Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-N.Y.) has seen her lead evaporate in recent weeks. In an effort to counter the prevailing narrative (and reality) that she is weak on crime, her campaign cut an ad touting her alleged crime credentials. But some Democrat state officials are calling her out for being disingenuous.
“When she had the power to really address these things to make New York safe, she didn’t,” one Democratic state senator told the New York Post.
Another Democrat said that Hochul caved to the radical wing of the party by retreating on rolling back New York’s controversial bail reform law.
“She was afraid of the far left,” the Democrat state senator said.
Related: The Crime Issue Is Driving the NY Governor’s Race and the GOP Is Benefiting
On Tuesday, Hochul responded to criticism that she didn’t start campaigning on the issue of crime until after she had lost a lot of ground to Zeldin in recent polls.
“We changed the bail laws in the budget in March. We did a lot when there was a massacre in Buffalo and the overturning of the Supreme Court decision of the concealed carry laws,” she claimed. “So, I think if you look at our history of all the advisories we’ve put out, the countless times we’ve been out there talking about crime, it is not a fair assessment to say that we’re out here now, because I’ve been doing this for the entire year.”
Zeldin, however, says Hochul has been MIA on the issue of crime and is only discussing it now to try to save her campaign.
“Now she’s decided, because she wants to save Kathy Hochul, that she’s going to start talking about crime,” Zeldin said during an appearance on Fox News on Monday. “We’ve been talking about crime because we’ve been talking about wanting to save the state.”
Zeldin also pointed out that Hochul hasn’t talked about fixing cashless bail, firing DAs for not following the law, how the Halt Act has led to more attacks on prison staff, or how the Less is More Act has let thousands of criminals go free.
“The pro-criminal law list goes on,” Zeldin explained. “She’s not proposing rolling back any of it. Instead, she’s trying to just get herself a two-way, two-week bridge to get over the November 8 election. But the problem for her is that the voters are smarter than she gives them credit for. They see right through it.”
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