About halfway through a debate hosted by Newsday and broadcast Sunday, John Avlon, the Democratic challenger for the congressional seat held by Nick LaLota, shifted his tone. He had just been asked by Joye Brown, the moderator, about the war in Gaza.
“I lived through 9/11 up close, and it’s fundamental to the way I view the world,” Mr. Avlon said. “So, when I saw the horrors of Oct. 7, my impulse is always to stand with victims of terrorism and never blame the victims of terrorism. We need broad bipartisan support for Israel.” He said there was no moral equivalence between Israel, a democracy, and Hamas, a terrorist organization, and called on the United States to lead diplomatic efforts to get to a two-state solution. It was the sort of answer you might expect from a self-proclaimed centrist.
It might have been a moment of agreement between the two men. Instead, Representative LaLota, who declined to look at Mr. Avlon during the debate, brushed off the answer and said, “Lot of platitudes, but it’s all about Iran.” He pivoted and blamed former President Obama for giving “billions of dollars” and the “nuclear arms deal” to Iran. There was nothing bipartisan in his answer. “Those who cannot say that on a stage like this, do not get the Israel issue,” he concluded.
Mr. Avlon attempted to rebut, but Representative LaLota pressed Ms. Brown to quiet him: “What are the rules, Joye?”
The rest of the debate saw Mr. Avlon making more direct attacks against the congressman and perhaps losing some of his signature politeness. By the time a second, live, and lively debate, moderated by the usually staid League of Women Voters, aired on Monday night, it was evident that the candidates wouldn’t be meeting for a coffee and doughnut at Grindstone anytime soon.
A Newsday/Siena College poll released early Tuesday morning showed a dead heat, with the men separated by only 3 points, well within the poll’s 4.5-percent margin of error. Polls from late September, one funded by Representative LaLota’s campaign and the other by a Republican Super PAC, had the incumbent up by 8 and 10 points, respectively. In other words, the race is close and getting closer, with Mr. Avlon showing late momentum in a district twice won by Donald Trump.
One key issue in this election, especially because it’s a presidential race year, has been the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which had been protecting women’s access to abortion across the country since 1973. The Supreme Court, with three judges appointed by President Trump, overturned the law in 2022.
“I do not support a national abortion ban,” Mr. LaLota said in the Newsday debate, “and I do not think that government ought to regulate in the first trimester.” He said it was up to the individual states to decide the issue, and then quickly switched to a favorite Republican talking point, “men in girls’ sports.”
He said he was against Proposition 1, which would allow “a man to go into a girls’ locker room. . . . You can’t just talk about abortion if you’re going to pretend to be for women’s rights,” he said. “Prop 1 is dangerous, and that Mr. Avlon brags about his support about it, is totally contrary to Long Island values. This is something you’re going to see more likely on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where Mr. Avlon actually is from.”
Mr. Avlon chose not to take the bait about his residency (he says his primary residence is in Sag Harbor, while Mr. LaLota lives outside the First Congressional District, in Amityville) or Proposition 1, which he supports. “My opponent cheered the overturning of Roe v. Wade. He called it a ‘step in the right direction.’ ” He turned to Representative LaLota and said, “It raises the question, ‘What’s the next step, Nick?’ ”
Again, Mr. LaLota refused to look at Mr. Avlon.
“You’ve said consistently and repeatedly that you oppose second and third-trimester abortions. That’s a 12-week abortion ban,” Mr. Avlon said.
(On the New York State website, it states, “In New York, you can get an abortion up to and including 24 weeks of pregnancy. After 24 weeks, you can still get an abortion if your health or pregnancy is at risk.”)
During the League of Women Voters debate, while Mr. Avlon spoke about his position on abortion, Representative LaLota held up a sign that read, “I oppose a national abortion ban. Always have. Always will.”
In an email from Arlene Hinkemeyer, vice president of the league’s Hamptons, Shelter Island, and North Fork chapter, she wrote, “The guidelines sent to all the candidates, that they agreed to, state that there should be no visual political campaign references from candidates’ locations.” Nonetheless, the congressman used the strategy for most of the debate until the moderator, the league’s Estelle Gellman, let him know that it wasn’t appropriate.
The men clashed repeatedly: on school shootings, on how to combat the rise of China, on undocumented workers and “dreamers,” on border security, on handling damaging Long Island storms, on Supreme Court ethics, and even, not surprisingly, on the state of political rhetoric. Representative LaLota slammed the $5 billion he said was going to the boroughs of New York City to house and give free health care to migrants. Mr. Avlon blamed his opponent for helping torpedo a bipartisan border security bill. The congressman called the legislation “a surrender and not a solution,” and once again held up a sign while Mr. Avlon spoke.
Mr. Avlon said he strongly supports Ukraine, while Representative LaLota’s support was more qualified. “We can’t just keep sending tens and tens of billions. Unless you get to the root problem, the weakness out of the Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris types, unless you get to the bottom of that, you’re never getting to the bottom of Iran, China, or Ukraine. We need to be stronger overseas, and not just continue to send money.”
“The curious thing about that position, Nick, is that your chosen presidential candidate stands for weakness and coddling autocrats,” Mr. Avlon countered. “Donald Trump represents weakness in the face of Russian aggression and autocrats everywhere. He is not standing strong against our foreign adversaries and autocrats, and you back him wholeheartedly.”
Ms. Gellman asked about the rising cost of living on Long Island. Mr. Avlon said one problem was that Representative LaLota had failed to restore the State and Local Tax deduction that was taken away by a Trump tax bill. Meanwhile, the incumbent blamed New York’s high tax rate.
“In Suffolk County we had our taxes raised” because of the removal of the SALT deduction, answered Mr. Avlon.
Anecdotally, many fear the presidential election will again be contested. In the Newsday debate, Ms. Brown asked the men if they would accept the results.
“Absolutely. No one gets a medal for saying they support the peaceful transfer of power,” Mr. Avlon said. “Donald Trump is still saying he won the election that he lost, so is his running mate. An open question for someone who has endorsed the man,” he said, once again turning to face Representative LaLota, “is whether or not you think Donald Trump is lying when he says he won the last election. Because you’re endorsing someone who is promising to pardon people who attacked our Capitol. That’s the opposite of law and order. That’s the opposite of putting country over party.”
Mr. Avlon also knocked the congressman for tweeting out a meme during the single presidential debate that called Vice President Kamala Harris a Marxist, said she supported abortion on demand, and aimed to steal people’s guns. “That’s the kind of behavior that feeds the far right and our divisiveness. That’s not taking the leadership role of Congress seriously if the goal is truly to unite, not divide.”
“When I was an elections commissioner here in Suffolk County in 2020, I did, indeed, certify the election here,” Representative LaLota said. “In 2024, prospectively, I’ve already signed a unity pledge to ensure that my voters know I will endorse and certify this election too.”
He hit on Mr. Avlon for an opinion piece he wrote for CNN last year in which he applauded a Colorado court for ruling that the 14th Amendment, which bans those who engage in insurrection against the country from holding office, meant Donald Trump couldn’t be on the presidential ballot.
“Your vote for Trump can’t count under the Avlon logic. A logic that was wholly rejected by the entire Supreme Court regardless of whether they were nominated by a conservative president or a liberal president. I think that’s wrong. You deserve to have your vote counted,” the congressman said.
During his closing statement at the end of the League of Women Voters debate, Representative LaLota painted Mr. Avlon as a carpetbagging Manhattanite. Meanwhile, he boasted about the $150 million in federal money he brought into the district. “I even got some to your summer home in Sag Harbor,” he told Mr. Avlon. “Sorry I couldn’t get any in Manhattan, where you actually live. Bringing home the bacon is important to me. I’ll do more in a second term.”
“My opponent pretends to be moderate but also brags he was the first purple district representative to endorse Donald Trump,” Mr. Avlon said. “This election is about common ground over chaos, and the chaos that Donald Trump represents and the empowering of extremism that Nick LaLota represents is not representative of Suffolk County values. We need to practice the politics of addition and not division. Nick LaLota is the problem, not the solution, because he’s a follower, not a leader.”
Last night a third debate was to be hosted by News 12 Long Island. It’s hard to imagine after the quick escalation between the two men, and the tightening polls, that it would be anything other than contentious.
