George Santos has officially been expelled from Congress — and local party officials in Queens and Nassau County are already hurrying to vet and get a candidate out the door to represent the swing district with a national spotlight.

The race to replace him is imminent: State law requires the governor to declare a special election within 10 days of the seat’s vacancy, and Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday morning that she is “prepared to undertake the solemn responsibility of filling the vacancy in New York’s 3rd District.”

Earlier in the day the House of Representatives voted out Santos, a first-term Congressman, with 311 lawmakers — including 105 Republicans — ing the measure. A majority of Republicans elected to keep him, however, with 114 of them voting against his ouster.

Santos’ expulsion followed his announcement a little more than two weeks earlier that he would 56-page report that found “substantial evidence” that he had filed false or incomplete campaign reports and defrauded donors.

The rookie is the first person to be expelled from the House since Ohio Democrat Jim Traficant in 2002, and is the first to be booted from that body without ing the Confederacy or being convicted with a federal crime. 

Expulsions are “generally rare,” Danielle Caputo, legal counsel for ethics at the Campaign Legal Center, told THE CITY in May. The center’s legal director Adav Noti said in a statement Friday that “Santos’s expulsion shows the power and potential of ethics enforcement.”

Santos’ office did not respond to THE CITY’s request for comment regarding his expulsion. But he told reporters as he left the House: “Why would I want to stay here?” and “To hell with this place.”

Santos currently faces a 23-count federal indictment including allegations that he has falsified statements to the FEC and committed wire fraud, money laundering, aggravated identity theft, and theft of public funds. He pleaded not guilty to those charges, but could face a lengthy prison sentence if convicted.

Party Lines

Meanwhile, back in Santos’ now-unrepresented district, of each county party committee —  rather than primary voters — are charged by state law to select their own nominees for the special election, which must be held 70 to 80 days after the governor declares it.

That means the special election will likely land by February, just nine months before the November general election that will proceed as scheduled — in effect making it a test run for both parties.

Both parties would need to “pick someone who has a high name ID,” said Democratic strategist Trip Yang, because the special election seat would need to be filled in just about two months. For the Democrats, he said, that person is likely to be Tom Suozzi, the district’s former House Representative who ran unsuccessfully for governor against Hochul in a primary election last year.

But Republicans in Queens and Nassau County would have an important hurdle to overcome, he added.

“They’re gonna have to explain to the voters in NY-3 why voters should trust the party that did not thoroughly vet George Santos, and frankly, embarrassed this Congressional district and embarrassed the American people for the last year,” Yang said.

Queens GOP chair Tony Nunziato had previously stood by Santos following his indictment and arrest in May. He told THE CITY Friday, however, that he respected Congress’ decision to expel Santos, but hoped that those disciplinary standards “would go across the board with all of them,” referring to other sitting of Congress.

Nunziato said that Republican Party from Queens and Nassau have already formed a special committee to vet potential nominees for the special election, some of whom are among the 17 candidates who’ve already filed to run for the seat in next year’s general election in November.

“You’re looking for the person who has the same goals and ideals of the Republican party,” Nunziato said of the committee’s screening process, including school choice, border control and of law enforcement. “It’s looking out for the American way, and has a clean history.”

The Queens GOP chair said it’s “too early” to tell who the committee will nominate, but said “by the end of next week, we should have someone who we think would be a good candidate.”

Two Republicans who have already filed to run for the general election — retired NYPD detective Mike Sapraicone and former J.P. Morgan executive and veteran Kellen Curry — have both been meeting with the Nassau County and Queens GOP to discuss their candidacies, both of their campaigns told THE CITY Friday.

The possibility that Santos would leave the House early has always been in the back of mind, Curry told THE CITY Friday.

“We started our campaign early primarily because we always knew that this was a possibility,” Curry said, and added in regards to the Nassau County and Queens GOP and the special election: “We’ve been building that relationship for months, and feel good about our standing there.”

Mazi Melesa Pilip, an Ethiopian-born Jewish legislator in Nassau County who previously served in the Israel Defense Force, is also rumored to be an option for the GOP for the special election, though she has not filed to run for the district’s seat in the general election. 

Political consultant Hank Sheinkopf previously told THE CITY that he believes the candidates’ Middle East policy will be an important factor in mobilizing the district’s swath of Jewish voters. 

Nassau County and New York State Democratic Committee chair Jay Jacobs was not immediately available for comment Friday. Chair of the Queens Democrats, Congressman Gregory Meeks, and county committee chair Assemblywoman Vivian Cook also did not respond to THE CITY’s request for comment.

‘Marathon Runners’

Anna Kaplan — a two-term state senator who in 2018 flipped a seat in Nassau County from red to blue before ultimately losing it to a Republican in a re-election campaign last year — said the Democrats have already been vetting candidates for the Santos seat.

“Today, actually, we are being screened,” Kaplan told THE CITY Friday. “So I’m going to be meeting with some of the key people who will make this decision.”

She said she believes she is a “source of hope in a time where we need to energize and motivate our voters to come out,” and said she has run a grassroots campaign in the last seven months that has inspired Democratic voters.

Sheinkopf told THE CITY Friday that the Democrats are going to be looking for “the usual suspects” — someone who is pro-choice and someone who is “right on that district for the war against Hamas.”

“The issue for Kaplan, for Suozzi, is to make themselves appear to be the only people who can beat the Republicans,” Sheinkopf said. “They’ll say, you know, ‘It’s a presidential year, and Democrats always do better in presidential years,’ but they’re getting killed on Long Island.”

Suozzi’s campaign did not respond to THE CITY’s request for comment regarding the special election. 

Yang said that the race will be a “bellwether” for if the Democrats can regain control of the House, and noted that a key to the race will be to mobilize the district’s Asian American voters — who are key swing voters in New York. The district is 20% Asian American by voting eligible population, he said, but “neither party has done well with Asian American outreach.”

Overall, however, he said the “ideal solution” for both parties will be to put forth a candidate that can give them a competitive edge for both the special election and November’s general election.

“There’s very, very little time to campaign,” Yang said. “You want to select candidates who can go the distance and are political marathon runners — who when it’s time for voters to once again go to the ballot box in November 2024, that candidate also gives you the best chance to win.”