What took you so long, gov?
The threat of a surging Republican challenger apparently jolted Gov. Kathy Hochul into pledging — on Election day — that she’d start working to turn around New York … “first thing tomorrow.”
During a last-ditch campaign stop on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Hochul insisted she’d sensed “so much electricity.”
“This city is back and I want to lead this state into the next four years and possibly beyond with a sense of optimism we have not had here in a long time,” she said, apparently ignoring recent polling that showed New Yorkers fearing subway and other violent crimes and worried about paying their bills amid rampant inflation.
“That will start first thing tomorrow morning,” vowed Hochul, who has been governor since August 2021.
The remarks from the incumbent Democrat — who took office after a sexual harassment scandal forced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resign — came when she was asked by a reporter to address voters “dismayed” by the race between her and GOP rival Lee Zeldin.
“It will be over tomorrow,” Hochul said, stating the obvious.
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“I will feel a lot better about this city when all the ads stop — truly this has an effect on people.”
Zeldin and the super PACs supporting him have targeted Hochul with a barrage of ads promoting his tough-on-crime campaign platform — and blamed her for the decline in public safety in the city and elsewhere.
Although Hochul enjoyed a 24-point polling edge over Zeldin in mid-August, the RealClearPolitics website last month revised its ranking of the race from “Leans Dem” to “Toss Up.”
The Cook Political Report followed by downgrading the probability of a Hochul victory from “solid” to “likely.”
Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than two-to-one in the deep-blue Empire State but many recent polls have showed the race to be a toss up.
