ABC News reports:

Monday’s bombshell report alleging infidelity and possible violations of House ethics rules by Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y., is rattling his reelection bid in a key Long Island district. But it’s not just New York’s 4th Congressional District that’s at stake.

D’Esposito, a former police detective, allegedly hired his longtime fiancée’s daughter and his mistress to work in his district office, jobs that received taxpayer-funded salaries, The New York Times reported Monday. The first-term lawmaker was already facing a tough reelection bid in a race that political handicappers rate a tossup as he wages a rematch against Democrat Laura Gillen, who he beat by less than 4 points in 2022.

D’Esposito’s district is one of over a dozen that President Joe Biden won in 2020 and is at the heart of the path to the House majority for either party — meaning that any slip-up could not just cost him his seat but also Republicans their already wafer-thin control of the chamber.

“This could be absolutely transformative and a real shot in the arm for the Democratic efforts to retake the House. The path back to power runs right through New York, and any shift in the political winds in any of these so-called Biden districts that are held by vulnerable Republicans could shake the math up. And Anthony D’Esposito just got that much more vulnerable,” said New York-based Democratic strategist Jon Reinish. [Continue reading…]