John Avlon confronted with attack ads in his primary election for the House of Representatives in New York

The Democratic campaign in eastern Long Island to choose the candidate who can oust incumbent Republican Nick LaLota from office has been cordial, if not overly polite, for months.

The debates between the two Democratic candidates, John Avlon and Nancy Goroff, focused on both major national issues such as abortion and local problems such as the rising cost of living. Neither pursued a scorched earth strategy.

But in the final days before the June 25 primaries, the tone began to change.

Goroff, who has donated $1.2 million to her campaign, has launched a series of attacks against Avlon in recent weeks. Emails sent by a PAC supporting Goroff featured images of a laughing Rudolph W. Giuliani – for whom Avlon had worked as a political consultant and speechwriter – perched on Avlon’s shoulder. Television ads from Goroff’s campaign accused Avlon of supporting Republican efforts to cut Medicare benefits and alleged that he runs a “dark money group.”

Mr Avlon said his opponent’s attacks were part of a “relentlessly negative tone” that had characterized the final days of the campaign.

Negative messaging has also played a role in Avlon’s strategy: He has repeatedly pointed out that Ms. Goroff, the 2020 Democratic nominee for the district, lost that election by 10 points – a line of attack that Ms. Goroff tried to dismiss as “offensive and mansplaining” during a debate.

Welcome PAC, a group working on a “range of Democratic and bipartisan initiatives across the country,” has also run a series of ads on Mr. Avlon’s behalf, pointing to Ms. Goroff’s 2020 defeat.

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

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

Ms. Goroff, a chemistry professor emerita, was considered the clear favorite this year until Mr. Avlon, a former CNN political analyst and former editor of The Daily Beast, entered the race in February.

They are the last two Democrats in what was initially a strong field of candidates, as former state Senator Jim Gaughran and former congressional aide Kyle Hill also originally sought the nomination.

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

The stakes could be high as Democrats attempt to regain control of the House of Representatives; Mr Avlon described the district as a “majority maker.”

As a result, a lot of money went into the campaign. Between April 1 and June 5, Avlon raised $622,443. Goroff raised $125,799 during the same period, but made up most of that difference by taking out a loan to her campaign. Both candidates had more than $580,000 in cash on hand in the final weeks of the campaign, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

Mr. Avlon, the co-founder of the centrist political group No Labels, is a newcomer to the district and his critics portray him as a Manhattan resident with a vacation home in the Hamptons.

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

Ms. Goroff, on the other hand, taught at Stony Brook University in the district for 20 years and 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 but in Amityville in the neighboring Second Congressional District. He called Ms. Goroff a “progressive hero” while calling Mr. Avlon a “Manhattan elitist.”

“While they fight over who can best appease the far left, I am 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, Avlon was able to quickly secure support in his district, receiving 29 individual endorsements from party leaders and local elected officials such as Rep. 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 six endorsements from policy groups such as Emily’s List.

Shaughnessy Naughton, president of 314 Action, an organization that supports candidates with science and medical backgrounds, said it was no surprise that Ms Goroff was being attacked by “the same old gentlemen’s club that feels threatened by her accomplishments.”

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

Democratic leaders have expressed concern that Goroff’s attacks on Avlon could weaken the candidate, who faces a tough battle against LaLota in November.

“When Democrats attack other Democrats in a primary because they hope to win the primary without thinking about the consequences if they fail, they reveal the selfishness that motivates them – and that is unworthy of public service,” Jay S. Jacobs, chairman of the New York State Democratic Committee, who supports Avlon, said of Ms. Goroff’s tactics.

Nicholas Fandos And Alyce McFadden contributed to the reporting.