A retired Army colonel who describes himself as the son of a New York City police family is making his third run for the state Assembly seat covering Southern Queens, telling Breitbart News Saturday that public safety failures and high taxes in the district demand a change in representation.
Col. (Ret.) Tom Sullivan is seeking to represent Assembly District 23, which covers parts of Far Rockaway and Jamaica in Queens County. Sullivan, who narrowly lost the seat in 2022, said his decades of military and law enforcement family history set him apart from his Democratic opponent.
“My opponent never put on a uniform. His family would never put on a uniform,” Sullivan said. “But yet the Police Benevolent Association, the PBA, just recently endorsed my opponent. It’s hard not to take it personally.”
Sullivan said his father was an NYPD detective, one brother served in the Secret Service, another served as an inspector with the Port Authority Police, and his youngest brother joined the NYPD. Sullivan himself spent 30 years in the Army Reserve, with combat deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait.
He said he has secured the endorsement of the Police Conference of New York, an organization he said represents roughly 50,000 officers across the state.
A Trauma Center Gap in the District
Sullivan connected his public safety message to the 2024 killing of NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller, who was fatally shot during a stop in Far Rockaway and had to be driven roughly nine miles to Jamaica Hospital for treatment. The Rockaway peninsula has been without a Level 1 trauma center since Peninsula Hospital closed nearly a decade ago.
“Within my district alone, we don’t have a level one trauma center,” Sullivan said, adding that such a facility “might have saved his life.”
Tax Freeze, Then a Cut
On the economic side, Sullivan said his first legislative priority would be freezing state taxes before pursuing an actual reduction, arguing that New York’s tax burden on residents exceeds every other state in the country.
A Close Race, Now an Open Seat
Sullivan’s 2022 bid for the seat came down to just 15 votes, according to certified results, when he lost to then-incumbent Stacey Pheffer Amato. Pheffer Amato is not seeking re-election this year, leaving Sullivan to face Democrat Pesach Osina in November for the open seat.
Osina won a contested Democratic primary in June, defeating attorney Mike Scala by roughly a two-to-one margin.
The race comes as New York Republicans emphasize affordability and public safety themes heading into the midterms, positioning themselves as a check on New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
