Gannett News Service - Suozzi Tells Dems to Embrace Religious Voters
Gannett News Service - Suozzi Tells Dems to Embrace Religious Voters
The Democratic Party "needs to recognize that many of its members ... are motivated by faith," and shouldn't be afraid to discussing faith, Democratic insurgent for governor Tom Suozzi said Friday.
Suozzi, who trails frontrunner Eliot Spitzer badly in the polls, also said he's got to rely on newly motivated voters to get involved a traditional turnout means he has no chance.
Speaking at the Sons of Italy annual convention, and mixing in more than a few Italian phrases, Suozzi said his "faith informs my public life." But fewer and fewer regular churchgoers "feel welcome in the party I've chosen," he said, citing a national survey that found that 71 percent of people who attend religious services weekly vote Republican.
"It is a remarkable finding, the implications of which should cause my party ... to pause and think about the message that it is sending to the American electorate," Suozzi said.
The Nassau County executive said he wants to attract religious voters to his campaign, not through divisive issues such as abortion and gay marriage but through "value" issues such as jobs, education and taking care of the needy. Not all religious people are "part of the religious right," he added.
Suozzi is trying to run an outsider-style campaign against Spitzer, the state attorney general who leads Suozzi by about 60 points in the polls. Spitzer also leads the Republican candidate, former Assemblyman John Faso of Columbia County, by 46 points.
Nearly all Democratic leaders and traditional party backers back Spitzer. Suozzi skipped the party's nominating convention in May, electing to get on the primary ballot by collecting 15,000 petition signatures statewide. He acknowledged his task is to excite people who don't normally participate in politics to get involved. He even asked the audience to help.
"I need the Democrats, Republicans and independents in this room who believe in my message to find Democrats to vote in the Democratic primary on Sept. 12," Suozzi said, adding in self-deprecation: "For those that do not like what I have said here today, please go on vacation around election time."
Afterward, Suozzi said he's got no shot unless he shakes up the demographics of a typical primary election.
"If the traditional turnout in the same is the same as always, I lose," Suozzi said. "No doubt about it."
http://tomsuozzi.com/news/gns-0624-6/