(Photo above) Rebecca Kassay (Credit – Village of Port Jefferson) and Assemblyman Ed Flood (Credit – NYS Assembly)
One of New York’s most competitive state legislative races, if not the most competitive, gained a bit more clarity after Tuesday night.
Village of Port Jefferson Deputy Mayor Rebecca Kassay (D-Port Jefferson) defeated Skyler Johnson (D-Port Jefferson Station) by a wide margin of 64%-36%. Kassay, twice elected as a Trustee for Port Jefferson Village, is making her first bid for state office.
Johnson ran as a Democrat against Senator Anthony Palumbo (R-New Suffolk) for the First Senate District in 2022. Palumbo defeated Johnson by just under thirteen points.
Kassay is hoping to parlay her experience in local government and the Three Village community to defeat freshman Assemblyman Ed Flood (R-Port Jefferson Station).
Flood famously defeated veteran Assemblyman Steve Englebright (D-Setauket) in 2022. Englebright, a geologist and Chair of the powerful Environmental Conservation Committee, was denied a thirtieth year in Albany by Flood after serving since a special election in 1992.
Englebright previously served in the Suffolk County Legislature from 1982 until his election to the Assembly. In 2023, he was elected to return to the Legislature in the Fifth Legislative District.
The Fourth Assembly District combines staunchly Democratic territory with working-class neighbor-hoods that have raced to the right in the last few cycles. It stretches from the east with portions of Middle Island, Gordon Heights, and Coram, tracks north to grab parts of Centereach and Selden, and ends in the north taking in Terryville, Port Jefferson Station, Setauket, East Setauket, Stony Brook, Strongs Neck, and the villages of Belle Terre, Old Field, Port Jefferson, and Poquott.
The district is truly a half-and-half representation of the Suffolk County electorate, with the more liberal-minded college town politics taking root in the north shore and Three Village area, with more conservative precincts in the working-class neighborhoods stretching southeast.
In 2020, nearly all north shore precincts backed Joe Biden (D-DE), with the exception of Belle Terre. Donald Trump (R-FL) handily won Terryville and parts surrounding the bluer parts of Coram and Gordon Heights.
In 2022, Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley) carried many of the immediate precincts just outside the core Three Village area. In addition to holding Belle Terre, Zeldin won all but two precincts bordering the 347 corridor, while Trump only won some parts of Port Jefferson Station and Terryville. Zeldin also managed to carry nearly all of the Coram-Gordon Heights-Middle Island area, with just a few downtown Coram precincts backing Governor Kathy Hochul (D).
Flood narrowly defeated Thomas Wiermann in the 2022 Republican primary before ousting Englebright 1.4 percentage points, a margin of about 700 votes out of nearly 48,000 ballots cast.
Englebright had been re-elected to his final term in 2020 by eleven points over Michael Ross (R).
Kassay has received endorsements from Englebright, Assemblywoman Anna Kelles (D-Ithaca), Brookhaven Councilman Jonathan Kornreich (D-Stony Brook), Port Jefferson Village Trustees Stan Loucks and Bob Juliano, and former Trustee Bruce Miller. She also earned the endorsements of Eleanor’s Legacy, an organization committed to electing pro-choice Democratic women across New York, the 3.14 Action Network, an organization focused on electing Democrats with scientific backgrounds, and Run for Something, an organization concerned with electing young, progressive Democrats.
Kassay and her husband converted their Victorian home into the Fox and Owl Inn bed and breakfast. Kassay serves as the inn’s proprietor.
Avlon Wins NY-01 Primary, Will Face LaLota in November
Former CNN anchor John Avlon (D-Gramercy Park) easily dispatched former Stony Brook professor Nancy Goroff (D-Stony Brook) in Tuesday’s primary. With 95% of precincts reporting, Avlon garnered 70.3% of the vote to Goroff’s 29.7%. Goroff ran for NY-01 against Congressman Zeldin in 2020 and lost by ten points, even as Suffolk County was nearly evenly divided between Trump and Biden.
“A huge night and a massive victory in the #NY01 primary – 70-30 – thank you to every member of our team who helped make this happen,” Avlon wrote from his personal account on X, formerly known as Twitter. “We proved the positive defeats negative & the politics of addition defeats the politics of division. That will be the key to victory in the fall – LFG!”
“Thank you Long Island for proving that the substantive, grassroots, positive politics beats negative fear mongering every time,” the Team Avlon campaign account wrote on X.
Avlon was joined at his watch party by Suffolk Legislator Rebecca Sanin (D-Huntington Station) and former Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker (D-Mt. Sinai). Anker is running against Senator Palumbo in November’s election for New York’s First Senate District.
Avlon now faces Congressman Nick LaLota (R, NY-01) in November. NY-01 became slightly more Republican after mid-decade redistricting after Democrats sued to overturn the remedial map enacted in 2021. The remedial map was put in place after the state legislature drew a map that was deemed an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander by the New York Court of Appeals.
Avlon (above at podium) celebrates his victory with former Legislator Anker (left of Avlon) and Legislator Sanin (right of Avlon) (Credit – X @johnavlon)
“With primaries behind us, our common sense conservative campaign feels confident about our race against CNN commentator and Manhattan elitist John Avlon,” said LaLota in a statement. “We start the general election campaign on the right side of the issues that matter most, especially border and economy. The wind is in our campaign sails: We’re up double digits in the polls, with more than three times cash on hand, and over 1,000 fired-up volunteers. After re-redistricting, this is a district that President Trump won by 1.8 points in 2020 and 9.8 points in 2016. Avlon has taken extreme leftist positions on CNN and as a NYC resident who takes a tax break only NYC residents can take, he doesn’t understand Suffolk County. Avlon can’t stop himself from saying “IN” Long Island and takes more donations from Manhattanites than Suffolk residents. As a lifelong Long Islander, I’m proud to represent the communities I grew up in and fight for them daily. In my first term, I’ve secured over $150 million in federal funding and reached across the aisle to improve our way of life. While the CNN commentator spends his time at ritzy Hamptons parties, I meet with hardworking Long Islanders and deliver results. I look forward to continuing my bipartisan fight for the people of Suffolk County and earning their vote once again this November.
The First Congressional District contains the entire townships of East Hampton, Riverhead, Shelter Island, Smithtown, Southampton, and Southold, as well as most Huntington – excluding Lloyd Harbor, Huntington Bay, Cold Spring Harbor, and Halesite – and the northern, eastern, and southern parts of Brookhaven.
