New York Post
By Josh Christenson

Hudson Valley GOP Rep. Mike Lawler became the second New York lawmaker this week to have his district office defaced in response to his support of Israel after Democratic South Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres suffered a vandalism incident involving a “bloody” baby Jesus doll.

“Yesterday the front entrance of our district office building was defaced with messages attacking me for my support for Israel,” Lawler, 37, posted Thursday on X, sharing images of stickers on which were scrawled epithets including “CHILD MURDERER.”

The messages also read “BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS MIKE LAWLER,” “GAZA IS HALF CHILDREN,” “25,000+ MURDERED” and “CEASE FIRE.”

“I will not be intimidated & I will not waver from supporting our greatest ally as they fight to stop Hamas’ terror once & for all & rescue their people,” the freshman congressman added.

A spokesman for the New York Republican said the vandals defaced his Pearl River office, one of two he maintains in the 17th Congressional District.

Lawler also told The Post that his office “continues to get emails, social media messages, voicemails that certainly take issue with my position on Israel” but he’s “not at the moment concerned about it escalating into physical violence.”

“But I think there’s no question you see a clear escalation in the tactics used by these pro-Hamas supporters and really just a vile antisemitism that has gone on across the country,” he added.

“You can see within — the Democratic Party is splintering, and especially younger people, people on college campuses, engaged in, you know, pro-Hamas tendencies.”

Polls show Democratic support for Israel has dwindled as the war between the Jewish state and Hamas nears the three-month anniversary of the Oct. 7 terror attacks that killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, including at least 33 US citizens.

“As I’ve said repeatedly, I want the Palestinian people to be free. I want them to be free from their oppressors, which is Hamas, a terrorist organization that has been the governing body in Gaza for nearly two decades and has used the Palestinian people as human shields,” Lawler emphasized. “That many of these folks are not bothered by that is startling.”

The Israel Defense Forces have killed more than 21,000 Palestinians through bombings and a ground assault on the Gaza Strip, a densely populated urban region.

That death toll, which is reported by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health, does not differentiate between civilian and terrorist deaths, but a senior Israeli military official previously confirmed that roughly two civilians have been killed for every Hamas terrorist killed.

Reports have shown that Hamas operates and stocks weapons inside civilian infrastructure such as mosques, hospitals and schools — the last of which receives US funding through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

“I’ve been pushing for new hearings on UNRWA, as well as to strip them of all US tax money,” Lawler said. “I do not believe UNRWA should receive one penny from the United States. There is no question that they have been misappropriating funds and that they have, in many respects, had a working relationship with Hamas.”

The House Foreign Affairs Committee is expected to launch an investigation into the UN organization in the coming weeks, The Post reported, as the lower chamber must also negotiate with the Senate on further military aid to Israel.

The House passed a standalone $14.3 billion assistance bill for Israel in November, but talks broke down between Senate Republicans and Democrats as they sought to include the aid in a larger $110 billion package with funding for Ukraine, Taiwan and US border security.

Lawler stressed that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) shouldn’t delay the military aid funding any longer and that “the threat from Hamas must be eliminated.”

“Over the last 15 years, there have been eight cease-fires — each time violated by Hamas,” Lawler said. “Obviously, long term, I would like to see a two-state solution, but that can only happen if the Palestinians recognize Israel’s right to exist, and if they recognize the threat posed by Hamas.”

The congressman added that “pro-Hamas activists” had also “targeted and tried to interrupt” him and Torres during a recent event held at the 92nd Street Y, demanding both advocate for an immediate cease-fire from Israel.

“But as I said there and as I’ve said repeatedly, if we want a cease-fire, there’s a very simple way for a cease-fire to occur: Hamas must surrender,” Lawler noted. “The fact that none of these folks call for Hamas to surrender speaks volumes to where their sympathies lie.”

Torres, 35, said “anti-Israel extremists” had also vandalized his Bronx district office on Christmas Day, using blood-red paint to smear a doll representing Jesus Christ.

“Covered in ‘blood’ is a doll meant to symbolize Jesus, whom the vandals describe as a ‘Palestinian child messiah,’” Torres posted on X, sharing an image of the defacement.“

The escalation in intimidation and incitement against Members of Congress feels like it is heading in a dangerous direction. I, for one, will not be intimidated.”

CBS New York
By Marcia Kramer

NEW YORK — Small business owners spoke out Monday about congestion pricing. They say it will have a negative impact on their bottom line, which is already reeling from increased delivery prices.

They are the unintended victims of congestion pricing — thousands of small business owners who say the new plan could price them right out of existence.

“To have this congestion pricing shoved down our throats, it’s going to be a death blow. It’s going to be a death blow to small businesses like ours,” said Julio Pena, owner of Il Posto Accanto restaurant on the Lower East Side.

While Pena’s eatery is hung with snowflakes to celebrate the holiday season, he said this may be the last Christmas with any economic joy for him because of the plan to charge people to drive into Manhattan below 60th Street.

“It’s really going to kill us as small business owners,” Pena said.

He said his problem is how to make ends meet, when he gets 10 deliveries a day from trucks that will have to pay a steep congestion fee to get to his restaurant, fees that will be passed along to him and then passed along to customers, who, if they don’t live in the Central Business District, will have to pay a fee to just to get there.

“I mean, our sanitation company … I can’t wait for them to tell us they’re going to charge us more because their trucks are going to have to pay a fee to come into the city,” Pena said.

Pena on Monday joined Rep. Mike Lawler of Rockland County and Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey to slam the MTA plan. Gottheimer offered startling figures about just how much a single truck will have to pay to make deliveries in the Central Business District.

“We think it’s about nearly $30,000 a year, what they’re taking, for a truck to come in and out every day because the tolls, plus the congestion tax. It’s a fortune. You can imagine what it’s going to do. The cost is going to be on these small businesses,” Gottheimer said.

Both congressmen called the MTA plan a “money grab” to raise a billion dollars that has little to do with congestion.

“If you stop all the congestion then I guess you’re not raising a billion dollars, so clearly it’s not about the congestion. It’s about getting the money,” Lawler said.

Lawler also charged that if the MTA was truly interested in congestion there are many things it could do, including, “stop narrowing the lanes and the number of lanes on all these cross streets.”

New York City Transit President Rich Davey fought back.

“I don’t know about that small business. I hope this business does well, but I’m telling you congestion is killing the neighborhood I live in. I reject whatever absurd arguments are being made,” Davey said.

Lawler, a Republican who faces a stiff re-election campaign next November, also claimed congestion pricing is so unpopular in the suburbs and New Jersey that anyone who supports it could be politically vulnerable.

The first-term member of Congress in the 17th Congressional District is one of the most vulnerable Republicans in the country, but he’s pulled off impressive victories before.

City & State NY
By Rebecca C. Lewis

During a May trip to the Hudson Valley to speak about contentious debt ceiling negotiations, President Joe Biden did something that has become rare in our hyperpartisan political world: He offered praise for a Republican member of Congress. “Mike’s on the other team, but you know what? Mike is the kind of guy that, when I was in Congress, they were the kind of Republican I was used to dealing with,” Biden said of Rep. Mike Lawler. 

Lawler did not shy away from the praise of the Democratic president, gladly accepting the words that other members of his party likely would have rejected. “Joe Biden showed up in my district, and I was there,” Lawler told City & State. “I sat down with the president and I talked to him about the debt ceiling and about the migrant crisis.” Biden won what now makes up the 17th Congressional District by over 10 points in 2020 even as Lawler eked out a victory for an Assembly seat, and Democrats hold a significant voter enrollment advantage there as well. “I don’t win if I don’t find areas to work together with the president when I can,” Lawler said.

Biden praised Lawler for not being a “MAGA Republican,” a member of the GOP who closely aligns himself with and supports former President Donald Trump. 

For some, the words came as a surprise. The freshman Lawler just flipped his Hudson Valley seat last year, in a stunning defeat of Sean Patrick Maloney, the chair of the Democrats’ national campaign apparatus. It was one of a handful of victories that helped Republicans win control of the House. Lawler’s seat is now one targeted by Democrats as attention shifts to New York as a crucial battleground in next year’s elections. Biden himself (or whoever runs his social media) included an image of Lawler in a tweet about “MAGA Republicans” just days before his visit to the Empire State, making his new comments come off as an about-face that left some Democrats angry and confused about why the president would offer support to a vulnerable Republican.

Lawler has a perfect electoral record of defeating incumbent Democrats, first flipping an Assembly seat in 2020 in his first run for office, and doing so again last year for his position in Congress. Next year, Lawler will face a new challenge: his first reelection. He has raised his profile since winning election and is quick to talk about his bipartisan credentials, but he’ll have to work even harder against Democratic attacks next year to insulate himself from potential national headwinds that may ultimately determine crucial elections. 

At 36, Lawler isn’t the youngest member of Congress. But his rise has come fairly quickly since he interned for John McCain’s presidential campaign while in college, and he didn’t choose an easy path to get to where he is now. Lawler unseated seven-term incumbent Democratic Assembly Member Ellen Jaffee as the only Republican to flip an Assembly seat in a year that Democrats gained a supermajority in the state Senate. Before even completing his first term in Albany, he ran a successful congressional campaign against Maloney. “I don’t think anyone else would have won (those races),” said Chris Russell, partner at the consulting firm Checkmate Strategies that he founded with Lawler. “But I think there’s more to it than just dumb luck. … If he didn’t see a path, he wasn’t going to do it because he had a successful career.” Russell worked on both of Lawler’s campaigns and added that he didn’t believe that a candidate as smart as Lawler would normally have chosen to run the uphill races he did. 

Before taking the plunge himself, Lawler had plenty of experience running campaigns as a consultant, with and without success. In 2014, at the age of 27, Lawler ran Rob Astorino’s campaign for governor against then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo. “We gave Cuomo a run for his money,” Astorino said of the campaign that eventually fell short. “And Mike was certainly an important reason why we were able to get so relatively close.” Once the votes were tallied, Astorino came within 13 points of Cuomo. It may not seem like a particularly close election, but polling before Election Day had Cuomo leading by anywhere from 25 points to as much as 37 points. The margin tightened, but with the exception of one poll, none had Cuomo winning by anything less than 21 points. “I never doubted that (Lawler) could win either his Assembly race or Congress, and I don’t doubt that he’ll be reelected,” Astorino said.

How did Lawler find himself running the gubernatorial campaign of a major party candidate at such a young age? Astorino picked him up from his time running the state Republican Party, a job Lawler held for two-and-half years starting in 2011 when he was just 24. “It’s a strange age, in some ways, to run a state party, and to be someone who’s trusted to make big decisions… and walk in worlds where people were certainly older and successful and wealthy and powerful,” said Russell, who met Lawler in 2012. “And Mike could walk into those rooms when he was 25 and fit in, he was someone who would be taken seriously because he was a serious guy, even at that age.” 

When Lawler became executive director of the state GOP, the party still held influence in New York. Republicans controlled the state Senate, having just won it back after the short-lived Democratic control in 2010. Astorino had just unseated Democratic incumbent in an upset victory in 2009 to become Westchester county executive, and in Nassau County, Republican Ed Mangano did the same. While Lawler served as political and executive director in 2011, Bob Turner won a special election for the 9th Congressional District in Queens, becoming the first Republican to represent the district in nearly a century. Turner defeated David Weprin, a member of a well-respected Queens Democratic political family. If Republicans are largely considered out of power now in New York with one-party rule since 2019 and Democratic supermajorities in the Legislature, that certainly was not the case when Cox entrusted Lawler to help him run the party.

“(He was) very, very smart, and was always there to make things happen. Very accomplished from a young age,” said Ed Cox, past and current chair of the state Republican Party. Cox recruited Lawler to serve as his assistant during his first stint as head of the state GOP in 2009 after meeting him on the McCain campaign as a college student. “So he very quickly went from there to becoming deputy political director, political director and then my second executive director.”

Whereas some lawmakers, particularly those who represent swing districts, have chosen to quietly legislate upon winning office without raising their profile, Lawler has chosen to remain incredibly public facing since his election. That means frequent appearances on cable news. While he perhaps most often appears on Fox News, he has also spoken repeatedly on CNN and MSNBC. “He’s not afraid to go where he’s politically uncomfortable, that’s important,” Astorino said. 

Even before being sworn into office, Lawler spoke on CNN in December 2022 to denounce recent comments from Trump calling for the termination of the Constitution as part of his attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. “Frankly, I think people are tired of looking backwards, people are tired of discussing the grievances of prior elections and they want to know what we’re going to do to address the challenges,” Lawler said at the time. “I think the former president would be well advised to focus on the future if he is going to run for president again.” 

In May, shortly after news broke of Rep. George Santos’ criminal indictment, Lawler appeared on MSNBC to forcefully reiterate his call for Santos to resign. “His conduct has been embarrassing and disgraceful,” he said at the time. “You need to have a little bit of humility in this business. And if this is the best we can do representing us in Congress, or any level of government, I think that speaks volumes about where we are as a country.” Less than a month later, Lawler was again on MSNBC to explain his support of the debt ceiling deal reached by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Biden. He had advocated on MSNBC and elsewhere – including the New York Post – for the two leaders to negotiate in good faith in the lead up to the deal.

Lawler’s public profile starkly differs from other moderate members of Congress who won contentious elections in swing districts. When Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado first ran for Congress in the Hudson Valley in 2018, before he started in his current state position, he gained national attention when Republicans and incumbent former Rep. John Faso were accused of racism during the race. Delgado made headlines for his past rap career and for the fact that he would be the first Black member of Congress from upstate. But upon taking office, his profile quickly faded. Delgado opted to focus on hyperlocal bipartisan issues and steered clear of controversial national issues. 

Where Delgado chose a more quiet bipartisanship after a closely watched race against an incumbent, a strategy that won him reelection in 2020, Lawler went down the opposite path. “From the time I was born and started being able to speak, I have never shut up,” Lawler said. “And so I’m not going to start now.” He said that he tries to emulate the likes of the late McCain and former Rep. Pete King. Both were known for loudly voicing their opinions, even when those opinions were at odds with the Republican Party at large. Of course, unlike Delgado, who identifies as Afro Latino, Lawler, McCain and King are all white. “This is one area where I feel like I’ve been given a gift in terms of being able to communicate,” Lawler said. “And I think it’s a gift that I have to make the most of.”

Going into 2024, Lawler’s district may offer Democrats one of their best opportunities to flip back. He won the seat by the closest margin among fellow first-term Republicans in the state, and the demographics of the district are among the most favorable to Democrats. It’s something that Lawler is cognizant of as he heads into his reelection. He pointed to instances of bipartisan cooperation he has engaged in since taking office, like working with Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres of the Bronx to get his first bill passed to create a special envoy for the Abraham Accords in Israel. (Lawler’s district includes one of the largest Jewish communities in the country.) And he worked alongside New Jersey Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer to oppose congestion pricing in Manhattan, which is unpopular in the Hudson Valley. He has largely steered clear of the most far-right members of his party and has kept true to his word that he would not support a national abortion ban even as other Republicans in the state who made similar pledges have signed onto legislation to do just that. Rep. Brandon Williams of Syracuse, for example, co-sponsors a bill that would codify the Hyde Amendment and would ban private insurance purchased through the Affordable Care Act marketplace from offering coverage of abortion services. “To me, especially in a district like this that I represent that … has 70,000 more Democrats than Republicans, I don’t win if I’m not talking to folks across the aisle,” Lawler said.

But his bipartisan record has not insulated Lawler from attacks from Democrats, including his three declared primary opponents. He will face national headwinds that may end up favoring Democrats, especially if Trump becomes the Republican presidential nominee again. “Mike Lawler is dangerous,” said Mondaire Jones, a former Congress member challenging Lawler. “He refuses to stand up for our democracy in the face of the behavior of people like Donald Trump.” Democrats have criticized Lawler for not saying whether he would endorse Trump for president in recent interviews. “Democracy itself is now on the ballot,” Jones said.

Despite his efforts of establishing a bipartisan track record, Lawler may find himself at the mercy of national politics after finding success at localizing issues to win first in a tough year for Republicans and again against a powerful Democratic incumbent. In 2020, he ran on issues like high property tax rates and public transit service. And he rode the local anti-crime wave in 2022 that helped Republicans across the state find victory even as their counterparts across the country did not fare nearly as well. “I think that adage that all politics is local is really key here,” said Democrat David Carlucci, who used to represent the region in the state Senate and ran for a version of the district in 2020. “Mike has done a good job of really understanding the politics of Rockland County particularly, and then surrounding areas.” 

But Carlucci predicts that this year, national politics will be a determining factor in many races across the state and country, including in Lawler’s district. “In the midterms, I think it was a referendum on New York politics,” Carlucci said, referring to the 2022 elections. “Will (2024) be an election that will encourage Democrats to come out? If that’s the case, it might be a wave so big that Lawler won’t be able to overcome.” A presidential year election would likely shift focus more firmly to the national level, especially if it’s a repeat matchup between Biden and Trump. And thanks to the voter enrollment advantage for Democrats in the district, anything that gets party members to the polls won’t do Lawler any favors. 

Democrats are already attacking Lawler for his voting record, arguing that it shows that he is too far to the right despite what he says in the public and in media interviews. “The votes he takes are not OK,” said Liz Whitmer Gereghty, a former local school board member running in the Democratic primary to take on Lawler. “And I think he’s banking on a lot of people not paying attention and not following through.” She specifically criticized Lawler’s vote in support of the National Defense Authorization Act, which included a controversial and partisan amendment that would restrict access to abortion care for service members. Lawler previously defended his vote to City & State, saying that he remains opposed to a national abortion ban and that his support of the bill does not signal any change in his stance on reproductive rights.

Lawler’s third potential challenger so far is MaryAnn Carr, a former Bedford Town Council member who declared her candidacy last month. She and the other two candidates will face off in a Democratic primary next year before the winner takes on Lawler.

As a senior at Manhattan College, Lawler was tapped to give the valedictory speech to his undergraduate class. He took the stage to thunderous applause, before jokingly addressing the crowd as they he were a major party candidate for president. “My fellow Americans,” he started to laughter. “It is with a humble heart and a deep awareness of the responsibilities conferred by your trust that I accept your nomination.” The lighthearted start to his commencement foreshadowed his future in electoral politics. And while he doesn’t view his campaigns as a joke, he also doesn’t give too much weight to the risks around running for office. “I felt I really had nothing to lose,” Lawler said of his initial Assembly run. “If I lost, okay great, I gave it my best effort. And if I won, I had the ability to do something to positively impact my community and our state.”

Going into his first reelection, Lawler still isn’t overthinking the risks he’s facing even as he fights to maintain his seat. “I look at this from the standpoint of, I may only serve one term in Congress, I may serve two terms in Congress, I may serve five terms,” Lawler said. When he first ran for Congress last year, he had something to lose with his Assembly seat on the line. But even then, he saw the risk as marginal. “I loved serving in the Assembly … but I was in the permanent minority, and there’s certainly limitations to that,” Lawler said. “I felt there was an opportunity … and to me, you either seize that opportunity or you don’t.”

New York Post

By John Faso

In their insatiable quest for more political power, Democrats are savoring Thursday’s appellate court decision ordering a do-over for congressional redistricting.

If New York’s courts are to sustain a shred of institutional dignity, that decision must be overturned in the Court of Appeals when it hears the case this fall.

Democrats claim the CoA’s ruling last year — that Democrats’ gerrymander of state congressional districts was unconstitutional — only applied to 2022.

They argue that the Independent Redistricting Commission should be ordered back to work to recraft the state’s 26 congressional districts. 

Unsurprisingly, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries pulls out the race card, contending that the districts crafted by an outside expert after the courts rejected the Legislature’s plan do not reflect “the racial, ethnic, cultural, regional and socio-economic diversity” of the state. 

The appellate court majority opinion laughably argues that returning this process to the Democratic majority in the Legislature will ensure “transparency” and more public participation.

Nonsense. Turning this process over to lawmakers creates just another chance for Democrats to win seats via backrooms in DC and Albany.

It has nothing to do with transparency or the desires of the public.

As the dissenters to Thursday’s ruling point out, the case brought by Democrats has several fatal flaws.

First, it was brought too late.

They had four months from when the commission process broke down last year to bring their case.

They missed that deadline.

Thursday’s decision held that since legislators passed a separate law giving their body discretion to pass its own redistricting plan if the commission failed to do so, this case was brought on time. 

Except for one problem: The Court of Appeals last year found that law unconstitutional since it attempted to change a constitutional provision with a mere statute.

The Court of Appeals can make short work of this case on that basis alone.

Second, the state Constitution contains explicit provisions against mid-decade redistricting, and the only remedy when the Legislature fails to act is a court-ordered plan that lasts a decade.

Democrats argued last year that if they lost, the court should send the issue back to the Legislature for repair, and that course was rejected by the court.

Court arguments are one thing. But the reality of what Democrats are attempting is something else. 

This case is a blatant power grab by state and national Democrats.

Unhappy that they were caught red-handed last year trying to rig districts in their favor, they’re now back again with phony arguments about transparency and fairness. 

In fact, the gerrymander they passed last year would have resulted in just four Republicans being elected to Congress. 

Fair districts drawn by an impartial expert resulted in 11 GOP victories.

New York has the most competitive congressional seats in the nation, and those seats remain up for grabs next year.

Redrawing districts now would create real uncertainty for candidates and mass confusion for the public.

Certainly, both parties across the nation attempt to gain political advantage in the redistricting process.

That’s why New York voters in 2014 adopted strict prohibitions against political gerrymandering and created a precise process for how district lines were to be drawn.

The 2014 amendment was a check on the unbridled power of the state Legislature to act in a partisan fashion.

This case now goes back to the Court of Appeals, which won national acclaim last year with its seminal decision upholding the state constitutional provisions against partisan gerrymandering. 

Ominously, Albany Democrats and Jeffries issue thinly veiled threats against the courts, threatening judicial independence. 

Hyper-partisan pols, such as state Sen. Mike Gianaris, even propose abolishing the merit-based nominating process for CoA judges.

The court and its new Chief Judge Rowan Wilson face a stark choice: Capitulate to the political demands of ruling Democrats or stand up for the state Constitution and the independence of the judiciary. 

We’ll soon find out which choice they make.

John J. Faso served in Congress and the state Assembly. He was a 2006 GOP candidate for governor.

New York Daily News

When freshman Congressman Mondaire Jones had his Rockland/Westchester district scrambled last May, he moved to Carroll Gardens to run in a Lower Manhattan/Brooklyn constituency. He wrote an op-ed in these pages declaring his affinity for the area.

When we interviewed him last summer, he said that win or lose the Aug. 23 primary, he was in Brooklyn to stay. After coming in third with 18%, he soon decamped back to Westchester. Now he’s running from there. Politics by moving van.

Click here to read more

Axios

By Josh Kraushaar

While Democrats hold a fighting chance to win back the House majority in 2024, the emergence of problematic candidates and messy primaries in several key races could complicate their path.

Why it matters: The Democrats’ House campaign committee doesn’t plan on getting involved in contested primaries, according to officials familiar with its strategy. That runs the risk that weaker candidates could emerge in must-win races — a dynamic that Republicans are very familiar with.

Driving the news: Jamie McLeod-Skinner, a progressive attorney who lost an Oregon district that Biden carried by nine points in 2022, is planning to seek a rematch against Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.).

• But Democratic state Rep. Janelle Bynum is already in the race — and said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) encouraged her to run.
• A co-owner of McDonald’s franchises, Bynum is seen by party leaders as a more business-friendly candidate better positioned to win swing voters.

What we’re watching: Democrats are also facing a potential primary headache involving the suburban northern New Jersey seat of Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-N.J.) — a true bellwether district.

• Sue Altman, the leader of the progressive Working Families Party in New Jersey, was the first Democrat to enter the race and announced raising over $200,000 in the recent fundraising quarter.
• Democrats privately worry that her profile — she led protests against neighboring Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) for his moderate record — makes it harder for them to win the seat, but no obvious alternative has emerged. Roselle Park Mayor Joseph Signorello, former State Department official Jason Blazakis and former state Sen. Raymond Lesniak are all mulling runs.

Between the lines: In one of the marquee House Democratic primaries, two candidates with solid political pedigrees are squaring off.

• Former Rep. Mondaire Jones and local school board trustee Liz Gereghty (better known as the sister of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer) are running in a primary to face Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), one of Democrats’ top targets.
• Jones, a recognizable former congressman and CNN commentator, starts out as the primary front-runner, according to Democrats tracking the race — but some worry his progressive record could alienate crime-conscious moderates.
• After winning his first congressional election in 2020, Jones tweeted: “We must reimagine our criminal legal system” in a call to reduce mass incarceration. Notably, in his campaign kickoff video, he touts an endorsement from a local policeman who says he “funded the police.”
• Crime was the top issue for New York voters in last year’s midterms, as Republicans picked up three Democratic-held House seats in the Empire State despite an otherwise disappointing election. Lawler defeated DCCC chair Sean Patrick Maloney in one of the GOP’s signature 2022 victories.

The other side: Republicans have a few primary red flags of their own. Joe Kent, the right-wing candidate who lost to Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) in a district Trump carried, is running again for Congress.

What they’re saying: “Candidate choices in the key districts are going to matter — and if primary voters make a poor choice or two, it could have a major impact on the overall landscape,” said Kyle Kondik, the managing editor at Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.

The bottom line: With primary voters often preferring ideologically-driven candidates, an urgent task for both parties is ensuring electable nominees emerge in battleground races.

• The GOP’s hands-off approach in 2022 likely cost the party several Senate seats, prompting the Republicans’ Senate campaign arm to engage more aggressively in primaries this year.
• Democrats, facing ideological divisions in their own party, could be forced to make similarly tough decisions if problematic candidates emerge.

Monsey Scoop

Congressman Mike Lawler addressed a gathering of veterans from various parts of Rockland County during his Veterans Town Hall held in New City on Friday.

The event, organized by American Legion Post 1682, provided an opportunity for Congressman Lawler to express his commitment towards tirelessly assisting veterans and ensuring they receive the necessary support and entitlements they deserve.

He emphasized that he and his team will persistently work towards serving veterans’ needs.

Times of India

WASHINGTON: US Representative Mike Lawler on Thursday (local time) said that he is looking forward to welcoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the US Capitol and hearing his address to a joint session of the US Congress during his (PM Modi) upcoming state visit to the US.

Lawler said that India and US have an “important strategic” partnership, and added that it is one of the most defining and consequential partnerships of the 21st century.

Click here to read more

The Jerusalem Post

By Tovah Lazaroff

The US House of Representatives has passed a bipartisan bill to create the diplomatic position of ambassador for the Abraham Accords to help advance Israel’s normalization with its Arab neighbors, particularly with Saudi Arabia.

“The addition of a special envoy will be critical for bringing Saudi Arabia into the accords and continuing to strengthen and expand them,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-New York) said.

According to the bill, which was approved in a 413-13 vote on Tuesday evening, the new envoy “would serve as the primary advisor to, and coordinate efforts across, the US Government relating to expanding and strengthening the Abraham Accords.”

The envoy would “engage in discussions with nation-state officials lacking official diplomatic relations with Israel regarding the Abraham Accords,” the bill says.

Such an envoy would “consult with representatives of nongovernmental organizations that have attempted to expand and strengthen the Abraham Accords,” it says.

The bill’s passage was a testament to the strong bond between Israeli and the United States, Lawler said.

“The overwhelming bipartisan support for my bill shows that working for peace in the Middle East isn’t a Republican value or a Democrat value, but rather an American value,” he said.

“Israel remains our strongest ally and a beacon of democracy in the region,” he added. “The Abraham Accords not only guarantee Israel’s recognition by its neighbors, but also present the hope of continued progress toward peace and prosperity across the region.

“We have never been closer to peace in the Middle East than we are today, and that is something that all of us, regardless of party or policy differences, can celebrate,” Lawler said.

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-New York), who co-sponsored the bill, said: “We are bending the long arc of the Middle East in its proper direction – toward peace and prosperity for Jewish people, Christians and Muslims – the children of Abraham standing together as one.”

“The Senate should move swiftly to consider and pass this legislation, advancing it to the president’s desk so we can codify the role of special envoy for the Abraham Accords into law,” he added.

Biden administration working to expand Abraham Accords

Passage of the bill, which now moves to the Senate, comes as the Biden administration is actively seeking to expand the accords created under the Trump administration, by which Israel normalized its ties with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.

The Biden administration has focused on a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke about the Biden administration’s desire to create such a position when he addressed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee earlier this month.

There has been some speculation that former US ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro could be tapped to fill the role.

Jewish Insider

By Marc Rod

In his first six months on Capitol Hill, freshman Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) has established himself as a lawmaker to watch on Israel and antisemitism policy.

In just the past week, Lawler has spearheaded pieces of legislation that aim to clamp down on antisemitism on college campuses — a response to a recent incident at the City University of New York — and expand oil sanctions on Iran.

The first-term congressman’s district is among the most Jewish in the country, with a significant population of conservative-leaning Orthodox Jews who helped propel Lawler to an underdog win in November against then-Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chief Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY).

In an interview with Jewish Insider in his Capitol Hill office, Lawler tied his work to his “very good relationship” with Jewish voters across the religious spectrum in his district, rising rates of antisemitism in New York in particular and his own personal convictions.

“Nobody should ever be [a] victim to discrimination or hatred or violence because of who they are or what they believe,” Lawler said. “As a practicing Catholic, I believe very strongly in the principle of ‘love thy neighbor as thyself.’ And I think the objective, of course, is to really make sure that as a government that we’re doing right by people and communities, and that we are making laws that protect people.”

Lawler, who said he’s also working to “strengthen the relationship between the United States and Israel,” visited Israel for the first time last month on a trip with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). 

Lawler said that discussions around expanding the Abraham Accords, combating Iran and concerns around the recent Saudi-Iranian detente brokered by China featured prominently in the delegation’s conversations with Israeli leaders. He centered the normalization agreements as a path to addressing a host of issues from security threats to Israel to antisemitism worldwide.

The freshman Republican, who sits on the House Foreign Relations Committee, argued that expanding the circle of normalization will be key to checking Iran’s advances and its nuclear program, in addition to continued military support for Israel.

“With our allies in the region, [we] really need to continue to build relationships to prevent it. That’s why the Saudis are critical, and why the Abraham Accords are so important,” Lawler said. “The more that the relationship between Israel and Arab-majority nations [is] normalized, and there are stronger economic ties and stronger national security ties, I think it really helps isolate Iran in the way that they should be.”

Lawler also predicted that the Abraham Accords will be “pivotal” in moving toward an eventual Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

“If the Saudis and other Arab majority nations come to the table on this, I think it really will put the Palestinians in a position where they can choose peace and economic prosperity, or to continue down this path,” he said. “The Palestinian Authority needs to come to the table in a way that is focused on peace and economic prosperity.”

He did not voice support for any specific form of Israeli-Palestinian agreement, including a two-state solution, saying that the specific outcome remains “to be seen” and emphasizing that “it’s been talked about for a long time” without success. Lawler said he’s supportive of continued humanitarian aid to the Palestinians as long as strict oversight and accountability are maintained to ensure it does not support terrorism.

Lawler introduced legislation earlier this year urging the creation of a dedicated ambassador-level envoy for the Abraham Accords, which easily passed the Foreign Affairs Committee. He said that creating such a position would help bring Saudi Arabia to the table with Israel, “forcing the administration to take more direct action when it comes to trying to strengthen the Abraham Accords and grow them.”

Lawler described the Saudi-Iran deal brokered by China as “a message to the United States” and said “the president and the administration would be well-advised to act.” 

Some of the potential American concessions Saudi Arabia has floated as part of normalization negotiations are likely to be problematic among Lawler’s Democratic colleagues.

“You have to take all of these requests into consideration and find areas of compromise,” Lawler said. “Nobody’s gonna get everything they want at any of these negotiations.”

McCarthy’s delegation to the Middle East also made a stop in Jordan — which maintains a complicated relationship with Israel and has been attracting increasing criticism over its reluctance to engage with the Abraham Accords, increasing relations with Syria and harboring of a terrorist wanted by the U.S.

“I think the Jordanian king is very aware of all the challenges and circumstances in the Middle East,” Lawler said. “Jordan has been, and continues to be, an ally in the region. And I think certainly, you know, more can and should be done to strengthen the relationship between Jordan and Israel.”

Lawler emphasized the need for a “coordinated response” across the federal government to antisemitism, although he had not yet seen the administration’s antisemitism strategy, which was released hours before his interview with JI.

Lawler particularly highlighted the need to push back on lawmakers and public figures promoting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel, which “contributes greatly to antisemitism… and frankly incites the hatred that we see.”

“Obviously defining it, confronting it, but also from a governmental standpoint, doing everything we can to effectively combat it, to support the State of Israel, to continue to promote economic investment and cooperation,” are key to stemming the tide of antisemitism, Lawler said. “And again, that goes back to why I think it’s so important for the Abrahamic Accords to flourish and to grow. You need to normalize relations with Israel. And I think in doing that, it effectively helps to mitigate some of the antisemitism that we see around the world, but even here in the United States.”

Politically, Lawler is among the most vulnerable members of Congress, hailing from a district that President Joe Biden won by a double-digit margin in 2020, which could turn a deeper blue if New York Democrats are able to draw more favorable maps ahead of the 2024 election.

Lawler — who has become a cable news staple and frequently found himself in the center of the news cycle — has often been a loyal soldier for Republican leadership since taking office, but he has also broken with his party on several prominent occasions. 

He voted against Republican efforts to overturn administrative rules freezing tariffs on the import of solar panels, flipped against a GOP education bill when a provision was added targeting transgender students, and supports red flag gun laws and opposes federal abortion bans. Biden spoke positively about the congressman during a recent visit to his district.

Lawler’s also been considerably cooler about former President Donald Trump than many of his GOP colleagues, calling shortly after the midterms for his party to move on from the former president. Lawler spoke positively at the time about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Speaking to JI the day after DeSantis announced his presidential campaign, Lawler did not offer specific thoughts on either candidate.

“There needs to be a robust primary and discussion about the future and the party and where we want to go as a party, but the focus should be on the challenges we’re facing, and the future and the American people,” Lawler said. “And ultimately, Republican primary voters will decide who will be the nominee. So we’ll see how this process plays out.”