Democrats are digging deep in a last-minute effort to salvage the foundering reelection campaign of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D). They are calling on Vice President Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton to join Hochul and New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday as part of a final push to fend off surging Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY).
Send in the clowns.https://t.co/8oVOM4BIEV
— Grace Curley (@G_CURLEY) November 2, 2022
The New York Times reported on Sunday that the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) has also decided to send money to the Hochul campaign in the eleventh hour after initially choosing to not spend any money in the presumed-to-be-safe New York race.
The DGA has not disclosed the amount it is devoting to the Hochul campaign in the final week before Election Day, but it is obviously suddenly concerned with preventing what would amount to a major upset. A Zeldin win would be at least as momentous as the unexpected victory of Virginia Gov. Glenn Younkin (R) last year over heavily favored Democrat Terry McAuliffe.
A new poll conducted by the Trafalgar Group was published late Monday that shows Zeldin is ahead of Hochul for the first time among likely voters, 48.4% to 47.6%. Only 4% of respondents said they remain undecided. The poll surveyed 1198 likely voters across the state between October 27 and 31. The margin of error is 2.9%.
Zeldin said in a press statement in response to the latest poll: “Crime Wave Kathy is driving New York right off a cliff.” He reiterated some of his campaign pledges, including repealing cashless bail and firing progressive pro-criminal Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on his first day in office.
He added that New Yorkers are “sick and tired of the attacks on our wallets, safety, freedom and kids’ education.”
The latest poll comes soon after Hochul was roundly criticized for telling MSNBC that the concerns Americans are expressing about rising crime are all part of a national “conspiracy” cooked up by Republicans as “master manipulators.”
She also accused Zeldin and members of the GOP who have questioned her soft-on-crime approach as being “data deniers.”
Zeldin has charged hard as Election Day approaches, making up and eliminating a nearly 20 percentage point lead Hochul held in polls over the summer months.
Suffolk County GOP Chair Jesse Garcia said of his candidate’s surge: “If we’re talking about the greatest closers it’s Mariano Rivera and Lee Zeldin.” Rivera is a Baseball Hall of Fame relief pitcher and an all-time great for the New York Yankees.
