Former LI Rep. Peter King Touts Zeldin as Tough on Crime Candidate with “Amazing Surge” in Polls
By: Ilana Siyance
As the Nov. 8th general elections inch closer, Republicans are hoping Lee Zeldin can rock the boat to become the next New York State governor.
As reported by the NY Post, the Republican contender has been narrowing the gap to make it a closer race as he tries to unseat Democratic incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul. On Sunday morning, former Long Island Rep. Peter King lauded Zeldin’s efforts and success in recent polls. “This is an amazing surge that he’s generated here and to me it shows the strength of his campaign,”
King, 78, said during a discussion of the gubernatorial race on WABC 770 AM’s “Cats Roundtable”. The remarks were made after an average of recent polls compiled by FiveThirtyEight showed on Friday that Hochul is leading by only seven points, as the race starts to wrap up, despite the overwhelmingly blue state. The same polls calculated that Zeldin has a 3 percent chance of pulling off an upset victory. Over the summer, Hochul had held a much wider, nearly 20 point lead, over Zeldin, based on polls.
King told host John Catsimatidis during the interview that Zeldin has been successful in raising himself up by focusing on crime, and highlighting the failure of the infamous bail reform laws enacted by Democrats. “I think some of the ideologues are caught up in this fantasy that if you want law and order somehow that makes you a racist,” the former homeland security House chairman said.
“The tragic irony in all that is the people who are being hurt the most are the minorities,” he said, noting that the jump in crime is most distinct in neighborhoods of color. He touted Zeldin as a tough on crime candidate, and noted his own opinion that anyone who commits a crime should be locked behind bars or in a mental institute. “The courts should exert themselves and require them to get mental examinations, mental treatment and if they’re not temporarily insane, or insane or crazy at all, mentally ill at all, then they should be put in jail,” he said.
King added that Hochul’s baffled response during her first and only debate against Zeldin, in which she downplayed the bail reform law, showed she’s “out of touch” with New Yorkers. Zeldin had similarly slammed the incumbent after she had said, “I don’t know why that’s so important”, regarding jailing criminals.
“My opponent thinks that right now there’s a polio emergency going on but there’s not a crime emergency — different priorities than I’m hearing from people right now,” the outgoing Long Island congressman had said. “They’re not being represented from this governor — who still, to this moment … hasn’t talked about locking up anyone committing any crimes,” Zeldin added. Most major crimes were up this year in New York compared to last, with a notable 33 percent increase in robberies, as per police statistics. Murders, however, were down by 14 percent for the year.
“I think Lee Zeldin showed the other night that he’s the person that can make New York safe and can keep jobs and businesses in New York and bring New York back,” King said. “It’s going to be a tough effort.
