New York Democrats should forget about Nor’easters and instead batten down the hatches for the coming red wave this election year.
Like meteorologists tracking winds, political pundits are saying all the signs are there nationally. Inflation is at its highest point in 40 years. Questionable mask, vaccination and public school mandates relating to COVID have parents worrying about their kids increasingly falling behind. And Biden’s election promise of bringing the country together has veered off course from the Dems traditional center-left thinking further to the far left.
But can this coming red wave happen in good old New York, a bastion of the Democratic Party?
There are signs that U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Long Island), the presumptive GOP gubernatorial candidate, would be a formidable opponent against Gov. Kathy Hochul, the likely Democratic candidate in the November General Election.
Zeldin, 41, grew up on Long Island and is a combat army veteran, who served in the State Senate before getting elected to Congress in 2015. A Jewish Republican, he has a strong Long Island base and although Democrats will be sure to attack his center-right conservative views, the governor’s race could well turn on how Democrats are running the state.
Currently, Zeldin and the state’s top Republicans are hammering home how people are leaving the state amid a record state budget, high property taxes and overreaching criminal justice and bail reforms that have contributed to the rise in crime.
“Governor Hochul’s support is a mile wide and an inch deep. I think she’s the definition of that type of support,” said New York State Conservative Party Chair Jerry Kassar. “She polls fine, but you have to look at polling, from the perspective of what the depth of her actual support is – the intensity, and I just don’t see any intensity there.”
Kassar said that for a Republican to win the governor’s race they need to carry at least 29% of New York City. Pataki won the governorship carrying 31% to 33%, Kassar said.
The point was carried home from Zeldin who noted after she met Friday with Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg – infamous with his memo vowing not to prosecute those allegedly committing a non-violent felony crime.
“Kathy Hochul’s statement following her meeting with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was pathetically weak. She didn’t fire Alvin Bragg. She didn’t denounce his memo or even disagree with any part of it. Think about that! In fact, Alvin Bragg said they have a ‘shared vision’,” said Zeldin.
“It’s no surprise she was the last person in St. Patrick’s Cathedral to join in today’s standing ovation for NYPD Officer Jason Rivera’s widow, Dominique, when she called for strengthening public safety laws and singled out Alvin Bragg. DA Bragg needs to be removed ASAP, but Hochul has revealed herself as a stooge of the far-left who is too scared to even simply criticize Bragg for his refusal to enforce the law,” he added.
For a Republican to take the governor’s mansion in New York is no easy task, but the political winds are changing. Democrats that don’t take heed and move to a more center ground do so at their own peril.
