One Day Before Election Day, Kathy Hochul Thinks About Pivoting To Crime

New York’s Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul is worried that might she be in trouble tomorrow, or when New York’s Banana Republic-inspired elections system decides to finish finding, oops I mean counting votes. Her Republican opponent Lee Zeldin is surging by all accounts and he is even leading a poll or two. Things like this are not supposed to happen in solidly blue New York State.

Part of the reason why Zeldin has been doing better than expected is that Zeldin has been successfully hammering Hochul and New York’s Democrats as being soft on crime. Among the “highlights” of New York’s Democrats is ending cash bail. Predictably, that has led to an increase in the crime rate and made New Yorkers feel unsafe.

At the beginning of the month of October, Hochul led Zeldin by an average of 14 points in the polls. Now she only leads Zeldin by an average of seven points.

According to CNBC’s Brian Schwartz, some of Hochul’s top donors are worried that Zeldin might surprise everyone and defeat Hochul. These donors want her to pivot to crime and fight inflation.

Previously, Hochul has been trying to nationalize the race. She has been focusing on abortion and other national and social issues. As a result, she has been open to attacks from Zeldin that she isn’t focused on issues that really matter to New Yorkers.

These unnamed donors tell Schwartz that they have tried to persuade Hochul to address how she will fight crime and inflation. These donors have even suggested that Hochul fire the soft-on-crime Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. But Hochul refuses to fire Bragg, her fellow Democrat because he is a duly elected public official.

Hochul’s unwillingness to address crime and inflation has presented an opening for Zeldin. In fact, Zeldin and groups supporting him have outspent Hochul and her allies $8.3 million to $5.2 million in the past week according to AdImpact.

The spending deficit has forced Hochul to turn to her wealthy donors to try and make up the difference. In return for the extra cash, her wealthy donors have demanded a change in strategy.

But the problem Hochul faces is that it is too late for a major change in strategy. By the time she decided to change strategy the election is out of her hands. It is now completely in the hands of the voters.

Changing strategies now at this stage of the game is like rearranging chairs on the deck of the Titanic. It doesn’t really matter at this late stage of the game. Hochul is either going to sink with the ship or she will swim to victory.

Despite Hochul’s failure to address crime and inflation until the very end of the campaign, she should still win. The problem Zeldin faces is that his voters have likely moved away.

New York State is an example of Weaponized Governmental Failure. The Cliff’s Notes version of that concept is that leftist politicians make a place they govern so miserable that the middle class leaves the city or state in droves. The place will be a ruin inhabited by only the very rich and the very poor, but it will be a leftist-ruled ruin. To learn more about Weaponized Governmental Failure pick up our publisher Scott McKay’s book The Revivalist Manifesto.

I don’t expect Hochul to lose. But she certainly deserves to.