By: Ilana Siyance
A group of mostly Latino supermarket owners across the five boroughs of New York City are making a last-ditch effort to support Lee Zeldin’s bid for governor.
As reported by the NY Post, a coalition of supermarket owners raised some $70,000 to support the Republican gubernatorial candidate. As the NY general election on Nov. 8th creeps closer, about 70 business owners donated $1,000 each to Zeldin at a fundraiser held Monday at Cafe Rubio in Corona, Queens. The donors include the owners of grocery stores including Foodtown, Keyfoods, Fine Fare, Bravo’s, C-Town and Met Foods. The store owners say they are tired of the rampant shoplifting that they have been facing, and they hope that the tough on crime candidate can help their lot.
Zeldin’s vow to crack down on criminals who are looting grocery stores is something that speaks to the owners, said Nelson Eusebio, who is head of government relations for the National Supermarket Association. “These are Hispanic supermarket owners who have previously voted with the Democrats,” Eusebio told The Post. “But we are exhausted and need results.”
The Long Island congressman promised that if elected, he will declare a crime emergency in NYS and bypass Albany legislators to suspend the state’s infamous 2019 bail reform law. He also vowed to undo other reforms enacted which keep criminals on the street—including the law requiring prosecutors to get a warrant for parole violations. “What I’m committing to do is what Kathy Hochul refuses to do. And the first day that I’m in office, immediately after being sworn in as the next governor of the state of New York, I will be declaring a crime emergency,” Zeldin said in October.
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s reps have criticized Zeldin’s crime emergency plan saying they doubt it is constitutional. “An executive suspending laws he doesn’t like sounds a lot like a dictatorship,” State Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) defensively retorted in response to Zeldin’s “dangerously unconstitutional” vow. Zeldin has also said that, given the opportunity, he would use the gubernatorial powers to oust soft-on-crime Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Feasable or not, Zeldin’s plans are resonating with New Yorkers. “We are frustrated and tired of Democrats saying that bail reform has not affected crime negatively,” Carlos Collado, a registered Democrat who owns two Fine Fare supermarkets in the Bronx, told The Post. “The issue today is that shoplifting has turned violent,” said Collado, who himself faced a knife-wielding thief at one of his stores. “That’s where this is going. We have had to rumble inside our stores because the [thieves] don’t have any fear.” He added, “Most of us have determined that Zeldin is speaking our language, that he understands what we need.”
“When you see essential businesses like pharmacies closing their doors because of crime, that’s an alert,” said Samuel Collado, the owner of several Keyfood supermarkets in Queens. “We would like to see and hear about proposals that will address crime and policies on public safety.”
