Attack Ads Hit John Avlon in His House Primary Bid in New York

For months, the Democratic contest on eastern Long Island to choose a candidate most capable of unseating Representative Nick LaLota, the Republican incumbent, has been cordial, if not overly polite.

Debates between the two Democratic candidates, John Avlon and Nancy Goroff, have focused on bigger-picture national issues, such as abortion, as well as local concerns, like the rising cost of living, with neither of them pursuing a scorched-earth strategy.

But in the final days before the primary on June 25, the tone has begun to change.

Ms. Goroff, who has contributed $1.2 million to her campaign, has run a string of attacks against Mr. Avlon in recent weeks. Mailers sent out by a PAC in support of Ms. Goroff have featured images of a laughing Rudolph W. Giuliani — whom Mr. Avlon worked for as a policy adviser and a speechwriter — perched on Mr. Avlon’s shoulder. Television ads from Ms. Goroff’s campaign have accused Mr. Avlon of supporting Republican efforts to slash Medicare benefits and have said that he ran a “dark money group.”

Mr. Avlon said his opponent’s attacks are part of a “relentlessly negative tenor” that has characterized the final days of the campaign.

Negative messaging has also played a role in Mr. Avlon’s strategy: He has consistently noted that Ms. Goroff, the 2020 Democratic nominee in the district, lost that contest by 10 points — an attack line that Ms. Goroff has tried to brush off as “objectionable and mansplaining” during a debate.

Welcome PAC, a group that works on a “range of Democratic and nonpartisan initiatives across the country,” has also run a series of ads on Mr. Avlon’s behalf highlighting Ms. Goroff’s 2020 loss.

“I’ve simply focused on the fact that when you lose by 10, there’s no reason to do it again,” Mr. Avlon said in an interview.

A spokeswoman for Ms. Goroff, who was not made available on Tuesday for an interview, said that “while John Avlon spent years of his life in Manhattan trying to elect a Republican for president,” Ms. Goroff was “on Long Island fighting for reproductive rights, beating MAGA extremists, defending our public schools and kids, and working to build a better economy for everyone.”

Ms. Goroff, a retired chemistry professor, seemed like the heavy favorite this year until Mr. Avlon, a former CNN political analyst and a former editor of The Daily Beast, made a late entrance to the race in February.

They are the last two Democrats standing in what began as a crowded field, with Jim Gaughran, a former state senator, and Kyle Hill, a former congressional aide, initially also seeking the nomination.

The winner will face Mr. LaLota, a first-term Republican who succeeded Lee Zeldin after Mr. Zeldin left the post to run for governor in 2022. The Democratic House Majority PAC has characterized the race as “one of the most competitive districts in the country,” while the Cook Political Report has called it “likely Republican.”

The stakes could be high as Democrats attempt to wrest back control of the House; Mr. Avlon referred to the district as a “majority maker.”

As a result, money has poured into the race. Between April 1 and June 5, Mr. Avlon raised $622,443. Ms. Goroff raised $125,799 during the same period but made up much of that difference by issuing a loan to her campaign. Both candidates had over $580,000 in cash on hand as they entered the final weeks of the race, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

Mr. Avlon, who helped found the centrist political group No Labels, is a recent arrival in the district, and his detractors have painted him as a Manhattan dweller with a vacation house in the Hamptons.

He and his wife, Margaret Hoover, a conservative host on PBS, bought a home in Sag Harbor in 2017, and Mr. Avlon voted in the district for the first time in 2020, according to voting records.

Ms. Goroff, in contrast, taught in the district for 20 years at Stony Brook University, and she raised her two children in Suffolk County, according to her campaign website. Her ex-husband was an applied mathematician at Renaissance Technologies, one of the country’s most successful hedge funds.

Mr. LaLota does not live in the district; he lives in Amityville in the neighboring Second Congressional District. He has labeled Ms. Goroff a “progressive hero,” while calling Mr. Avlon a “Manhattan elitist.”

“While they fight to see who can appease the far left the most, I’m focused on putting results over rhetoric and fighting for the community I grew up in,” he said in a statement.

Despite his apparent lack of local ties, Mr. Avlon has quickly shored up support in the district, garnering 29 individual endorsements from party leaders and local elected officials like Representative Tom Suozzi, who recently won a special election in Nassau County.

Ms. Goroff has 15 individual endorsements, including from four current members of Congress, and she has six endorsements from political groups such as Emily’s List.

Shaughnessy Naughton, the president of 314 Action, which supports candidates with scientific and medical backgrounds, said it was unsurprising that Ms. Goroff was “being attacked by the same old boys’ club who feel threatened by her accomplished record.”

“Her motivations have always been the same: to fight for working families in Suffolk, defeat MAGA extremists, protect women’s right to reproductive freedoms, and flip this seat blue,” she said.

Democratic leaders have voiced concern that Ms. Goroff’s attacks against Mr. Avlon will weaken whichever candidate emerges to face what will be an uphill battle against Mr. LaLota in November.

“When Democrats in a primary resort to attacking other Democrats solely in the hope of winning that primary but with no care to the consequences if they do not, they lay bare the selfishness that motivates them — which is unbecoming to public service,” Jay S. Jacobs, the chair of the New York State Democratic Committee who has endorsed Mr. Avlon, said of Ms. Goroff’s tactics.

Nicholas Fandos and Alyce McFadden contributed reporting.