By Dan Murphy
The race for NY Governor continues to move forward towards a June 28 Primary, with the republicans slugging it out in the final days. Four republican candidates for Governor are asking New York republicans for their vote in the GOP Primary.
They are: Lee Zeldin, Rob Astorino, Andrew Giuliani and Harry Wilson. Zeldin, a Long Island Congressman, released a TV ad on June 10 which attacked Astorino and Wilson, but did not mention Giuliani.
Titled, “Bad Actors” the commercial attempts to link Astorino to former Governor Andrew Cuomo and Hillary Clinton, and attempts to link Wilson to former President Obama. The reason for the negative ad may be the million dollar ad buy Harry Wilson dropped over the past few weeks on Zeldin, which showed how Zeldin worked with Andrew Cuomo while he was a member of the State Senate, and how Zeldin once said that Cuomo would make a great President.
Parts of the new Zeldin ad are misleading, while other part are true. Astorino had no political relationship with Andrew Cuomo. In fact, Astorino ran against Cuomo in 2014, and did not get the support of Zeldin or many Long Island republican state senators, who were busy cutting a deal for their self preservation with Cuomo that included not helping Astorino.
Astorino also had no political relationship with Hillary Clinton, other than to see her occassionally at a parade or other function in Westchester County, where Astorino served as County Executive from 2009-2017.
The attacks by Zeldin on Wilson are true, but the fact that Wilson helped save American jobs after the financial recession of 2008 by working with President Obama are viewed favorably by most New Yorkers, once they understand what Wilson did. General Motors was one American corporate giant that Wilson helped restructure and save while working in the Obama adminstration.
“Zeldin hopes to link Astorino to Cuomo and Hillary, and Wilson to Obama, by any means necessary. I also think that the Zeldin campaign has been hurt by the million dollar Wilson attacks on him, and they felt that they had to respond,” said one NY republican.
It is also interesting to note that Zeldin ignored the other GOP candidate in the race for Governor: Andrew Giuliani, whose name is not mentioned at all in the latest tv spot, and with 18 days to go before the primary, there could be two reasons why Giuliani is not being targeted.
“It’s either that Zeldin wants to ignore Giuliani for fear of Andrew picking up even more steam if republcians know he is running, or that Zeldin’s campaign thinks that Wilson and Astorino voters can be flipped to Zeldin in the final weeks,” said another NY republican leader.
Polling in the GOP race for Governor is still mixed, with one poll having Giuliani leading and another poll having Zeldin up by 23 points.
“While Congressman Zeldin has focused all of his energy on defeating Kathy Hochul, instead of joining the cause to defeat one-party rule in Albany, Never Trumper Harry Wilson and Rolex Rob Astorino have been assisting Kathy Hochul and Democrats in spreading desperate lies about Republicans’ best hope for victory in November – Congressman Lee Zeldin,” said Zeldin for New York spokesperson Katie Vincentz.
“It’s time New Yorkers know the truth. Never Trumper Harry Wilson is a two-time Obama appointee, and Alvin Bragg donor, who refused to vote for President Trump in 2020 and had a company policy to fire his employees who wouldn’t get the COVID shot. And New Yorkers are all too familiar with the fact Rolex Rob Astorino is on an embarrassing campaign losing streak, defeated by Democrats over and over and over again, losing his last three races for three separate elected positions,” said Vincentz.
The recent references to “Rolex Rob” by the Zeldin campaign probably go over the heads of most NY voters. Astorino received the watch in 2016 from a campaign donor who was embroiled in a federal probe. Astorino gave the watch back after several published reports.
“If that’s the best that Zeldin can do to go negative on Rob, then he’s got nothing,” said a Westchester republican and Astorino supporter.
CBS NY News TV Channel 2 will host a debate between all four candidates on June 13.
