This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

DO call it a comeback. Rep.-elect Tom Suozzi is getting a second chance at Congress after winning the special election for a version of the district he previously gave up. In what was expected to be an incredibly tight race, the first of the cycle, the centrist Democrat wound up cruising to victory by roughly 8 percentage points. The victory gave Democrats a jolt of optimism about their ability to flip other seats this fall, but Suozzi’s win on Long Island may not be replicable for other Democrats across the state.

Most 18-year-olds wish for a new car for their birthday, Rep. Marc Molinaro set his sights on elected office and hasn’t looked back. The reported new congressional map hands Molinaro an elected official’s equivalent of a teen’s new car … a safer district. While some parts of his district won’t mean a totally clear path to reelection, the new map does let Molinaro breathe easier than some of his first-term Republican colleagues.

The third time was the charm for Landon Dais. The son of an influential Harlem community leader, Dais’ first two attempts at elected office – a New York City Council race and a district leader race, both in Harlem – ended in failure. But his fortune changed after he moved to the Bronx and got involved with the Bronx Democratic Party. When Assembly Member Latoya Joyner abruptly announced her resignation earlier this year, the party picked Dais to replace her – and he easily won a special election to secure the seat.

A night before the election, Republicans were calling Nassau GOP Chair Joe Cairo a top-notch coach who would get conservatives over the finish line and Mazi Pilip into Congress. But come election night, no one was dumping celebratory Gatorade on the coach’s head. The powerful local machine led by Cairo was pulling basically all the strings in the Pilip campaign – to the benefit of the relative political novice going up against a seasoned politician like Suozzi. But that meant Pilip’s loss reflected greatly on Cairo in the national eye, another sore spot after the blemish known as George Santos.

Is there anything better than the unbridled joy of a kid waking up to a blanket of snow on the ground and a day full of sledding? Is there anything worse than having to watch that snow fall outside your window, while staring at a glitchy computer screen? New York City schools Chancellor David Banks had to answer to the many kids, parents and teachers who found themselves mired in the latter. Denying kids a snow day in order to facilitate their continued learning, only to have the city’s remote learning platforms fail and disrupt that learning, is the kind of worst-of-both-worlds situation that should be avoidable after months of remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under fire for awarding himself a more than $22,000 annual bonus – which may have violated the law – Albany County District Attorney David Soares announced he would give all the money back. But that may not be enough to save his job. The Albany County Democratic Committee declined to endorse Soares for reelection, and a number of potential primary challengers – including Assembly Member Phil Steck – are currently circling.