Crime dominates New York gubernatorial election debate as race tightens

NEW YORK, Oct 25 (Reuters) – Crime dominated the controversy between New York Governor Kathy Hochul and Republican challenger Lee Zeldin on Tuesday, as polls point out Zeldin has leveraged the difficulty to slender the hole towards the Democratic incumbent forward of the Nov. 8 election.

The state’s majority Democratic voters has not chosen a Republican governor since 2002. However current public opinion polls present Zeldin is gaining on Hochul, prompting the governor to place new give attention to public security within the closing weeks of her marketing campaign. Early voting begins in 4 days.

Zeldin declared the state was “in disaster,” citing crime, the economic system and different points, whereas ramping up criticism of insurance policies Hochul has supported, resembling eliminating money bail for non-violent felonies and most misdemeanors.

“There are criminals on the market who must pay the implications for his or her motion, as an alternative of the catch and launch insurance policies that Kathy Hochul champions,” stated Zeldin, a U.S. consultant from Lengthy Island.

Hochul, the state’s former lieutenant governor who took workplace final yr after Governor Andrew Cuomo resigned over sexual harassment accusations, turned the crime debate to the Republican’s expansive view of gun rights over gun management.

“It’s a joke to speak a few crime coverage that does not embrace doing one thing about unlawful weapons,” Hochul stated.

“No extra college massacres by youngsters. Let’s have background checks. Let’s have security checks. Let’s do it good. You’re nowhere to be discovered.”

Hochul remains to be projected to win, and a few polls confirmed her forward by greater than 20 proportion factors as just lately as this summer season. However as Zeldin known as consideration to some sensational crimes on the New York Metropolis subway system, her lead dwindled to single digits in some mid-October polls. Quinnipiac College and SurveyUSA confirmed her main by simply 4 and 6 factors, respectively.

Whereas the economic system stays the highest precedence for the largest share of voters, 5% have constantly ranked crime or corruption as an important downside going through america right now, based on Reuters/Ipsos polling from late September to late October.

Hochul’s marketing campaign beforehand centered on attacking Zeldin’s ties to Republican former U.S. President Donald Trump, warning that Zeldin would roll again abortion rights in New York if elected.

She has emphasised public security extra in current days, releasing an advert on Friday that pledged “a safer New York for each baby” and showing with New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams on Saturday to announce a surge within the police presence within the metropolis’s subway system.

Reporting by Julia Harte in New York and Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, Calif.; Enhancing by Colleen Jenkins and Josie Kao

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