george santos, the serial liar who, running as a Republican, was elected to the House of Representatives (NY 23), has been expelled and is gone.
Good riddance.
There will be a special election on February 13th to replace santos. And, given why the special election is taking place, you might assume it is a virtual certainty that this seat will be won by the Democrat – especially given that the Democrat candidate is Tom Suozzi, who represented this district for three terms – winning the last two elections by landslides – before leaving to run for Governor (he lost the Democrat primary to incumbent Kathy Hochul)?
Well, amazingly enough, there may be an answer. Meet Mazi Melesa Pilip.
From John Fund’s commentary for the New York Post, via msn.com:
Mazi Melesa Pilip, 44, is a two-term member of the Nassau County Legislature whose life comes out of central casting.
She was born in a poor village in Ethiopia where no house had running water.
She left for Israel at age 12 as a refugee in a program that rescued 14,000 black Jews living under an oppressive dictatorship.
At age 18, she signed up as a paratrooper in the Israel Defense Force.
After completing her service she earned a master’s degree in diplomacy and security from Tel Aviv University.
While there she married a fellow Jewish student whose family had emigrated to Israel from Ukraine and in 2005 came with him to the United States, where he completed his medical studies to become a cardiologist.
Two years ago, Pilip decided to enter politics (“You can’t just complain from outside,” she said) and ran for Nassau County Legislature in the Great Neck area, defeating a four-term Democratic incumbent by 7 points.
She still found time to give birth to twin daughters (her sixth and seventh children) just weeks before the election.
She was re-elected to a second term last month with 60% percent of the vote.
A woman, a minority, someone who came out of absolutely nothing to be a remarkable success in so many ways, versus a career politician who represented the district and won it by landslides.
How’d you like to handicap this one?
Well, you’ve got until February 13 to give it a try…
