.”
Ms. DiMasi thinks it’s too early to analyze Mr. Zeldin’s campaign trove, as the Democrats have not yet emerged with a standard bearer.
“Consider all the Democrats’ money together,” she said. “We will all come together to support one candidate after the primary.”
She added that the crowded primary field is a positive thing, since it’s pushing all of them to work harder.
Ms. DiMasi echoed her competitors about the “blue wave” energy, adding that there will be national interest in this House race that will make up the financial chasm between Mr. Zeldin and the hypothetical Democratic nominee. “That’s where the other $4 million will come from,” she said.
Ultimately, Ms. DiMasi is infusing her campaign with optimism, trying to be a hopeful prospect for Democrats and others distraught with the current state of the country. “I believe that anything is possible, and that in 50 years, we can look back and say we did everything right,” she said. “We can make the world a better place.”
Pulling up the rear is Brendon Henry, a bartender from Center Moriches, with $12,038 and $9,105 cash on hand. He has not loaned his campaign any of his own money.
“I haven’t made any loans, because like many working people, I don’t have money just lying around,” he said in an email on Sunday. “My campaign is a true grassroots campaign for the people funded by the people—no big money, no lobbyists, just small donations from lots of people.”
He added that money is not the sole determinant in an election, saying that Mr. Zeldin’s record will undermine any money he has. “He does an awful job and no amount of money changes that,” Mr. Henry wrote. “He has lost touch with all of us who live in our district.”
In his attempts to connect with those voters, Mr. Henry said that he’s seen national issues like immigration resonating with people locally. “We need to get people into the system and out of the shadows living in fear,” he said. “In my years working on the East End, I have been blessed to be friends and colleagues with many hardworking undocumented people, whose dream is to one day have this nation they call home recognize them as citizens.”
He is staying decidedly above the primary fray, focusing on the general election in November. “I embrace our large candidate field, I have gotten to know them, and each one brings something to the table,” Mr. Henry said. “I don’t focus on competition, my goal is to win in June and then in November!”
Throughout all of his talking points, Mr. Henry returns again and again to a central theme: that he is a hometown boy from Eastern Long Island, and that he has the edge in knowing what the locals really need. “I am born and raised in this district, I have always been here, and I plan to always be,” he said. “This is our district, all of us, and we will work together to bring it back to the people.”
Mr. Zeldin assumed office in 2015 after defeating Democratic incumbent Tim Bishop, taking 53 percent in the election in November 2014. He won his second term against Anna Throne-Holst handily in 2016, getting 58 percent of the votes.
The Democratic primary will be held on Tuesday, June 26, and the primary winner will run against Mr. Zeldin in the general election on Tuesday, November 6.
Kate Riga on Feb 20, 2018