⛽Jeanine Driscoll Dismisses High Gas Prices as Long Islanders Pay 44% More At The Pump

She didn’t stop at gas. Driscoll also claimed there’s “not much we can do about” the housing crisis but groceries, she allowed, are “still somewhat expensive.” Meanwhile, Long Island seniors “are paring back grocery purchases and postponing repairs” because of skyrocketing costs.

Unlike Driscoll, Laura Gillen knows that Long Islanders are feeling pain at the pump and “has pushed several measures aimed at reducing the cost of getting to work.” In Congress, she’s introduced legislation to let workers deduct thousands of dollars in commuting expenses and worked to allow rideshare and taxi drivers to deduct more costs from their taxes.

DCCC Spokesperson Riya Vashi:
“Long Islanders paying nearly twice as much to fill their gas tanks need someone fighting to lower their costs, not a fraud who goes on cable news to wave away their concerns. Laura Gillen is fighting tooth and nail to get costs down for Nassau families, which is why they will soundly reelect her in November.”

Courier New York: Jeanine Driscoll downplays gas prices as Long Islanders pay 44% more

The Republican challenging Rep. Laura Gillen told Newsmax that gas prices barely come up on the campaign trail, even as Long Island drivers pay $1.32 more per gallon than they did a year ago.

• Jeanine Driscoll, the Republican challenging Democratic Rep. Laura Gillen in Long Island’s 4th Congressional District, said gas prices rarely come up when she talks with Nassau County voters.
• On the campaign trail, Driscoll said, “People really are not complaining that much about the price of gas.” Speaking in an interview on Newsmax’s “Saturday Agenda” on Oct. 10, she added that voters are “intelligent enough to realize why we are paying more right now” and that she believes the price “is going to come down.”
• The numbers tell a different story. Regular gas in the Nassau-Suffolk area averaged $4.34 a gallon on Tuesday, according to AAA’s daily price tracker, up from $3.02 a year ago, an increase of roughly 44%. Diesel has climbed to an average of $6.54 a gallon, within striking distance of the region’s all-time high of $6.65, set in May 2022.
• The surge followed President Donald Trump’s war with Iran.
• This spring, Fox News and Newsmax personalities urged viewers to accept higher prices as a patriotic sacrifice and predicted they would fall quickly. Driscoll struck a similar note on the same network.
• She downplayed other costs, too.
• Driscoll named Nassau’s steep home prices as the biggest affordability concern for Long Islanders, then added, “It’s not much we can do about that, though.” Groceries, she conceded, are “still somewhat expensive.”
• Long Islanders describe a sharper squeeze. Seniors across the region are paring back grocery purchases and postponing repairs, Newsday reported. “I can’t buy as much as I used to food-wise. The meat is too much,” Aida Mieles, an 82-year-old Freeport resident, told the paper.
• Gillen, a first-term Democrat, has pushed several measures aimed at reducing the cost of getting to work. 
• “With the rising price of gas, LIRR fares and the NYC congestion tax, working families are left with no affordable way to get to their jobs,” Gillen said in a statement announcing the bill.
• In June, Gillen joined Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D) and Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Long Island) in urging the Trump administration to raise IRS mileage rates, which would let rideshare drivers and others who drive for work deduct more per mile on their taxes as fuel costs climb.
• Gillen has also taken direct aim at Driscoll on costs. “Jeanine Driscoll has no problem with you paying high prices for gas and groceries,” she wrote in a post on X on Oct. 13.
• Driscoll’s campaign did not respond to Courier New York’s request for comment.