Congressional Campaign of NY Leftist Pol Alessandra Biaggi on the Rocks
By: Benyamin Davidsons
New York state’s progressive Senator Alessandra Biaggi has aspirations to make it as a member of Congress next year. Her campaign isn’t going exactly as planned, however.
As reported by the NY Post, Biaggi, has been plagued by staff departures and former employees have bad-mouthed her. Since Jan. 2019, the 35-year-old far-left Democrat, has served in the NYS Senate’s 34th district, which includes parts of Bronx and Westchester Counties. In February, she announced she will be running for the seat of incumbent Tom Suozzi in NY’s 3rd congressional district, after he announced his run for Governor.
Though Biaggi would love to join the ‘Squad’ in Congress with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, her campaign is having trouble. Over the past few weeks, both her campaign manager Chris Walsh and campaign Field Director Samantha Fullam left. Walsh declined to comment and Fullam did not respond to the Post’s request for comment. “There was as seamless transition, everything is friendly. Things change. It’s not that big a deal,” said campaign spokesman David Neustadt, downplaying the departures. “We’re neither the first nor last campaign to have staff changes in the course of a campaign.”
“She was very hyper. She screamed and yelled quite bit,” said one former staffer, who spoke to the Post on the condition of anonymity. “She had a policy that nobody on staff could speak to her. Everyone had to go through the chief of staff.” The staffer added, “She always says be sure you’re taking care of your mental health but working for her is the worst thing you can do for your mental health.” Neustadt replied to say that “Senator Biaggi sets very high standards for herself and her staff because the work of her office serving the community is extremely important. Her staff has always had access to her and her Chief of Staff as appropriate.”
Sudden staff departures are nothing new to Biaggi. In early-to-mid 2019, Biaggi made a splash by dismissing almost all her male staffers, including the deputy chief of staff– with reported plans to replace them with female employees. Her core issue as senator has been combating sexual abuse, and she supported the effort to ‘defund the police’. Biaggi’s campaign has been endorsed by many of the city’s top elected socialists including Rep. Jamaal Bowman, State Sen. Julia Salazar and State Sen. Jabari Brisport.
Some seven Democratic candidates are running in the Democratic primary to replace Rep. Suozzi– including Nassau County Legislator Joshua Lafazan, and PR executive Robert Zimmerman.
