At the Republican nominating convention, held February 28 and March 1 at the Garden City Hotel, you couldn’t turn around without bumping into a Jew wearing a yarmulke, black hat and tzitzis, networking with political candidates as if they were old friends. Prestigious rabbonim were called upon to offer opening and closing prayers at the convention.
At the end of the convention, Congressman Lee Zeldin, from Shirley in Suffolk County, was nominated to be at the top of the statewide ticket. Party sources told The Jewish Link that the state chairman, Nick Langworthy, is aligning himself with the Orthodox Jewish community as well as other ethnic groups such as Asians. Both groups have one thing in common: an increase in hate crimes against them.
Throughout the nominating process for United States Senate, comptroller, attorney general, lieutenant governor and governor it appeared the delegates had their minds made up, and anyone challenging the frontrunners could not get the 25% of the weighted delegate vote to achieve ballot status. Those individuals must go the petition route to gain ballot access.
Party favorite Joe Pinion outpaced challenger Alexander Mici in his bid to become the challenger to incumbent Charles Schumer, who is running for his fifth six-year term. Pinion received 82% of the weighted vote to Mici’s 18%. Mici told The Jewish Link he will move forward with a petitioning process to secure the necessary 15,000 valid signatures from Republicans across the state.
“We may not agree on the things we need to do but we are united in one quest, which is to make sure we put Chuck Schumer in the retirement home of politics once and for all,” said Pinion, a former anchor and political commentator for Newsmax.
There was only one name put forward to challenge the ever-popular incumbent Thomas DiNapoli for state comptroller. Paul Rodriguez, a Queens native now living in Brooklyn, has spent 15 years in the financial services industry on Wall Street.
“The Democratic Party is the home of the ruling elite. The party of censorship of state media, of mask mandates and vaccine passports, of crime and public disorder. The Democrats also claim to be the party of diversity. They don’t mean the diversity of opinion, which is the only type of diversity that really matters.
“As a Latino I never felt welcome in the Democratic party. My politics are driven by my values, not the other way around. The Republican party has always reflected my values the best—a belief in hard work, personal responsibility, family, economic independence and stewardship of the community and each other.”
One of the more poignant moments at the convention was the nomination for attorney general. The battle was between John Sarcone and Michael Henry; neither are household names.
Sarcone withdrew his bid for the conservative party nod when it was revealed just days before the convention that he had represented a convicted murderer on an appeal, a circumstance Sarcone admits to but maintains was blown out of proportion and wrongfully criticized. State GOP Chairman Nick Langworthy called Sarcone’s bowing out, “a selfless gesture and we have not heard the last of John Sarcone.”
Henry won the nomination by acclamation. In a 19-minute acceptance speech to a packed convention hall, Henry laid out his platform.
“Nothing is going well by any measure. Everywhere we look, what do we see? We see destruction. We see crime. We see death. That’s all because of one-party Democrat control of this state,” Henry said. “The Working Families are the original socialists and Letitia James was born out of this party. We have to stand here as Republicans and reject that. We have to stand here as Republicans and say we will stand side by side with police officers who strap on a bullet-proof vest every day and risk their lives for complete strangers.”
The evening featured dinner speaker South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, who took a veiled swipe at New York Governor Kathy Hochul. For Noem, 50, it’s party affiliation over gender identification. “It’s incredibly important that we never lose sight of the fact that leadership has consequences,” Noem warned the GOP. “That’s why you guys need a new governor and I’m going to do everything I can to help you get a new governor because you need one. My good friend Lee Zeldin would be a fantastic governor. The liberals will let fear promote their agenda.”
There was little drama for the post of second-in-command. Alison Esposito, a former member of the New York Police Department, was slated to take the number two post on the statewide ticket. Esposito was voted by acclamation to be the opponent to Democrat Brian Benjamin. She took to the stage labeling Benjamin as a “poster child” for defunding the police.
“My dad instilled a core value in me that those who cannot protect themselves deserve to be protected,” Esposito said. “I even went through the FBI academy and spent three months in Quantico learning homicide investigations and leadership and lie detection,” she said.
Andrew Giuliani created the greatest fanfare at his speech, bringing in tow his father, Rudy, former New York City Mayor and Trump advisor, along with Guardian Angels Founder Curtis Sliwa.
Said Guiliani senior: “Schools are very important. Some Democrats and Republicans have sold out to the extremely left-wing if not pretty close to Communist agenda teachings. They don’t want parents to have a voice in children’s education. That’s a principle of Karl Marx. They don’t seem to like God very much. That’s another principle of Karl Marx. They seem to like dependency. They want non-citizens to vote. Those will be the issues. Getting our schools independent and free so the parents can have a real voice through choice and charter schools. That’s a looming issue,” the former New York City mayor said.
Zeldin, a 41-year-old veteran of Iraq and a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, highlighted his priorities as he has done throughout the state in his stump speeches.
“It’s not just about getting past COVID. It’s about restoring New York to glory. It’s about backing the blue unapologetically. Loving our selfless, dedicated, heroic men and women in blue,” Zeldin said proudly to a roaring crowd. “It’s about repealing cashless bail. It’s about firing district attorneys who refuse to enforce the law. I believe we should pass a law-enforcement bill of rights. I believe that parents have a fundamental right to control the fundamental upbringing of their child and they do not relinquish that right by sending their kids off to school. Losing this race is not an option. The Republican Party is back, baby. We refuse to lose. It is not an option.”
A Great Neck elected official was thrilled with the current slate of candidates. “We have a great chance [to win] in November 2022. Bail reform is number one on the list of issues on campaign talking points. The rise of crime under this party is soaring,” Great Neck Mayor Pedram Bral, an Iranian-born physician, told The Jewish Link. “If Lee concentrates on what’s happening with the economy and the safety and security issues more importantly, that we have lost and people are scared of leaving their house without proper security, those are the things he really needs to drive home. Hate crimes and antisemitism is on the rise everywhere. Antisemitism is the litmus test of racism in America. If you allow and invite antisemitism then you allow any type of racism. Tolerance must be taught and because antisemitism is one of the oldest types of racism.”
Nassau County Legislator Mazi Melesa Pilip was also a notable conference attendee. She was one of 14,325 Ethiopian Jews transported to Israel in May of 1991 as part of a two-day covert Israeli military operation known as Operation Solomon, which airlifted thousands of Jews to Israel. Pilip, 42, attends services at the Orthodox synagogue Kol Israel Achim, in Great Neck. Both Pilip and Zeldin served as paratroopers, Pilip in the Israeli Defense Forces and Zeldin in the U.S. Army. That common bond is what Pilip says leads her to endorse Zeldin. “We have to choose a leader who can unite and inspire all of us, to bring us up to do better in life, she told The Jewish Link. “We have that leader that I admire in Lee Zeldin.”
Astorino, Wilson and Giuliani are waging a petition drive to gain ballot access to challenge Zeldin, the party’s nominee for governor. Mici is waging a petition drive to gain ballot access to challenge Pinion, the party’s nominee for United States Senate. The primary is June 28.
By Marc Gronich
