GOP candidates are ready for campaigning

Will this be the year Republicans take back both Albany and Washington?

That’s not likely at the state level, but more modern tradition on Capitol Hill has favored the party not in the White House in midterm elections, which gave members of the Nassau County GOP some confidence when they kicked off their fall campaign in Westbury last week.

It was there they introduced their congressional and state candidates, sounding traditional party themes of lowering taxes, fighting crime, and “rebuilding the economy.”

Republicans are particularly optimistic about their chances given high gas and food prices, perceived crime spikes in major cities, and Joe Biden’s waning popularity.

“We are going to have a tremendous victory this year,” Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman said. “People are living paycheck-to-paycheck. They can’t afford gasoline. People are realizing we are the answer to their problems, not the Democratic Party.”

Topping the list of candidates is Anthony D’Esposito, a Hempstead town councilman seeking to replace Democratic congresswoman Kathleen Rice, who already announced she wasn’t seeking re-election.

But the race for Rice’s seat is crowded, at least among Democrats. They include former Hempstead town supervisor Laura Gillen, county legislators Siela Bynoe and Carrié Solages, and Malverne mayor Keith Corbett.

Jack Martins, a past Mineola mayor and a former state senator, is seeking another shot at his senate seat, challenging incumbent Democrat Anna Kaplan of Great Neck.

Assemblyman Edward Ra, ranking member of the Assembly’s ways and means committee, also seeks re-election. Other Republicans running for Congress whose districts include a portion of Nassau County are Andrew Garbarino, George Santos, Nick LaLota and Paul King.

“I talk to a lot of people in the district,” said D’Esposito, a retired New York City Police detective. “They are fed up. People can’t put food on the table. They feel the country is off-track.”

But Democrats see things a bit differently. Nassau County Democratic Party chair Jay Jacobs said in an email that “broken economy” includes a record-breaking gross domestic product growth of nearly 6 percent, the addition of 7 million jobs, and an unemployment rate below 4 percent — “all while reducing the Trump budget deficit by $360 billion since Joe Biden took office.”

Republicans know no Democrat running in Nassau County — or anywhere else — supports defunding police, Jacobs added.  “Yet, they cling to it along with bail reform as if they are the causes of increased crime, when all the data proves otherwise.

“The uptick in violent crime is a nationwide problem, and among the two greatest causes are gun violence and a lack of funding for mental health. Republicans continue to do nothing to control the influx of guns and wear mental health budget cuts as a badge of honor.”