ICYMI: New York Times: Hungry for Cash, Zeldin Turns to Trump in N.Y. Governor’s Race
Recent polls demonstrate Trump’s unpopularity in New York, with 63% of New Yorkers holding an unfavorable view of the former president. Just this week, Trump called to be reinstated as president and said he would pardon the rioters who carried out an insurrection on our nation’s Capitol on January 6.
Highlights from the story below:
New York Times: Hungry for Cash, Zeldin Turns to Trump in N.Y. Governor’s Race
by Nicholas Fandos, 9/2/22
Republicans running statewide in a Democrat-dominated state like New York often follow a predictable path toward the political center. On Sunday, though, Representative Lee Zeldin will take a different route — south to the Jersey Shore for a fund-raiser starring former President Donald J. Trump.
The high-profile rendezvous, at the palatial seaside retreat of old Trump real estate friends, has already prompted days of Democratic attacks against Mr. Zeldin, the Republican nominee for governor. […]
Yet with just nine weeks to go until Election Day, Mr. Zeldin is at risk of being dangerously outspent by Ms. Hochul, a critical impediment to meaningfully compete in the nation’s most expensive media market.
As summer wanes, that possibility has sent Mr. Zeldin on a furious fund-raising swing from the Hamptons to Lake Erie (one event featured a jet suit demonstration) hunting for cash.
And at a time when some party strategists are calling on him to moderate his stances on issues like guns or abortion, it has driven the congressman to tighten his links to right-wing heroes like Mr. Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who have the notoriety to bring out big new donors, but nonetheless could turn off New York swing voters. […]
Not even Mr. Zeldin’s closest allies argue he will be able to match Ms. Hochul’s campaign juggernaut, which is on track to leverage her powers as governor to raise between $50 million and $70 million in the race and to begin blanketing the airwaves starting next week with an initial $2 million TV and digital ad buy targeting Mr. Zeldin.
But to compete, they say he needs to raise at least another $10 million to $20 million, multiples more than recent Republican candidates for governor, after a costly primary burned up almost all his funds, and left him with just over $1.5 million in the bank by mid-July.
Doing so is no easy task, particularly when it comes to convincing the kind of shrewd, deep-pocketed Republican donors — who are also weighing involvement in tighter Senate, House and governor’s races across the country — that a conservative candidate can buck history and overcome New York’s strong Democratic tilt. […]
Despite Republican optimism, an August Siena College poll showed Ms. Hochul with a 14-point lead. And a recent special congressional election in the Hudson Valley, won by a Democrat, Pat Ryan, suggested that what once looked like a historically good year for Republican candidates may be less assured.
It is unclear how much help Mr. Zeldin may get from Republicans outside New York. The Republican Governors Association, the clearinghouse for chief executive races across the country, is capable of spending millions in races it believes it can win and appears poised as of now to take a pass financially on Mr. Zeldin’s cause.
During one recent briefing, officials for the group outlined 18 states they were focused on and prepared to spend tens of millions of dollars in this fall, including Arizona, Georgia, Ohio, Oregon, Connecticut, Minnesota, Texas and Wisconsin, according to a person familiar with the presentation. They made no mention of New York, or Mr. Zeldin. […]
Democrats have already used the event to renew familiar attacks against Mr. Zeldin as a far-right puppet of the former president whose views — including a House vote to overturn 2020 election results — are too extreme for the state.
“Zeldin will do and say whatever it takes to appeal to the far right, even if it means raising money alongside the disgraced former president,” said Jerrel Harvey, a spokesman for Ms. Hochul’s campaign. “His blind loyalty to Trump is too dangerous for New York.”