By Gabriela Resto-Montero
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER EAST SIDE — The race is on in the Republican primary for the East Side Congressional seat.
Dino LaVerghetta, a 28-year-old attorney and Upper East Side resident, will face upstart Ryan Brumberg in the primary on a platform of limited government.
LaVerghetta announced his run two months before Brumberg. The Republican Party is expected to make an endorsement later this month.
"I'm a libertarian at heart and I think most New Yorkers are," LaVerghetta said. "I believe in less government involvement in private lives and economic lives and there's usually not a good choice between those two."
The winner of the Republican primary will face either incumbent Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney or her challenger, Reshma Saujani in the November election.
Saujani's focus on the economy and business innovation will prime voters to his message of helping small businesses in the general election, LaVerghetta said.
"We can get the Blue Dog Dems to vote for us," he said.
Maloney has received endorsments from President Barack Obama, the AFL-CIO, Planned Parenthood among other supporters.
In the past few months, she passed the Credit Card Holder bill of rights and the landmark health care bill.
Maloney also raised $2 million for her campaign, a figure LaVerghetta said he does not expect to reach.
While LaVerghetta supports traditional Republican issues of balancing the budget and reducing taxes, LaVerghetta also advocates repealing federal Don't Ask, Don't Tell laws that prevent Gay Americans from openly serving in the military.
LaVerghetta, a native of Mahopac, N.Y., went to Boston University and received his law degree from New York University. He'll take a leave of absence from his job at the firm Debvoise and Plimpton after the primary.
His focus on small business stems from growing up at his dad's pizza parlor, Dino's, in Westchester.
"Thinking about small businesses is very important and they have to be a part of any economic plan," he said.
LaVerghetta's focus on small businesses led him to criticize Rep. Maloney's support of the Health Care bill not just along federal spending lines but specifically on the bill's tax of indoor tanning.
The support of tanning salons against the tax raised $1,000 for his campaign.
