Jon Kaiman lost a Democratic primary to Tom Suozzi back in 2016. A decade later, he’s working for him. Long Island politics doesn’t forget, but it doesn’t always hold grudges either.
Suozzi, a Democrat whose district covers portions of Nassau County and Queens, announced Monday that Kaiman will serve as his chief of staff. At the same time, Suozzi named Matt Gelman, a Capitol Hill operator with ties stretching across three decades of House leadership, as deputy chief of staff. The two appointments give the congressman a senior team that’s unusually well-matched to what his office actually needs: someone who knows Nassau County’s local government wiring, and someone who knows how Congress gets things done.
Kaiman’s local government resume is the kind you don’t build quickly. He ran North Hempstead as town supervisor for a full decade. After that came a stint as a Nassau County District Court judge, followed by a role as deputy Suffolk County executive. He chaired the Nassau County Interim Finance Authority, advised the New York governor on Superstorm Sandy recovery, and most recently ran the state’s Division of Tax Appeals and Tax Appeals Tribunal. He’s got a law degree from Hofstra and a master’s in public administration from Harvard. That’s a long list. It’s also the reason Suozzi, in his statement, called him “a trusted leader with a proven track record of delivering for our community.”
Gelman’s background is squarely Washington. “Matt Gelman is one of the most seasoned professionals in Washington,” Suozzi said, pointing to his familiarity with the levers inside the House of Representatives official website and among senior leadership. Staff like Gelman don’t make headlines, but they’re often the ones who know which subcommittee chair to call and when. For a member navigating the current House, that’s not a luxury. It’s a job requirement.
The backstory between Suozzi and Kaiman is worth spelling out, because it’s tangled. When Suozzi was Nassau County executive and Kaiman was running North Hempstead, they cooperated on practical local deals, the kind that don’t get much press: a transfer of county parkland to the town, and an arrangement under which North Hempstead took over certain roads to move paving and maintenance work faster. That collaboration frayed when Kaiman decided to challenge Suozzi directly in the 2016 congressional primary. Kaiman lost.
He ran again in 2022, this time coming in behind Robert Zimmerman. That race had its own awkward angle: according to Long Island Press, Suozzi backed former Nassau County legislator Josh Lafazan in 2022 rather than Kaiman. Zimmerman won the primary but lost the general to former Rep. George Santos, a sequence that effectively set the stage for Suozzi’s own return to the seat in 2024.
None of that history derailed the hire.
“Tom Suozzi and I have traveled a long road together as allies, rivals and friends,” Kaiman said. “I am looking forward to joining with him on this journey.”
Suozzi’s statement returned the sentiment. “I have known Jon Kaiman as a friend and colleague for decades,” he said. “He knows our district inside and out and shares my philosophy of working with anyone of goodwill, Democrat or Republican, to get things done.”
That line isn’t just pleasantries. Suozzi has spent his 2026 term trying to position himself as a member who’ll cut deals across the aisle, a posture that’s gotten harder to maintain but one that shapes who he hires. Kaiman, who’s run governments under both parties’ oversight at the county and state level, fits that framing. His work chairing the Nassau County Interim Finance Authority, a control board that answers more to bond markets than to either party, probably matters more to Suozzi than old primary results.
Resources like the Congressional Research Service track congressional staffing patterns, and chief of staff hires at Kaiman’s experience level don’t happen every cycle. Most members can’t recruit someone with ten years running a town, a judgeship, a deputy county executive role, and a state agency chairmanship, all in the same district they’re representing. Suozzi can, and did.
The Long Island political world is small enough that old opponents end up at the same table eventually. Sometimes that’s awkward. This one, at least, comes with a job title.