Congressman Lalota is completing his first term as a largely inconsequential Congressman whose primary accomplishment is getting a neighboring Congressional seat flipped to the Democrats, thereby nullifying his own vote. Despite that, and a voting record that looks like that of a captured establishment asset, the South Shore Press strongly believes that Congressman Lalota is a vastly superior alternative to his Democrat opponent John Avlon. We urge our readers to cast their votes for Mr. Lalota.
Irrespective of Lalota’s inadequacies and sometimes harmful votes, the simple fact is that, at this moment in our nation's history, the policies being proposed by the Republicans and Democrats offer Americans a vastly different path for our future, and every Republican vote is a vote to preserve that very fragile future. The Democrats offer globalism, open borders, crime, war, an erosion of our Constitutional Rights, unchecked inflation, and a radical agenda of cultural issues pertaining to gender, sexuality and children’s health. We hope that the Republicans, led by Donald Trump, will pursue a path of global peace, preservation of the Constitution, protection and defense of America’s interests globally, enforcement of laws domestically, a deconstruction of the administrative state, promotion of children’s health, deregulation and a lower trajectory of consumer inflation.
John Avlon has been described as a “common sense” Democrat, but there are few examples of Democrats in the House bucking leadership and voting against the above policy initiatives. We can only assume that Avlon, if seated in Congress, would be just another D vote along party lines, and that is simply too dangerous for America.
An often forgotten but critical truth in American politics today is that campaigns for public office are very expensive to run. Very few candidates have the financial wherewithal to finance campaigns independently, and in the absence of doing so, individuals become beholden to, in varying degrees, the people that paid to put them in office. Candidates for local office often need tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to run a campaign. This money is typically locally sourced, and having a city council member, for example, beholden to a local source of money often does not present an adverse outcome for that candidate’s constituents. After all, local money wants good outcomes for the local community too, in theory. Federal seats cost many millions of dollars. Congressman Lalota’s race will likely require close to $10 million in funding. That kind of money is generally not sourced locally. It comes from national donors, or in Lalota’s case from the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), which itself is sourced from national donors. Wealthy donors in Texas, as an example, are thereby financing the races for Congress in Long Island, and those donors do not necessarily care about the outcomes for Lalota’s constituents, other than in vague or abstract terms.
National money like CLF can be appropriately referred to as a piece of the Republican Establishment Apparatus, and its aims are often in direct contradiction to those held by the South Shore Press or the Trump, MAGA, populist movement. The establishment wants big government, a global economy that doesn’t prioritize American citizens or workers, and promotes endless, unaccounted for funding for foreign conflicts. These are the aims of Cheney and McCain Republicans that promoted the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and presently support endless funding for the conflict in Ukraine.
Indeed, our primary issue with Congressman Lalota’s voting record is his alignment with this establishment apparatus. He has presented a consistent refusal to take any vote that might restrict, limit or even audit U.S. funding to Ukraine. He has also supported every C.R. (continuing resolution) that has been proposed by Speakers McCarthy or Johnson, all of which can be accurately referred to as establishment spending wish lists, including both endless war funding and a variety of “Democrat” pet projects also favored by the establishment. When Kevin McCarthy was ousted as Speaker for passing funding bills favored by the Democrats, Congressman Lalota maintained ardent support for McCarthy, failed to vote for “Trump” alternatives like Jim Jordan, and eventually voted for Speaker Johnson who has since proven to be another useful tool of the establishment.
Both Speakers McCarthy and Johnson have now passed repeated CRs with only a minority of Republicans voting for them. That is to say that these have been largely Democrat spending bills, passed by Republican Speakers and a small minority of Republicans in favor. That minority has included Congressman Lalota. It is worth noting that CLF funding is controlled by the Speaker, thus ensuring the Lalota vote.
We don’t necessarily blame Congressman LaLota for his apparent capture by the establishment apparatus. Taking a principled vote that runs counter to the wishes of his funding sources would likely result in that funding disappearing and Lalota losing his seat. Few members of Congress are willing to take such a principled stand and risk being banished to obscurity, and Lalota is no different. And as noted above, a captured Republican is a better outcome for Long Island than a Democrat, for now.
“Accomplishments” according to Republicans in Name Only (RINO’s) like LaLota and fellow Representative Andrew Garbarino are spending millions upon millions of pork dollars all the while the national debt is currently $35.7 trillion. The independent Congressional Budget Office predicts the national debt will rise to $56 trillion in ten years. These two further eroded the dollar and are cluelessly behind the wheel, driving America to the brink of bankruptcy.
In some cases, these massive spending bills Congressman LaLota brags about in press releases bring some tax dollars back to Long Island at the expense of destroying the “credit” of the United States dollar and thus further increasing inflation.
Keep in mind, Congressman Garbarino voted against America by aligning with Nancy Pelosi to pass a massive infrastructure bill a few years ago, and Congressman Lalota has been a loyal vote for spending since taking office too. These are two back benchers with no voice in the House at least can sell their votes, and that is what Lalota has done. These two are ‘Profiles in Pork Barrel Courage” while driving our great nation further and deeper into debt. Commendable.
As a point of fact, perhaps the most notable accomplishment of Lalota in his first term is spearheading the effort to expel neighboring Congressman George Santos from office, leading to that seat being flipped to Democrat Tom Suozzi. Mr. Santos had been duly elected in CD-3, and was a reliable Republican vote during a time when the Republican majority has been very small. As noted above, the difference between the Republican and Democrat agendas are starkly different, and even one vote can mean the difference between two different versions of the country we live in. There is no question that Mr. Santos lied during his campaign, but the move to expel a sitting, duly elected member is largely without precedent. Santos was only the sixth house member expelled in the history of the United States, with 3 confederate members expelled post the civil war, and 2 others expelled after being indicted for taking bribes.
When Lalota introduced the legislation to expel Santos he was quoted as saying, “George Santos deserves to be in prison, not in Congress. He lied to voters, donors, and party leaders to get to this point, committing numerous acts of fraud…” Oddly there is another member of Congress named Henry Cuellar (D-TX) presently under federal indictment for taking bribes and money laundering, but nobody, including Congressman Lalota has made any effort to expel Cuellar. It is well known in local circles that Lalota pushed to have Santos expelled to settle local grievances on behalf of the Suffolk County GOP, and unfortunately, that move had the disastrous effect of flipping the Santos seat to longtime Democrat Tom Suozzi, who since being seated has been a reliable Democrat vote, and presently looks set to win re-election this November. It would be accurate to suggest that Lalota’s biggest impact on national politics has been to nullify his own vote by flipping a neighboring seat to a man guaranteed to oppose him – that is, of course, in the instances when Lalota actually votes with the Republicans.
In summary, the South Shore Press throws its support for this year’s Congressional race for CD-1 behind Nick Lalota. We believe strongly that the fate of the Country hangs in the balance, and Congressman Lalota is simply more likely to vote with Republicans than John Avlon. We wish him luck.