Tag: lee zeldin

Lee Zeldin ditches campaign treasurer he shared with lying George Santos

Former Rep. Lee Zeldin announced on Monday that he is starting a new political action committee without Nancy Marks, the longtime treasurer he shared with disgraced Rep. George Santos. 

“We will be announcing a new federal PAC that is being stood up right now utilizing a different treasurer,” Zeldin (R-NY) said at the New York State Conservative Party Political Action Conference in Albany, New York. 

Marks notified the Federal Election Commission last week that she had resigned from Santos’ (R-NY) campaign and his affiliated political committees. Her announcement came a week after the Santos campaign named a replacement who claims he didn’t agree to take the job amid the discovery of numerous campaign finance irregularities that appear to have caught the eye of federal investigators. 

“The treasurer has something like close to 200 different accounts,” Zeldin said, according to Politico, distancing himself from Marks.

“Our interaction has been through Marks’ daughters,” Zeldin added, acknowledging that his children attend the same Long Island school as Marks. 


George Santos admitted to The Post in December that his resume was mostly lies.
Alex Wong/Getty Images

Marks has served as Zeldin’s campaign treasurer since his 2010 election to represent parts of Suffolk County in the New York state Senate. She was recently listed as the treasurer for his failed 2022 campaign for governor of New York.

Marks did not respond to The Post’s requests for comment. 

Santos’ campaign finance disclosures have come under scrutiny since he admitted to The Post in December that he lied about almost his entire resume while on the campaign trail. 

One watchdog group called the campaign’s numerous expenditures recorded as costing $199.99 — a penny below the $200 threshold for FEC itemization — “statistically implausible” and a sign of “deliberately falsified” reporting.

A Queens-based relative of the Long Island Republican was “dumbfounded” when told by Mother Jones last week that they were listed as having made two $2,900 donations to the Santos campaign, denying they had made the donations. 

Santos’ team amended several campaign finance documents last month to show that a $500,000 loan he made to his 2022 congressional campaign didn’t come from “personal funds of the candidate.” It is unknown where those funds he lent his campaign came from. 

The flurry of activity by the campaign came as a lawyer for Thomas Datwyler, the man whom the Santos campaign listed as its new treasurer last month, said that Santos’ team named him treasurer without his authorization. 

The Justice Department has reportedly asked the FEC not to pursue enforcement action against Santos as it continues its criminal investigation into the disgraced lawmaker.

The guidance sent by the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section signals that federal prosecutors may be centering their probe into Santos on his campaign finances. 

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NY Gov. Kathy Hochul blasted for dancing maskless around masked school kids

Conservative critics of newly re-elected Governor Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., tore into her on Twitter after a recent video showed her happily dancing unmasked surrounded by dozens of masked kids in a Puerto Rican school.

Only days after her victory over Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., in the New York governor’s race, Hochul traveled down to Puerto Rico to provide aide to the U.S. territory’s victims of Hurricane Fiona.

During her trip, video of the governor visiting a local school went viral on Twitter. It depicted Hochul smiling and dancing with dozens of Puerto Rican schoolchildren.

Conservative critics of newly re-elected Governor Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., tore into her on Twitter after a recent video showed her happily dancing unmasked surrounded by dozens of masked kids in a Puerto Rican school.

Only days after her victory over Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., in the New York governor’s race, Hochul traveled down to Puerto Rico to provide aide to the U.S. territory’s victims of Hurricane Fiona.

During her trip, video of the governor visiting a local school went viral on Twitter. It depicted Hochul smiling and dancing with dozens of Puerto Rican schoolchildren.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul recently won re-election.
Getty Images

The RNC Research Twitter account slammed the re-elected New York governor, tweeting, “Here is Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul celebrating her re-election in the only way she knows how — forcing young children to wear masks.”

Conservative commentator Jason Howerton skewered Hochul, writing, “All the children are forced into masks while @GovKathyHochul and adults breathe freely. They’ve learned nothing. And why would they have? New York, you just elected this woman after witnessing the utter destruction of your state. You’ll get what you voted for.”

The Young Americans for Liberty Twitter account claimed, “Masks on the children. No mask for @GovKathyHochul. She’s special, you see. New York just elected Hochul for a full term as governor. A tyrant has been emboldened and New Yorkers are going to get what they voted for.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul was blasted for celebrating maskless with masked school children in Puerto Rico.
Twitter/@RNCResearch

Journalist Ian Miles Cheong tweeted, “Kathy Hochul visits a school in San Juan. She doesn’t wear a mask but all the kids have to. Know your betters, peasants.”

Social Worker Justin Spiro asked, “Why is Governor Hochul and nearly every adult maskless while nearly every child is masked? Is that the rule at this school in Puerto Rico?”

Conservative activist Charles Downs provided harsh comment on the governor’s antics, tweeting, “Kathy Hochul is just the worst! Over the next four years, New York City and the surrounding areas will turn into Seattle. Remember in Portland and Seattle: crime, ANTIFA, and all the crazy woke ideology make it into the suburbs. Democrats destroy states!”

Conservative and Grabien.com founder Tom Elliott tweeted, “Forcing kids to wear masks while you exploit them for your own political career. What shameful cruelty.”

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Lee Zeldin didn’t win, but he sent a message to Gov. Hochul

Obviously, a win is a win, and Gov. Hochul deserves New Yorkers’ goodwill as she prepares to begin her own full term in office. But look closely at the New York City results. GOP candidate Lee Zeldin did astoundingly well, and that’s with all his MAGA baggage. It’s a lesson for Hochul: She’d best heed what moderate swing voters told her Tuesday night on crime control and job growth.

With 97% of the vote in, Zeldin did what few people thought was possible a few months ago and came quite close to doing what a Republican state candidate needs to do to win statewide: e.g., winning 35% of the local vote.

Zeldin took 30% of the Gotham vote — 514,175 votes, to be exact, compared with Hochul’s 70% (1,180,993 votes).

No one would argue that Hochul didn’t landslide New York City, as per usual in a city with a seven-to-one ratio of registered Democrats vs. Republicans.

But Zeldin’s 30% vote share was twice that of the Republican candidate’s share four years ago. In 2018, GOP candidate Marc Molinaro got just 15% of the city’s vote, 318,000 ballots.

This election, Zeldin beat his predecessor candidate’s total vote count by 62%. And in a lower-turnout race, Zeldin doubled the share of the vote.

Gov. Kathy Hochul celebrates her victory over Republican challenger Rep. Lee Zeldin in the New York State gubernatorial race on Tuesday, November 8.
James Keivom

Where? Well, everywhere. On Staten Island, the city’s most conservative borough, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo eked out a tiny victory four years ago, 49 to 48. This time around, Zeldin won a double-digit margin, 67 to 33.

That may be expected, with Staten Island voters not as put off by President Donald Trump and his antics as the rest of the city is.

But in Brooklyn four years ago, Cuomo won 81 to 13 (third parties won the rest). This year, Zeldin earned a full 29% of the vote, to Hochul’s 71%.

In Queens in 2018, Cuomo won 78 to 18. This year, Zeldin garnered a full third of the vote, to Hochul’s two-thirds.

Supporters gather during an election night event for GOP gubernatorial hopeful Lee Zeldin.
Matthew McDermott

Even in The Bronx and Manhattan, Zeldin did relatively well. Four years ago, Molinaro earned just 8% and 10% of these respective borough’s votes. This year, Zeldin won 22% and 18% respectively.

It’s worth repeating: For a Republican to win nearly a quarter of the Bronx vote is a big deal. It’s not a big enough deal, of course. That and $6 will get Zeldin a latte this morning.

But Zeldin proved something important: New York City is what makes New York a one-party state, but even the Democratic city has its limits.

A member of the crowd holds up a sign supporting Zeldin for governor.
Matthew McDermott

Faced with far higher post-pandemic crime rates and a slow jobs recovery — Gotham is still missing 2% of its pre-pandemic jobs, while the country as a whole has recovered — some New York City Democrats will show their frustration at the voting booth.

Some city people who hate Trump and are angry at the Supreme Court’s abortion and gun-control decisions filled in the Republican bubble on their ballots anyway.

Actually, quite a lot of people did.

Statewide, too, the Legislature looks to have lost a couple Democratic members because of its moves, in recent years, toward the far left. Hochul ought to heed this sign, as she faces tremendous pressure from the left to double down on cashless bail and tax hikes.

Progressives will argue that they owe her: The left-wing Working Families party accounted for 11% of her vote this year, compared with just 4% of Cuomo’s in 2018. But Hochul wouldn’t have needed the far left had she kept the center.

Rep. Lee Zeldin, his running mate Alison Esposito and their families thank their supporters during election night.
Paul Martinka

Statewide, Hochul’s margin of victory over Zeldin was 53 to 47. Had Zeldin won another 5% of the city vote, he would have cut Hochul’s victory to 51%, far too close for comfort.

And presumably, such a GOP margin in New York City would bode poorly for the Democratic candidate in the rest of the state, too. This year, Zeldin easily won Long Island, a region Cuomo won four years ago.

So Zeldin sent Hochul a historic, and invaluable, message Tuesday night: Don’t take New York City Democrats for granted. Without clear progress on crime and the economy over the next four years, and with (let’s hope) the memory of Trump fading, New York remains in play, for the first time in more than a generation.

Nicole Gelinas is a contributing editor to the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal.

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NY Election Day 2022 live updates: Hochul-Zeldin governor race, other races


The increasingly tight race between Gov. Kathy Hochul and challenger Lee Zeldin has most New York voters focused on the top of the ticket — but they could also play a key role in deciding the balance of power in the House of Representatives. Nine of the races in New York’s 26 congressional districts are described as competitive by…

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Get out and vote for Lee Zeldin to save New York & its democracy

It’s crunch time: New York’s fate will be decided today.

To save the state — cap its bloody crime surge, reverse the endless tax hikes and stop the exodus to other states — you need to get out and vote for Rep. Lee Zeldin.

It’s the last chance to stop the insanity and end the one-party rule that has monopolized power, put special interests and lefty ideology ahead of the public’s needs and left New Yorkers poorer, less safe and more taxed.

Democrats rail about the “threat to democracy,” but what kind of democracy operates with just one party that has no check on its power? That’s what’s happened to New York.

This year offers the best shot in a long time to bring back a competitive, two-party system. But it won’t happen unless New Yorkers get to the polls and cast their votes for Zeldin and other Republicans all the way down the ballot.

If you believe Gov. Kathy Hochul’s claim — and not the statistics — that New York crime is just a myth spread by a “conspiracy” of “media manipulators,” vote for her.

If you’re delighted with failing schools, soaring utility bills, vanishing jobs and disgusting pay-to-play corruption, feel free to back Hochul.

But then, don’t dare complain about crime later, if she wins. Blame only yourself for the state’s continued downward spiral.

If, on the other hand, you want a safer, healthier, saner New York, you need to get out and vote for Zeldin & Co.

Zeldin has solid plans to make the state safe and affordable — so you don’t have to flee, as so many New Yorkers already have.

He’ll declare a “crime emergency” and suspend the state’s disastrous criminal-justice laws (cashless bail, etc.). 

He’ll immediately fire criminal-coddling Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for not enforcing the law.

Zeldin will give Mayor Adams the vital backup he needs against Albany radicals, who stand in the way of glaringly obvious common-sense solutions to crime.

New Yorkers can end Democrats’ one-party rule in the state by electing Zeldin.
Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images

He’ll take on teachers unions, making sure kids come first. And if union-dominated government schools don’t cut it, parents will be able to shift kids to free, non-union charter schools. Hochul, in thrall to the unions, opposes expanding charters.

Unlike the current governor, who sells her office to big-time campaign donors, Zeldin won’t even meet with contributors who have business before the state.

Hochul has gotten away with numerous corrupt deals, aided by endless COVID-19 state-of-emergency declarations, which gave her extra powers.

Zeldin will also end the constant tax hikes that saddle New Yorkers with the nation’s highest burden.

He’ll bring realism to the state’s energy plans, lifting the fracking ban and spawning jobs upstate; Hochul is recklessly ordering New York to quit fossil fuels before other reliable energy sources are available.

He’ll jump-start the economy, not by handing corporations billions of your dollars to operate here, as Hochul has, but by lowering taxes, easing regulations, squelching crime and making the state more attractive.

Most of all: Zeldin, a Republican, will provide a vital check on the left’s domination of the state government and the crazy, radical agenda it’s pushing on New York.

Let’s face it: The madness — crime, inflation, failing schools — won’t end unless New Yorkers say enough is enough and cast their ballots for Zeldin and the GOP.

But they’ll need every single vote they can get to win in deep blue New York. 

This could be voters’ last decent chance for a long time to restore democracy in the Empire State and save us from the fever of progressive politics that has gripped Democrats for too long.

This is New York’s only hope. Don’t let it pass us by

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Early voting in NYC anemic for Hochul until Clintons, VP Harris arrival

Turnout during the nine days of early voting in overwhelmingly Democratic New York City was light — and experts say the lack of early enthusiasm could portend trouble for incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Hochul, who was forced to call in the cavalry — Bill and Hillary Clinton and President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris — in a bid to wake up slumbering New York Democrats the past week is in the political fight of her life against surging Republican challenger Lee Zeldin.

A total of 432,634 voters turned out early in the five boroughs even as both public and internal polls have showed a very tight race.

“The lack of enthusiasm for the Hochul campaign is validated by these mediocre [early voting] numbers,” said political consultant Hank Sheinkopf.

“Zeldin has a higher possibility of winning based on these numbers.”

One Democratic strategist said of the turnout, “This race is a jump ball.”

Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks during her “Get Out The Vote” rally at Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, New York.
Ron Adar/Shutterstock

New York City’s cumulative turnout by the seventh day of early voting, Friday, stood at just 33.7% of the early turnout when compared to the presidential election in 2020.

Breaking the alarm glass seems to have worked a little — as turnout across the five boroughs picked up a bit over the weekend.

By the time early voting had ended on Sunday, the turnout had jumped five percentage points — still just 38.6% of the 2020 turnout when 1.19 million people voted early in the fiercely contested 2020 presidential election between President Biden and former President Donald Trump.

Hochul brought out President Biden to try and energize voters ahead of Election Day.
Steve Sands/NewYorkNewswire/Baue

Early turnout was dreadful in heavily Democrat The Bronx, where only 39,069 residents voted — just 3,000 more votes than cast in GOP-led Staten Island, which has just about a third of The Bronx’s population.

Brooklyn registered 135,239 votes, followed by Manhattan with 133,618, Queens with 88,840, the Bronx with 39,069 and Staten Island with 35,868.

Zeldin told The Post Monday that turnout and enthusiasm for Hochul is light in many of the city’s Democratic strongholds while he’s generating enthusiastic support.

“It’s a big issue for Hochul, I don’t know if she’s gonna be able to recover from this tomorrow. The turnout in certain areas where she was expecting a higher turnout just wasn’t there,” Zeldin said.

“Zeldin has a higher possibility of winning based on these numbers.”
AFP via Getty Images

“We’ve seen the enthusiasm gap for awhile — it’s shown themselves in different respects. While she was rallying a few days ago with Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris, we had 10 times as many people showing up at a rally in the capital region. There’s clearly a big energy gap and enthusiasm gap between the two campaigns.

“She just didn’t get the numbers that she needed from some of these boroughs. There are certain groups inside of the boroughs that just didn’t show up. And we’re not seeing anything today that is lighting a fuse amongst those people who had just not shown up.”

State Conservative Party chairman Jerry Kassar said that by contrast, the early voter turnout rate was stronger in Zeldin’s base in Long Island’s Nassau and Suffolk counties than in Democratic-leaning New York City where Hochul needs to run up the score.

But State Democratic Party chairman Jay Jacobs, a key Hochul adviser, insisted the turnout was good for Hochul and the Democratic ticket.

Jacobs said New York City typically accounts for about a third of the vote in statewide elections. He said it was at 27% of the early vote total and was hopeful to at least hit that mark during the final vote on Tuesday.

A total of 432,634 voters turned out early in the five boroughs.
AP

“We feel very good. We’ll see what happens when the polls close on Tuesday,” Jacobs said.

Sources said government workers and black voters historically tend to vote on Election Day, which could boost the turnout for Hochul. But many Republican-leaning voters also prefer to vote on Election Day.

Hochul and the Democratic ticket do have a big advantage when it comes to absentee ballots, a Post review of state and city election data reveals.

The state Board of Elections reported that 62% or 349,087 of the 564,318 absentee ballots requested by voters statewide were from registered Democrats. Only 20% or 111,744 were requested by Republicans and 17% or 96,288 were requested by independents.

Of the 327,886 absentee ballots returned thus far, 200,243 were from Democrats, 72,495 from Republicans and 50,604 from independents.

The overwhelming number of absentee ballots requested in New York City were from Democrats — 171,188 of 219,228.

Thus far, 83,582 of the 102,923 paper ballots received by the local elections board were from Democrats.

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Zeldin won’t let hecklers stop his anti-crime remarks at site of NYC rape

Hecklers tried to disrupt a Friday appearance by Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin in Manhattan  — but their shouts failed to silence his anti-crime broadsides against Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.

During a news conference near the scene of the Thursday morning rape of a tourist jogging in Hudson River Park, Zeldin said, “It is important that we are doing everything in our power to make our streets and our subway safe.”

“Now, unfortunately, Kathy Hochul doesn’t want to be here talking about these issues,” he said. “She wants to send her supporters to make sure that we aren’t talking about fighting crime.”

Zeldin also blasted Hillary Clinton for accusing Republicans of trying to keep voters “scared” while she campaigned for Hochul with Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday night.

In response to a question from The Post, Zeldin said Clinton and Hochul should be telling New Yorkers, “I understand your concerns. I want to do absolutely everything in my power to be able to fix it. Here are my solutions and I’m committed to getting it done.”

“But instead, a strategic decision was made by them, that they didn’t want to talk about crime, that they wanted to talk about other issues,” he said.

“Why is it that the polls are close? What you are hearing right now is why the polls are close. Last night, when you listened to that rally, that is why the polls are close.”

Although the small band of protesters from the progressive “Rise and Resist” group made noise throughout Zeldin’s 20-minute appearance, he managed at one point to get them to change their tactics.

When Zeldin said, “They want to drown out the conversation,” the activists instead started cheering and clapping.

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Va. history repeating in NY, … and other commentary

Conservative: Va. History Repeating in NY?

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe likely lost the 2021 election with his debate declaration, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” Now, argues the Washington Examiner’s Hugo Gurdon, Gov. “Hochul may have just gifted deep blue New York to her challenger” with her debate flub, when Rep. Lee Zeldin noted she “hasn’t talked about locking up anyone committing any crimes” and she replied “I don’t know why that is so important to you.” Like McAuliffe’s gaffe, Gurdon notes, it was a “crystalline statement of Democratic insouciance toward ordinary people’s interests.” So: “It can be no surprise” that the polling “trend is fast against” Hochul. If Zeldin wins, “McAuliffe can take consolation in the thought that he isn’t alone in his Olympian blundering.”

Budget watch: Hochul Hiding Red Ink

“Governor Hochul’s budget office has yet to release the statutorily required mid-year financial plan update,” huffs the Empire Center’s Peter Warren. State law requires its release by Oct. 30. Why the delay? Likely because it holds “grim news” reflecting the “economic and financial market downturn.” The Aug. 1 update “projected a sea of red ink in the coming years, with deficits exceeding $6 billion by FY 2027.” By “signing the Green CHIPS legislation” a few days later, Hochul added “another roughly $500 million per year to the outyear annual deficits.” Voters should be able “to see the full impact on the state’s finances of both broad economic and market conditions, and specific policy decisions made by elected officials.” That’s why the law requires them “by a date certain.”

From the left: Big Brother’s Watching You Vote

TKNews’ Matt Taibbi flags the rise of mailers aiming “to remind people voting records are public, and whether they vote next week will be public record.” Some are handwritten with a signature; one creeped-out recipient says, “It feels threatening, as if a neighbor is keeping track of who has or has not voted.” Indeed, Taibbi reports, “the word ‘Orwellian’ came up more than once in interviews” on “so-called social shaming mailers.” Yet the practice “is likely to increase even more in the future” because it works. “Is Big Brother watching? If the wrong party loses next week, someone in your neighborhood probably will be. Welcome to 21st century electioneering.”

Eye on elex: Dems’ Dead-Parrot Denialism

“It’s never a good idea to tell people that what they see before them isn’t real,” warns The Wall Street Journal’s Gerard Baker, recalling the classic Monty Python “dead parrot” sketch. On key issues, “Democratic candidates across the country are performing an uncanny impersonation of the shopkeeper in the sketch who insists that the deceased bird is in fact not deceased, but ‘just resting’ and ‘pinin’ for the fjords.’ ” President Biden, for one, calls the economy “strong as hell,” yet inflation is “rapidly eroding real wages.” And Gov. Hochul’s “I don’t know why” locking up criminals is “so important to you” remark, Baker contends, shows “a detachment from the reality in which so many of her fellow New Yorkers live.”

Populist: GOP Must Learn From Musk

Elon Musk’s top challenge at Twitter “is changing the culture of this large organization without interrupting its business,” Bruce Abramson explains at RealClearPolitics, and “it’s a task at which President Trump failed. Trump often complained about the politicization and corruption of federal agencies . . . but he had zero perceptible impact on the culture of the federal bureaucracy.” Learn from Musk’s “first moves. He immediately removed key members of Twitter’s leadership, including its CEO, CFO, policy head, and general counsel,” axing “the highest profile senior people most identified with Twitter’s culture.” Then he “denied the rumors that he intended to fire three out of every four employees — without providing details about his actual intentions. The combined message is exactly right: Twitter culture is about to change in a significant way. If you’re competent in your job and on board with the shift, we’d be pleased to have you stay.”

Compiled by The Post Editorial Board

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Why New York Democrats should vote for Republican Lee Zeldin

There are a lot of New Yorkers whose parents and grandparents never voted for a Republican, who have themselves never voted for a Republican, and who have long planned to go to their graves never having voted for a Republican. Listen, I get it — I was like that, too, not long ago. But hear me out and consider what the stakes are, here and now, in our once-grand city and state. 

New York is no longer controlled by the Democrats of yesteryear. Hugh Carey, Mario Cuomo, Ed Koch, and even David Dinkins would be aghast at what’s happening right now in the name of their party. They were sensible, pragmatic leaders who were willing squarely to face decline, decay, and despair, call it out for what it was, and demand that we fight against the forces of entropy to build a New York worthy of being called the Empire State, and New York City the Greatest City in the World. 

Kathy Hochul, flanked by other career Democrats Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler, will not challenge the left-wing stranglehold in Albany.
ZUMAPRESS.com
Efforts by New York State Democrats to “out-progressive” one another have resulted in sky-rocketing crime, particularly in New York City.
Christopher Sadowski

No more. Look at who’s in charge in Albany. Kathy Hochul was a washed-up upstate nobody when Andrew Cuomo plucked her from obscurity because he needed a woman on his ticket—preferably one who would never upstage him. Little did anyone guess he would stumble into scandal and we’d wind up with a tool of the Erie County machine running the state. 

New York is now run as a one-party state, and the problem when one party is in charge is that the usual moderating effects of the primary-and-general election system break down. Typically, candidates can run to the extremes in the primary, but can’t go too far out there because they have to come back towards the center in November. But when the general election is an afterthought, then party extremists tend to dominate the primaries. 

Video outtakes from a random, unprovoked subway pushing earlier this month in Brooklyn.
DCPI

That’s what’s happened in New York. There’s no longer such a thing as being too far to the left, and longtime liberal elected officials tremble in fear that they will be “primaried” by a progressive. Then, a few years later, the progressives get called hacks and sellouts, and are taken out by Democratic Socialists who promise to defund the police, abolish jails and prisons, and seize private property for which they can imagine better uses.  

This game of ideological leapfrog will lead us straight off a cliff.  

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is one of many soft-on-crime politicians who could lose their jobs if Zeldin becomes governor.
Gabriella Bass

Kathy Hochul is no ideologue, but she doesn’t have the backbone to stand up against the crazies in her party. The criminal justice “reforms” of 2019 have created a public safety disaster in New York City, where violent crime and street disorder are off the charts. The people in power know this, which is why they are lying about it so persistently, demanding that we stop looking with our eyes, and substitute their fudged, partial data for our own common sense. 

Governor Hochul could have done something about bail reform last spring, but she didn’t want to anger the left wing of her party. She could have done something about discovery reform, which has hamstrung district attorneys around the state, but she preferred to sneak through a massive stadium giveaway to the folks back home. 

Zeldin rides the subway to his debate with Hochul, who has said she will pick up the cost of some NYPD overtime shifts to help protect New Yorkers underground.
James Keivom

It was only after the latest polls showed that Lee Zeldin was gaining on her that Hochul ventured down into the subway system (standing outside the turnstile, I should add) and promised to pick up the cost of some overtime shifts so the NYPD can — fingers crossed! — dissuade tomorrow’s maniac from throwing a stranger onto the tracks.  

New York is spiraling. There is a huge fiscal crunch looming, the state is losing taxpayers, and the current leadership refuses to admit that we have a problem. Electing Kathy Hochul is only going to confirm her deluded sense of fitness for the job and solidify the current downward direction of the state’s affairs. 

Zeldin and Hochul take to the debate floor earlier this week. Extending Hochul’s unelected tenure would likely cause even more New Yorkers to flee the state — taking their tax dollars with them.
AP

Lee Zeldin may not be your idea of a fun night on the town, but there is no question that he will apply the brakes on this slow-motion train wreck. He will provide counterweight to the extremists in the legislature. He will fire Alvin Bragg and any other DA who refuses to do their job. He is not going to do anything — he can’t do anything — about abortion in New York, whatever Hochul says, and everyone knows it. The right to choose is enshrined in our laws. Meanwhile, making an issue of Zeldin’s support for Trump is, frankly, sour grapes and a distraction on Hochul’s part. Anyone who hates Trump enough to let Hochul destroy New York over it has bigger problems — it’s like burning down your house because you ran out of milk.

The wheels have come off this clown car, and the clowns seem happy to let the car careen down the hill. We can’t go on this way much longer. New York Democrats, this is no time for ballot purity. This state of emergency demands that you look beyond party identification and vote against the candidate who is running us into oblivion. 

Seth Barron is managing editor of The American Mind and author of “The Last Days of New York.”



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Zeldin, Stefanik slam Hochul over gas car ban, denying NYers ‘right to choose’

WASHINGTON — Seven of New York’s Republican members of Congress ripped Gov. Kathy Hochul Friday for attempting to take away the “right to choose” by banning the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035.

A letter organized by upstate Rep. Elise Stefanik and signed by gubernatorial candidate Rep. Lee Zeldin demands that Hochul abandon the plan, citing the prospect of higher costs and fewer consumer options if it takes effect.

“In addition to the fact that this policy will drive up prices each New Yorker must pay for their vehicles, you are also taking away their right to choose what vehicle they want to drive,” the letter says.

“Instead of picking winners and losers from Albany, you should be working to enhance consumer choice and empower New Yorkers to decide how they want to spend their hard-earned money. We urge you reverse this decision and put the needs of all New Yorkers first.”

Hochul’s office did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

Stefanik told The Post “electric vehicles will not serve our communities well, especially because families in my district often have to commute over an hour each way to work” and suggested that the regulation was part of a broader agenda that “shamelessly prioritizes the needs of New York’s urban cities over our hardworking rural communities.”

Zeldin previously accused Gov. Hochul of hypocrisy for seeking to ban gas-powered cars while using state helicopters and planes.
Dennis A. Clark

Hochul faces a tighter-than-expected contest against Zeldin going into the Nov. 8 election. The RealClearPolitics average of recent polls shows Hochul beating the Long Island congressman by just 6.1%, despite President Biden carrying the state by more than 23 percentage points in 2020.

Zeldin previously accused Hochul of hypocrisy for seeking to ban gas-powered cars while using state helicopters and planes 140 times in seven months.

Biden on Thursday visited Syracuse to boost Hochul ahead of Election Day with an event touting plans by the company Micron to build a $100 billion factory generating 9,000 jobs in Syracuse.

At the event, Hochul described herself as “the first upstate governor in 100 years” and said she understood the region’s economic woes as globalization caused high unemployment and stagnation in former industrial areas.

Gov. Hochul is facing a tighter-than-expected contest against Zeldin going into the Nov. 8 election.
Don Pollard

But the Stefanik-led letter says Hochul’s electric vehicle mandate, announced on Sept. 29 to align New York with California’s policies, is more representative of concerns in New York City, where fewer people need to drive.

“Forcing New Yorkers to purchase EVs in 2035 will cause significant financial hardship to the average consumer. Over the last year, electric vehicle prices have skyrocketed approximately 56.7[%], while hybrid and plug-in hybrid cars rose 30.5[%],” the letter says.

“The New York Independent System Operator predicts that approximately 7.7 million EVs will be on the road in New York by 2040, with 160,000 vehicles registered in the state by the end of 2022.

“These EVs are primarily located in the greater New York City area, and it is clear your proposed EV mandate panders to downstate priorities instead of working for all New Yorkers,” the letter to Hochul read. “Rural communities in Upstate New York and the North Country rely on vehicles at much high rates than the urban areas in and around New York City.”

The letter points to a February audit from the New York State Comptroller of the New York Power Authority (NYPA) that found the authority had put EV charging stations in just 32 of 62 counties.

“This out-of-touch mandate will further inhibit New York rural communities’ ability to prosper and maintain stable economies,” the letter says.

Republican Reps. Claudia Tenney, John Katko, Chris Jacobs, Andrew Garbarino, and Joe Sempolinski signed the letter. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, who represents Staten Island and southern Brooklyn, was the lone New York House Republican not to sign.

The Biden administration is pushing federal policies to lower the cost and improve the ease of using electric vehicles. Last year’s $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law included $7.5 billion to build a national network of electric vehicle charging stations and the administration is beginning to disburse funds to install charging stations every 50 miles along major highways.

Stefanik told The Post “electric vehicles will not serve our communities well, especially because families in my district often have to commute over an hour each way to work.”
Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/S

Biden’s $437 billion environmental and healthcare spending bill signed in August included $7,500 in tax credits for buyers of new electric cars.

Hochul cited the threat of global warming when announcing the state’s plan to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars, pickup trucks, and SUVs within 13 years.

“Governor Kathy Hochul today commemorated National Drive Electric Week by directing the State Department of Environmental Conservation to take major regulatory action that will require all new passenger cars, pickup trucks, and SUVs sold in New York State to be zero emissions by 2035,” a press release from her office said.

“This is a crucial regulatory step to achieving significant greenhouse gas emission reductions from the transportation sector and is complemented by new and ongoing investments also announced today, including electric vehicle infrastructure progress, zero-emission vehicle incentives, and ensuring New York’s communities benefit from historic federal climate change investments,” Hochul’s release said.

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