A retired Manhasset Marine has become the first to enter the race for U.S. Rep. Steve Israel’s Congressional seat representing New York’s third district.
First-time Republican candidate Lt. Col. David “Bull” Gurfein, a Great Neck native, announced his candidacy to replace Israel in a news release Wednesday afternoon, a day after the Melville Democrat said he wouldn’t seek re-election in November.
“I am running because I am concerned about the world in which my daughter, Avery, will be growing up,” Gurfein said in a statement. “Seeing the turmoil that is occurring at home and abroad, I feel obligated and compelled to take action and have a positive impact.”
A Great Neck South High School graduate, Gurfein enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1982, serving tours of duty in Panama, the First Gulf War and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
He retired a lieutenant colonel, got an M.B.A. from Harvard University and started a business career, working with Goldman Sachs and Bay Shore-based MV Sport & WeatherProof.
Gurfein re-enlisted as a Marine after the 9/11 attacks, serving tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Before retiring, he was a congressional liaison for NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander in Europe and the U.S. Special Operations Command.
Matthew Kirincic, Gurfein’s campaign manager, said his military and foreign policy experience is “a big part” of his candidacy.
His campaign’s website elucidates a vision for “one America remaining strong so as to maintain peace and stability throughout the world.”
“He sees a desperate need for problem solvers and global leadership in Congress, and I think he is very, very well qualified to provide both,” Kirincic said.
Gurfein has been exploring a run for Congress since September, and his team has raised $250,000 since then, Kirincic said.
Gurfein’s campaign has been working “very closely” with the National Republican Congressional Committee, Krincic said, the GOP’s House campaign group that named him one of its “Young Guns” last year.
Nassau County GOP spokesman said the party wouldn’t comment on individual candidates, but added there’s “a lot of interest” in the district, which stretches from Whitestone, Queens, to Kings Park and extends as far south as Farmingdale.
While at Great Neck South, Gurfein led the school’s football team to its only undefeated season and helped retire its Confederate flag.
Kirincic said Gurfein is dedicated to his home communities on the North Shore and feels representing them on the federal level is “his next calling.”
“The same parades that he marched in coming home as a Marine were the same parades growing up that he watched his father in,” Kirincic said.
No Democrats have declared candidacy for Israel’s seat, but party figures have named North Hempstead Councilwoman Anna Kaplan (D-Great Neck), state Assemblyman Charles Lavine (D-Glen Cove) and Suffolk County Legislator Steve Stern (D-Dix Hills) as possible candidates.
