Friends,

I wanted to share this front page article Our Town newspaper just published about my campaign!  Three selected quotes are below, followed by the full article, which has been published in print but not online at this time.

-  "Di iorio is pounding the pavement and meeting voters in the district.  One recent morning he visited subway stops throughout the 12th Congressional District and later addressed a group of seniors at Lenox Hill Neighborhood House."

-  "And Di iorio's claim to seriousness isn't all political puffery.  He spent six years in seminary training to become a Catholic priest before deciding it wasn't for him."

-  "And while it makes strategic sense for Maloney -- regarded as the standard-bearer of Manhattan's Democratic establishment -- to avoid legitimizing a political opponent through engagement, the move left her open to criticism for seemingly flouting the democratic process, a point that was recently made for the second time in a New York Post editorial."

Best,

Nick Di iorio
Congressional nominee, NY-12

AN UNDERDOG LOOKS TO THE POLLS

By Daniel Fitzsimmons.  First published: 10/30/2014.

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UPPER EAST SIDE Nick Di iorio (dee-oreo) is finally getting the ink he contends has been denied him since launching his congressional campaign in January.  His opponent, Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY 12), has largely ignored his existence, with the tacit cooperation of the media, he says, leading him to claim the press is in her "back pocket."

And while it makes sense for Maloney -- regarded as the standard-bearer of Manhattan's Democratic establishment -- to avoid legitimizing a political opponent through engagement, the move left her open to criticism for seemingly flouting the democratic process, a point that was recently made for the second time in a New York Post editorial.

Other attention includes Business Insider's coverage of a press conference Di iorio held last week on the steps of City Hall, in which he vowed to focus on serious issues, in contrast to Maloney, he said.  He has criticized her for embarking on a trip to China earlier this year in a bid to bring a panda to the Central Park Zoo.  Di iorio's presser featured a costumed panda, which was not lost on Business Insider; their article highlighted the humor in claiming to focus on serious issues while a 6-foot panda is lollygagging in the background.  Di iorio's campaign promoted the article anyway.  

The episode is illustrative of the trials and tribulations facing any first time candidate, especially a 28-year-old Republican trying to unseat an entrenched Democrat in a race where the GOP, in recent memory, hasn't bothered to field a candidate.  

And Di iorio's claim to seriousness isn't all political puffery.  He spent six years in seminary training to become a Catholic priest before deciding it wasn't for him (he wants a wife and kids).  In August he embarked upon a fact-finding mission to Israel around the same time New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and a delegation of state officials were there, and later positioned himself as the pro-Israel candidate by saying Maloney failed to support Israel during the latest conflict in Gaza.

"Even to this day she has not said a word about the most recent Gaza conflict," Di iorio said.  "That to me is a dereliction of duty."

And there are signs he's beginning to get under the veteran Congresswoman's skin.  Coincidentally or not, she announced this month a piece of pro-Israel legislation and a planned trip to Warsaw for the opening of the Museum of Polish Jews.

Maloney's camp sent a letter to the Post complaining about an unfavorable editorial they published on her decision not to debate Di iorio, which led them to incorporate the letter into another editorial reinforcing the point.  Last week, she agreed to debate Di iorio, less than a week before the general election.

In the meantime, Di iorio is pounding the pavement and meeting voters in the district.  One recent morning he visited subway stops throughout the 12th Congressional District and later addressed a group of seniors at Lenox Hill Neighborhood House.

"Carolyn Maloney is the ultimate Washington insider, she's been in office 22 years," he told the seniors.  "She's not actively campaigning because she doesn't feel the need to."

The point seemed to resonate with some of the seniors who said they haven't seen her around in a while.

Other times, his seriousness seemed a bit misdirected, such as when he launched into a foreign policy discussion about shipments of Hellfire missiles to Israel and the "need to fight terrorists in the Middle East" while the seniors waited for their lunch.

"In Stuyvesant Town the landlords are greedy, what's your position on taking care of seniors?" asked one woman.

Di iorio mentioned his 33-year-old brother, who has a nervous system disorder and is dependent on Social Security benefits, "and will be for the rest of his life," he said.  "Without those benefits I don't know where we'd be as a family."

He said he's committed to preserving Social Security benefits and other social programs but "making sure they're sustainable."

Di iorio seemed to be at his best when working the room one on one, personable and attentive.  Of the two-dozen tables in the room, he visited almost all of them, gaining traction at some and less at others, but always forging on to the next one.

One woman asked how she could volunteer for his campaign.  Another told him to get lost and that he had "some nerve."

"I didn't know there was another candidate, I like to see that," said a senior named Rita DeFaro, who's running to sit on the advisory committee at Lenox Hill Neighborhood House.  Another man at her table, Frank Maltese, who is also running to sit on the advisory committee, liked to refer to Maloney as "Carol Mahoney."

By the end of the conversation Di iorio had secured their votes.

Later at a nearby diner he laid out his campaign strategy over fried eggs, which sat untouched throughout the conversation.  He's received endorsements from the Republican Party (automatically granted when he hit a certain number of petitions), the Queens County Libertarian Party, the Conservative Party and Independence Party.  Between those, he said, he should only have to make up about 20,000 more votes to win the election.  

Questions about voter turnout or the district's heavily Democratic registration roles don't faze him.  But perhaps his biggest wedge is painting Maloney as out of touch and ineffective.  He said Maloney last year ranked fifth in Congress for the most bills introduced, but 392 out of 439 in getting bills signed into law.  In interactions with voters in the district he has a penchant for always bringing the conversation back to how entrenched Maloney is and asking people when they last saw her.

"I don't think she enjoys meeting new people, and to be honest that's what I thrive on," said Di iorio, who mentioned that his time in seminary taught him to be a great listener.  "There have been many low points during the campaign, whether it be the fundraising or the lack of support from other Republicans, but the high points that give me the energy to keep going are the subway visits and the trips like the one to Lenox Hill, where I get to meet people who just want to be listened to."

There are gaps in his platform that stand out in contrast to Maloney's record.  When asked about women's issues, he didn't seem to have a well-defined position on his priorities and spoke vaguely about empowering women through education.

Di iorio says he's against abortion but also that he's supportive of women being provided the full range of medical care and services they need.  Of the dozens of platforms on his website, women's issues aren't mentioned.

There are some similarities between Maloney and Di iorio. Both are from out of town; Maloney is from North Carolina and Di iorio grew up in Rhode Island.  Maloney launched her campaign over 20 years ago against an entrenched Republican incumbent and narrowly beat the odds to win the election.

Di iorio's people skills, and his exuberance and earnestness, were on display in an exchange he had with Frank Maltese at the senior center.  Maltese, a former official with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, was holding forth about corruption in the city.  Di iorio didn't add much to that part of the conversation, but brought it back to how many years Maloney's been in office and the need for change.  Before Di iorio stood up to go, Maltese commented that he knows who he's voting for on Nov. 4.

"You've got my vote kid," he said.

Paid for by Nick for New York.