Dem
51
GOP
49
Well, it's the gift that keeps on giving to those who write about politics, at least. As we have noted a couple of times, local Republican organs settled last week on a candidate for the special election to serve the remainder of "George Santos'" term. They chose Mazi Melesa Pilip, who is:
Anyone involved with this decision who claims this choice wasn't, at least in part, about checking a lot of very desirable boxes is simply not telling the truth. On some level, Pilip feels like a person who was designed using CandidateCAD.
That said, it has now come to light that Pilip also checks a box that you would think would be disqualifying for a Republican candidate for office. To wit, she's a registered Democrat, and has been for a decade. It's true that she has been elected to local office as a Republican, but it's also true that she refused last week to commit to re-registering with the GOP. Oh, and she doesn't have an opinion on whether abortion should be legal.
What it amounts to is a race with a very Blue Dog Democrat in Tom Suozzi up against someone who appears to be a Democrat in all but name in Pilip, and who may well be more liberal than Suozzi on many subjects. It should be an interesting test of how much policy matters, versus how much the (R) and (D) next to the name matter.
Also, as long as we are on the subject, New York Republicans hired three different law firms to do background checks on candidates and to make sure the final choice, namely Pilip, was squeaky clean. It would seem that those firms didn't do a great job, because it took Politico roughly 48 hours to dig up some dirt. Pilip's husband's medical practice, where Pilip served as operations director, is at least $70,000 in arrears on rent.
If this is the only skeleton, it's a pretty minor one. But once you find one five-figure debt in a candidate's background, it is often the tip of the iceberg. So, we'll have to wait and see. Meanwhile, are there no Republicans in this district who don't have financial red flags? Apparently not. The good news for Pilip is that, if things break right, she'll be able to knock out that $70,000 in debt with just a few weeks of doing Cameos. (Z)