Democrat Tom Suozzi charges Congress $37,860 for office rental in ‘unseemly’ arrangement

Starting on Jan. 1, 2020, Suozzi's campaign has been renting an office space in Glen Cove NY in furtherance of his campaign, using a company formed for this purpose, called Ruvo Realty.

According to the NY Post, Suozzi is, actively campaigning already for his re-election in 2022. The incumbent NY State Democrat is already well into his third term in office.

However, the unit appears not to be in heavy use yet, as people from the Post showed up and the lights were off in the office in the middle of a weekday. Nobody answered when they knocked.

Larry Sabato, a professor of political science at the University of Virgina, stated, "It’s absolutely not good. You shouldn’t use running for office or serving in office to enrich yourself in any form. Lots of things are legal that aren’t right."

"If you actually have set up a campaign group or headquarters or something where it’s really closely related to the campaign, it’s not [illegal]," said Ann Ravel, an ex-chair of the FEC "terribly unseemly.

Kim Devlin, an adviser with the Suozzi campaign, defended the office rental, saying:

"This is much ado about nothing. This is a straightforward transaction pre-approved by ethics attorneys and fully disclosed. The campaign office lease is below fair market value and fully compliant."