George Santos

NEW YORK — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has set Feb. 13 as the date for a special election to fill George Santos’ seat in Congress following his ouster from the U.S. House of Representatives last week.

“As governor, I have a solemn responsibility to call a special election to ensure that the voters of Long Island and Queens once again have representation in Congress,” Hochul said in a post on X.

Members of Congress voted to expel Santos on Friday following an ethics investigation and a federal indictment accusing him of stealing from his campaign and lying before the legislative body. The final vote was 311-114.

Santos, a legislator in his first term, is the sixth member of the House of Representatives expelled in its history.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Los Angeles, requested that the secretary alert New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., of the expulsion.

Santos previously represented New York’s 3rd Congressional District, which includes part of the district of Queens and Nassau County on Long Island.

For Democrats, the election will be a test of the party’s ability to flip New York City districts seen as vital to their plans to retake control. Republicans are entering the race with great momentum in the city’s suburbs and will fight to hold the district as they look to maintain their slim majority in the House.

Candidates in the special election will be chosen by party leaders, not voters.

Former U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi has emerged as Democrats’ likely front-runner. Suozzi, 61, previously represented the district for six years, which would help with name recognition. It could mean he has the organizational skills to quickly launch a campaign, vital attributes in a narrowly focused election in which voters will have little time to choose his representative.

The Democrat announced a campaign for the seat before Santos was ousted and has been pushing for a series of endorsements from local politicians and labor groups after the district became vacant.

Also competing for the Democratic nomination is former state senator Anna Kaplan, who in recent days criticized Suozzi’s record and sought to focus the special election on the approval of federal legislation guaranteeing the right to abortion.

On the Republican side, potential names include retired police detective Mike Sapraicone, Air Force veteran Kellen Curry and Nassau County legislator Mazi Pilip, an Ethiopian-born Jewish woman who served in the Israeli military.

Sapraicone, who is also the founder of a private security company, said he was interviewed by county Republicans who will select the candidate, and the panel questioned him about his political positions, his ability to raise funds and quickly launch a campaign.

Like Suozzi, Sapraicone launched his campaign before Santos was ousted and has already begun fundraising, and his campaign coffers include $300,000 of his own money, he said.

“For us to hold the House and retain the majority is very important,” Sapraicone said. “It’s very important for New York to set the tone here in February.”

Democrats want to take back at least five House seats in New York next year, with Santos’ seat a possible early indicator of their chances in November.

The party has devoted significant financial and organizational resources to the state, after a series of losses last year in the New York City suburbs helped Republicans take control of the House and drew sharp criticism from Democrats in the state.

President Joe Biden won the district in 2020, but Republicans have made significant electoral gains on Long Island in recent years as moderate suburban voters have gravitated toward the GOP.

In the latest sign of Republican strength on Long Island, the GOP won several local elections on the island last month, including races in the now-vacant district.

NEW YORK — Rep. George Santos has almost no public support among his constituents, and the vast majority want the fabulist congressman to resign immediately, according to a new poll released Tuesday.

But perhaps most damning is that an overwhelming majority of those who voted for Santos less than 90 days ago now say they would not have done so if they knew the truth.

In all, about 78% of registered voters in New York’s 3rd District want Santos to resign, according to the Newsday/Siena College poll. That includes 89% of Democrats, 72% of independents and 71% of his own Republican voters.

In fact, Siena pollsters divided respondents in 18 different ways, including by age, geography, religion and income, and in each of the 18 demographic segments, at least 70% of respondents wanted Santos to resign.

Only 13% of those surveyed say that Santos should not resign, and only 7% say they have an explicitly favorable opinion of the first-term congressman, whose list of admitted and accused lies and misdeeds has lengthened by the day since last month. .

Of those surveyed who admitted having voted for Santos last November, 63% said they would not have done so if they had known then what they now know about him.

The poll of 653 registered voters in District 3 was conducted January 23-26 and had a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.

NEW YORK — Beleaguered Rep. George Santos will not accept appointments from key congressional committees amid ongoing ethics and campaign finance investigations, the Republican told colleagues Tuesday, and his office confirmed.

Santos was recently given seats on the House science and small business committees, but told colleagues at a closed-door Republican conference meeting that he won’t accept them until the issues are resolved, two people said. in the living room.

It was not immediately clear if he made the decision on his own or if other members of his conference influenced him or ordered him to revoke his committee assignments.

A spokesperson said only that it “has been reserved for viewing until campaign and personal financial investigations have been cleared up.”

Santos reportedly spoke with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Monday night. McCarthy did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

The developments come as a new poll shows that even a majority of Santos’s voters want him out of office altogether.

But perhaps most damning is that an overwhelming majority of those who voted for Santos less than 90 days ago now say they would not have done so if they knew the truth.

In all, about 78% of registered voters in New York’s 3rd District want Santos to resign, according to the Newsday/Siena College poll. That includes 89% of Democrats, 72% of independents and 71% of his own Republican voters.

In fact, Siena pollsters divided respondents in 18 different ways, including by age, geography, religion and income, and in each of the 18 demographic segments, at least 70% of respondents wanted Santos to resign.

Only 13% of those surveyed say that Santos should not resign, and only 7% say they have an explicitly favorable opinion of the first-term congressman, whose list of admitted and accused lies and misdeeds has lengthened by the day since last month. .

Of those surveyed who admitted having voted for Santos last November, 63% said they would not have done so if they had known then what they now know about him.

The poll of 653 registered voters in District 3 was conducted January 23-26 and had a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.