Kristen Gonzalez (photo: Gonzalez campaign)

September 7, 2022 - Max Politics Podcast: Kristen Gonzalez is Likely Heading to the New York State Senate

Kristen Gonzalez, a democratic socialist, won her August Democratic primary election for a new State Senate seat (district 59) covering parts of western Queens and Brooklyn as well as a slice of the East Side of Manhattan, and is all but certain to win the general election and become a State Senator in January. She joined the show to discuss her winning campaign, policy priorities, and more.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter @TweetBenMax. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts at Max Politics.

Rep. Lee Zeldin on the campaign trail (photo: @leezeldin)

As Republican U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin runs to become New York Governor, he has made the core planks of his general election campaign crime and cost of living. Meanwhile, he has sought to further energize his base to “fire” Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul over a lack of public safety, high taxes, her role as Lieutenant Governor, and more.

But as the fall general election approaches, Zeldin has continued to take votes in Congress that signify how his conservative politics are out of step with what polling shows the vast majority of New Yorkers support on several prominent issues. Any Republican faces an uphill battle in heavily-Democratic New York, where no GOP nominee has won statewide since 2002, but Zeldin appears to be doing a limited amount to woo the independent and Democratic voters he will need to win.

In recent months, the political conversation has been subsumed in large part by major U.S. Supreme Court decisions overturning Roe v. Wade abortion rights and a New York-specific concealed carry gun law. Meanwhile, Zeldin, who represents New York’s 1st Congressional District on Long Island, has taken key votes in the House of Representatives and articulated stances on issues like abortion rights, contraception access, and gun safety regulations that differ widely with what public opinion polling shows is preferred by New Yorkers -- often even majorities of Republicans and independents.

The votes have given Hochul and her campaign regular ammunition to criticize Zeldin as an “extremist” who is out of touch with New Yorkers’ priorities just as the general election heats up. They have combined such attacks with regular comments on Zeldin’s close ties to former President Donald Trump, who remains deeply unpopular in New York and was helping Zeldin raise money over Labor Day weekend. Zeldin supported Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Experts say that Zeldin's positions on hot-button issues, which helped him appeal to a conservative electorate in the GOP gubernatorial primary and over several terms in his district, may be significantly hurting his already slender chances in the general election.

The most recent Siena Research Institute polling in early June and late July found that voters widely oppose the Supreme Court’s rulings overturning New York’s concealed gun carry restrictions and the federal right to an abortion, and that they are widely supportive of protecting abortion rights under almost all circumstances.

But Zeldin has said that he supports the Supreme Court’s two recent rulings and that he opposes popular New York laws -- some passed recently by Hochul and the Democrat-dominated State Legislature -- that limit their impact. Those include new state gun laws expanding background checks and safety course requirements for concealed carry permits, which even majorities of conservatives and gun owners say they support.

Zeldin has voted against or did not vote on several bills meant to enhance gun safety and regulations, like the recently-passed Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which as its name indicates came out of a deal among Republicans and Democrats. The law makes it harder for some potentially dangerous individuals to obtain firearms and allocates more federal funding for crisis intervention and mental health services. All 220 Democrats and 15 Republicans voted for the bill.

Zeldn has also pledged to repeal laws like the NY SAFE act, a popular 2013 gun regulation package that banned new sales of most assault-style weapons in New York.

In July, Zeldin also voted against bills that would federally protect an individual's ability to access contraceptives and abortion care – namely the Right to Contraception Act and Ensuring Access to Abortion Act. Eight House Republicans voted for the bill.

That same month Zeldin, along with 47 other Republicans, voted in support of a bill that would enshrine same-sex marriage nationally. The vote was taken in part as a response to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe, with the apparent threat to the Court’s 2015 ruling on marriage equality.

Seemingly aware of his electoral vulnerability on his guns and abortion stances, Zeldin has tried to move the conversation away from them, saying that they distract from what he calls more pressing issues, like crime and the economy. He’s also emphasized that given the certainty at least the State Assembly will remain in Democratic hands, if not both houses of the Legislature, New York’s strong abortion protections would likely remain in place if he became governor.

But as job numbers have become more robust and gas prices have fallen, abortion and gun rights seem to have become even more salient as voters – particularly independents – are worrying less about the economy, says Bruce Gyory. A political scientist, Democratic strategist, and senior advisor at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, Gyory closely studies polling, voting trends, and the demographics of the electorate.

“There was all this talk of recession and stagflation. Well, the latest jobs numbers show it sure as heck doesn't look like we're going into a recession, at least anytime soon,” said Gyory. “And now all of a sudden independent voters, who seemed to be driven by crime and inflation, seem to be quite worried about [reproductive] choice and the excesses of the ‘right to life’ movement.”

When Zeldin was fighting to win in his district and the Republican primary for Governor, touting hard-line conservative anti-abortion and pro-gun stances helped him appeal to GOP voters and raise money from major Republican donors. Like various New York Republicans who run statewide or in many areas that are not fully dominated by conservatives, Zeldin finds himself in the challenging place of having to win a GOP primary and then win over moderates.

“If your question is, has Zeldin's voting record got him in trouble? Yes,” said Gyory.

“And not only that, but he had some unforced errors,” he added, including fanning the idea of appointing an anti-abortion health commissioner just a week before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and calling to repeal New York’s gun regulations in the weeks leading up to a racist mass shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo.

Zeldin’s positions on these issues will make it harder for him to win key downstate voters, which he needs to unite a successful coalition on crime and the economy across more rural and suburban areas of the state, says Tom Doherty, a partner at Mercury Public Affairs and former aide to Governor George Pataki, the last Republican to win statewide in New York.

“The people that care about the right to bear arms, so to speak, they're already voting for him,” said Doherty. “He needs the mom in Westchester County, who's concerned [about crime] that her kids have to work in the city now. Well, that same mom is probably pro-choice. That's why there's a lot of hurdles he needs to overcome.”

A Zeldin campaign spokesperson did not return a request to comment for this article.

Zeldin’s Votes and Positions on Major Issues
As a member of Congress in recent months, Zeldin has consistently voted against bills that are popular in New York, at least in concept, even as he has in other ways tried to move the political discourse away from two major issues Democrats are hammering him on.

Most recently in Congress, Zeldin voted against an assault weapons ban, which makes it a crime to knowingly import, sell, manufacture, transfer, or possess a semiautomatic assault weapon or large capacity ammunition feeding device. Siena polling from 2018 showed that New York Republicans (51%), Democrats (78%), and independents (55%) support the re-institution of such a ban, which existed from 1994-2004.

Zeldin declined to vote on the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which was signed into law by President Joe Biden in late June, making it the first gun safety legislation passed in three decades. He voted against the Active Shooter Alert Act of 2022, which proposes setting up a system to alert people in case of a nearby active shooter, and the Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Act of 2021, which proposes authorizing federal courts to issue extreme risk protection orders that prohibit an individual from purchasing, possessing, or receiving a firearm or ammunition.

Despite deep disapproval of it among New York, Zeldin has praised the Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn the state’s century-old law putting significant limits on concealed carry of firearms.

“I believe that the Supreme Court made the correct decision,” he told NY1. “If a law-abiding citizen wants to safely and securely carry a firearm for their personal self-defense, we should not treat that the same way as the criminal who seeks to harm others.”

By a 79-15% margin, those surveyed in Siena’s June poll said that they wanted the Supreme Court to uphold the law, including 72% of gun owners, 79% of Republicans, and 77% of independents.

New York voters are widely supportive of other measures that limit firearm ownership and use, such as new Hochul-signed laws that require permits to obtain semi-automatic rifles, expand eligibility requirements to carry concealed weapons, and take several other new steps. The Siena surveys conducted in early June and late July found that more than three-quarters of voters, ​​including at least 65% of every demographic group, support the new gun laws, with approval for them strong among even conservatives and gun owners.

Zeldin has expressed his disapproval of those new laws, in addition to pledging to repeal other popular legislation like the SAFE Act.

In July, Zeldin also voted against three bills related to women’s reproductive rights that all passed the Democrat-controlled House. Those include the Right to Contraception Act, which would federally protect an individual's ability to access contraceptives; the Ensuring Access to Abortion Act of 2022, which would prohibit anyone acting under state law from interfering with a person's ability to access out-of-state abortion service; and the Women's Health Protection Act of 2022, which prohibits governmental restrictions on the provision of, and access to, abortion services before fetal viability, which is around 24 weeks into pregnancy. After that point, it allows states to restrict abortion access only when “in the good-faith medical judgment of the treating health care provider, continuation of the pregnancy would pose a risk to the pregnant patient’s life or health."

According to the July Siena poll, the vast majority of New Yorkers oppose the Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn Roe.

“Prior to the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs, New Yorkers said they wanted the Court to uphold Roe 60-24%. Today, 68% say they oppose the decision to overturn Roe, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion,” Siena pollster Steven Greenberg said in a press release announcing the late July survey results. “Although a small majority of Republicans support the Dobbs decision, it is opposed by 89% of Democrats, 60% of independents, and at least 62% of voters from every region, age group, gender, and race.

On the question of whether abortion should be always or mostly legal, the answer was yes for 88% of New York Democrats, 75% of independents, and 50% of Republicans, as well as at least two-thirds of voters from every region, age group, gender, race and religion.

Zeldin, who has long held strong anti-abortion beliefs, has said he supports the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe.

“In a state that has legalized late-term partial birth abortion and non-doctors performing abortion, in a state that refuses to advance informed consent and parental consent, and where not enough is being done to promote adoption and support mothers, today is yet another reminder that New York clearly needs to do a much better job to promote, respect and defend life,” Zeldin said in a campaign statement when the ruling was released.

Additionally, Zeldin could face strong headwinds in wooing independents and Democrats for the general election based on his stances on climate action, Gyory noted, especially as the general election will occur just after hurricane season.

Zeldin proposes repealing the state ban on fracking for natural gas, approving new gas pipelines, and suspending energy taxes. When asked by Gotham Gazette to comment on the potential environmental impact of those initiatives and whether Zeldin has a plan to combat climate change, his campaign did not provide a response.

Zeldin's Bid at the Ballot Box
For Republicans to win statewide in New York – where they are outnumbered two to one by Democrats and slightly by independents – they need to hammer salient talking points like those on crime and the economy that affect voters virtually everywhere, said Doherty. But that’s not necessarily enough.

“You need to run a perfect race,” said Doherty. “You need to hit an inside straight and you can't make any mistakes along the way.”

“Just being a Republican in New York, you start in a hole, and have to work to reinforce the messaging about what the problems are,” he added. “And the problems are inflation, crime.”

Experts say that Zeldin’s voting record and stances have already hurt his slim election chances in a state that hasn’t elected an anti-abortion governor since reproductive rights became a focus topic in the 1970s.

Gyory said there is evidence that voters are already making electoral decisions with gun control and abortion rights in mind as economic concerns dim slightly, citing Hochul’s increase in support among independents, who are critical to Zeldin’s chances.

When voters were asked whether they would vote to elect Hochul in early June, only 29% of independents and other voters who are not Democrats or Republicans said they would. When asked a similar version of that question in late July, the number rose to 42%. The most recent Siena polling from July showed Hochul with a 14-point lead (53%-39%) over Zeldin among likely voters, with 9% saying they did not plan to vote or did not have an opinion.

Others, like Republican strategist Chapin Fay, are more optimistic about Zeldin’s chances.

“With New Yorkers unsafe in the streets and financially insecure at the kitchen table, this election is going to be won or lost on the issues of crime and the economy,” said Fay, Founder and CEO of Lighthouse Public Affairs. “New York State already has some of the most expansive abortion laws and restrictive gun laws in the nation, and that's not going to change. If the Democrats continue to refuse to act on these issues, what will change is Lee Zeldin will be our next Governor.”

But Doherty recalls that even when Pataki defeated three-term incumbent Democratic Governor Mario Cuomo in 1994, he held liberal views on issues like abortion, same-sex marriage, the environment, and more. Vying to become the first Republican Governor of New York State in two decades with odds similar to Zeldin's in this race, Pataki was less vulnerable on some of those issues and also successfully campaigned on his pledges to cut taxes and instate criminal justice policies like the death penalty.

“People always have this fantasy of, you know, George Pataki in 1994,” said Doherty. “Pataki is not Lee Zeldin in 2022. It's just a different state.”

[READ: What is Lee Zeldin's Gubernatorial Campaign Platform?]

Senator Gustavo Rivera, right, with Rep. Adriano Espaillat (photo: Rivera campaign website)

September 2, 2022 - Max Politics Podcast: State Senator Gustavo Rivera on Surviving a Major Primary Challenge

State Senator Gustavo Rivera of the Bronx joined the show to discuss winning his August 2022 Democratic primary despite a well-organized, well-funded attempt to unseat him.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter @TweetBenMax. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts at Max Politics.

Voters at the polls (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

The August primary election for congressional and State Senate races in New York saw significantly low voter turnout, barely topping single digits in many districts across the state. It was the predictable outcome of an unprecedented election that resulted from a tumultuous redistricting process that unfolded this year, all adding to New York’s voter turnout crisis. Despite many competitive races, several of which were narrowly decided, New Yorkers again showed little enthusiasm to cast their ballots.

The party primaries, mostly on the Democratic side in heavily-Democratic New York, was the second that New York held this year, following a June primary for statewide and Assembly races. That first primary was also a low turnout affair, despite competitive races for Governor among both Democrats and Republicans. Turnout among Democrats statewide fell by nearly half to about 13% compared to the 2018 gubernatorial primary while Republicans voted in similar numbers compared to the last competitive gubernatorial primary they had in 2010.

[Read: Voter Turnout in New York Gubernatorial Primary Drops Sharply from 2018 Surge]

This latest election, however, draws no easy comparisons. New York has never held a primary in August before, nor has there ever been a combined election only for the House of Representatives and the State Senate (in 2020, the June primary also had Assembly races on the ballot). The state previously had separate primaries for state and congressional races up until 2018, after which they were consolidated to be held on the same date.

All the primaries were set for June, but amid controversy over the redistricting process this year the courts struck down Congressional and State Senate lines drawn by the Democrat-led State Legislature and ordered new maps and another primary election for those seats. Some advocates urged Governor Kathy Hochul and the Legislature to move all the primaries to August to meet the court mandate for the House and State Senate primaries, but they declined to take such action.

Most voters who cast ballots in the August primaries did so in-person on primary day, August 23, but a relatively small number – 148,331 across the state – voted in-person during the nine-day early voting period preceding primary day. And many tens of thousands of voters cast absentee ballots, mostly by mail.

Though winners have been declared in virtually every race across the state, results are still preliminary. Local election boards are still opening and tallying the final absentee ballots, which had to be postmarked by August 23 and received by August 30.

As of August 25, there were 48,231 absentee ballots returned outside New York City and another 52,439 outstanding absentees (sent to voters but not returned), according to the State Board of Elections. In New York City, as of August 19, there were 36,890 absentee ballots cast, and those that were canvassed through that date were included in the unofficial election night results. The City Board of Elections did not respond to multiple requests for the latest absentee tally.

Congressional Races
After losing another seat based on national population trends tallied in the 2020 Census, New York is going from 27 to 26 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, meaning a lot of shifting district lines and 26 races for the fall ballot.

First, there were 16 Democratic congressional primaries across the state, with over 4 million registered Democratic voters in those districts eligible to vote. Just over 546,000 Democrats, or 13.4%, cast a ballot in those races through in-person voting and absentee ballots that had been counted as of primary day.

There are tens of thousands of more absentees that have yet to be included in the tally, which means turnout will eventually be slightly higher once the election is certified.

As expected, turnout was higher in certain closely watched races.

The 19th Congressional District saw the highest turnout of any congressional primary, with 25.5% of registered Democrats voting. There was an open race in the new district, which covers parts of the Southern Tier, Catskills, and Hudson Valley. The seat has been vacant since Democrat Antonio Delgado was appointed lieutenant governor and two Democrats ran to replace him: attorney Josh Riley and small business owner Jamie Cheney. Riley won the primary.

Turnout there may have been boosted by the fact that in the somewhat overlapping current 19th Congressional District there was a concurrent special election open to all voters to fill Delgado’s vacated seat for the rest of this term (through the end of 2022). In that special election, Democrat Pat Ryan, the Ulster County Executive, won the race against Republican Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro. The district is home to 549,184 registered voters overall and 129,328 voters cast a ballot, about 23.5%, with some absentees still being counted. 

Ryan also ran for and won the primary nomination for the new 18th congressional district and is running in the November election there to try to win a full term in Congress. Molinaro, on the other hand, is the Republican nominee for the new 19th district in the fall general election.

Turnout was similarly high in the 12th Congressional District, where longtime Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler emerged victorious against three other candidates, including fellow Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney. The new district combined much of the East and West Sides of Manhattan, from roughly 13th Street to 110th Street, pitting Nadler and Maloney against each other.

Roughly 24.5% of Democrats voted in the district, with additional absentee votes likely to push that number higher. The district saw by far the highest number of absentee ballots requested and returned of any congressional district in New York – the 19,565 absentees returned through August 19 accounted for more than half of all absentee ballots returned in the city till that time.

In the crowded Democratic primary for the 10th Congressional District, covering Lower Manhattan and a big stretch of Brooklyn, about 19.4% of registered Democrats voted. That number will likely tip over 20% when all the absentees are counted.

Former federal prosecutor Dan Goldman, who led the first impeachment inquiry of former President Donald Trump, won the race. The moderate Democrat defeated a slew of progressive competitors including U.S. Rep. Mondaire Jones, Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou, and City Council Member Carlina Rivera, as well as other candidates. The new district covers Lower Manhattan south of 14th street and parts of western Brooklyn including Downtown, Gowanus, Park Slope, Sunset Park, Red Hook, and Borough Park.

The 4th, 7th, and 8th Congressional Districts primaries saw the lowest turnout at about 8% of Democrats voting in each. There was an open race in the 4th, where Democrat Laura Gillen won against three other candidates to be the party’s nominee for the Long Island seat. The 7th and 8th Districts are represented by incumbent Democratic Reps. Nydia Velazquez and Hakeem Jeffries, respectively, and they both won their Brooklyn-based primaries.

Two other districts had slightly higher turnout at about 9%, while the other eight districts saw turnout between 10-17%.

Among Republicans, there were eight congressional primary contests. Those districts were home to 1.2 million registered Republicans, but only 177,930 voted, about 14.6%.

The 23rd Congressional District, anchored in Western New York, saw the highest turnout at 23.7% in a two-way contest between Nick Langworthy, the State GOP chair, and former gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino. Langworhty came out on top. The new district covers parts of the Southern Tier and parts of Erie, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany, Steuben, Chemung, and Schuyler counties.

The lowest Republican turnout was in the 14th District, where only about 7% of registered Republicans cast a ballot. The new district covers northern Queens and the eastern side of the Bronx. Business owner Tina Forte won the race against Desi Cuellar and will face Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who did not face a primary challenge.

In the other six Republican primary races, turnout ranged between 11-15%.

State Senate Races
In State Senate districts, of which there are 63 across the state, there were another 16 Democratic primaries this year. Of the roughly 2 million registered Democrats in those districts, 272,948 voted, or about 13.6%. Those numbers will increase slightly as final absentee ballots are tallied.

In Manhattan’s District 47, turnout was the highest at 25.6%. Democratic State Senator Brad Hoylman won the primary, defeating challenger Maria Danzilo. The new district covers the West Side of Manhattan from the Meatpacking District to the Upper West Side and overlapped with the highly-competitive 12th Congressional District primary that surely helped drive turnout.

Turnout was also high in State Senate District 52, where 21.3% of registered Democrats voted. Former Binghamton City Council Member Lea Webb won the primary against attorney Leslie Danks Burke. The new district covers Cortland, Tompkins, and parts of Broome counties.

State Senate District 4, which covers the southern parts of Suffolk County on Long Island, saw the lowest turnout at just 6.5%. Former State Senator Monica Martinez won that primary against Assemblymember Phil Ramos.

Turnout was similarly low, at just under 7%, in District 15 in southwestern Queens, where State Senator Joseph Addabbo Jr. won the primary, defeating two challengers.

In three other races, turnout was also in single digits. In the remaining nine, turnout ranged from 10-18%.

Several Democratic incumbents fought off particularly active primary challenges in low turnout affairs. In District 21 in central and southern Brooklyn, where State Senator Kevin Parker won against two challengers, turnout was about 11.8%. In District 31, which covers parts of Manhattan and the Bronx, State Senator Robert Jackson defeated three challengers, including one backed by many Democratic officials, with 11.2% of registered Democrats voting. In District 33 in the Bronx, State Senator Gustavo Rivera defeated Miguelina Camilo in a high-stakes race that saw 9.5% turnout.

Republicans clashed in just four State Senate districts with 239,492 eligible voters, of whom just 33,980 or 14.1% voted.

In District 51, where Republican State Senator Peter Oberacker defeated his challenger, Terry Bernardo, about 25% of registered Republicans cast a ballot. The new district includes Delaware, Otsego, Schoharie, Sullivan, part of Broome, part of Chenango, and part of Ulster counties.

In the remaining three races, turnout was about 8-9%.

Special Elections
Besides the special election in the 19th, there was another in the 23rd congressional district, under the current district lines that will soon become obsolete. Special elections are general elections and all registered voters can cast a ballot, in these two cases to select members of Congress to finish the terms through the end of this year for representatives who resigned mid-term.

The race for the 19th Congressional District, a “purple” swing district, was being closely watched at the national level as a bellwether for the midterms and Democrats celebrated Pat Ryan’s victory (discussed above).

In the 23rd District, Republican Rep. Tom Reed resigned his seat, kicking off the special election where Republican Joe Sempolinski, the Steuben County Republican chair, defeated Democrat Max Della Pia, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel. There were 527,403 registered voters in the district and 73,331 of them voted, just under 14%.

Rep. Lee Zeldin on the campaign trail (photo: @leezeldin)

U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, the Republican nominee for New York Governor in this year’s election, is focusing his campaign on public safety, the economy, and cost of living.

Representing the 1st Congressional District on Long Island, Zeldin is a conservative with close ties to former President Donald Trump trying to accomplish a feat no New York Republican has over the last 20 years: win a statewide election.

Zeldin’s campaign often appears more about attacking Democratic control of state government and Governor Kathy Hochul, who is seeking her first election to the position after taking over upon Governor Andrew Cuomo’s 2021 resignation, than it does on solutions to the problems facing New Yorkers and ideas for moving the state forward.

But Zeldin does have a campaign policy platform, with a heavy focus on his “law and order” plans for reducing crime and his calls to reduce taxes and regulations while increasing economic activity.

Yet he has not provided plans to address the state’s affordable housing crisis, healthcare system, public universities, mass transit, climate and resiliency, and more. That trend continued as the campaign declined to respond to several requests from Gotham Gazette inquiring into Zeldin’s policies and positions on those issues.

Hochul, meanwhile, has not offered insights into new future priorities or a policy agenda for what a full next term as governor would include, instead indicating that she would continue to implement and deepen policies and programs already underway. The governor has also indicated she may pursue several items from her 2022 agenda that she was not able to pass through the Legislature in her first state budget and legislative session as governor, such as a replacement for the 421-a program that offered tax breaks to developers that include some affordable housing in their projects. But she has run her 2022 race almost exclusively focused on the accomplishments of her first year as governor.

Still, Zeldin and Hochul have both made clear where they stand on a long list of policies and priorities, with glaring contrasts on a large number of issues, including the hot-button items of abortion rights and gun control that have been the focus of much recent attention given the U.S. Supreme Court’s spring rulings.

In what he calls a dire battle to “save our state” where “losing is not an option,” Zeldin — who gave up his seat in Congress to run for Governor — is undoubtedly facing an uphill battle given New York’s Democratic tilt. Initial polling shows him at a significant disadvantage and Hochul is all but certain to outspend him by many millions of dollars, in part because she has been able to raise large sums of money from people with state interests (something Zeldin and others from both major parties have criticized her for).

But Zeldin’s politics, including his congressional voting record, are also clearly not aligned with the majority of New York voters on most issues. He is hoping, however, that his focus on pandemic era increases in crime, the state’s high taxes, and the rising cost of living amid record inflation will help overcome that and other deficits. In those areas, his focus is clearly aligned with voters’ concerns.

Zeldin will appear on the Republican and Conservative Party ballot lines for the general election, while Hochul will be on the Democratic and Working Families Party lines. Zeldin was denied a spot on the Independence Party line in the general election after submitting thousands of apparently faulty ballot petition signatures, an ongoing scandal hanging over his candidacy.

“We will secure our streets. We will make New York more affordable again. We will fight for our kids and our schools. We will fight to preserve freedom for our families to stay here and be strong. We are all in, and will take absolutely nothing for granted in all 62 counties of our state,” Zeldin said in his primary victory speech on the night of June 28. “No county is too large. No county is too small. Kathy Hochul, we are coming for your job.”

The four-term congressman entered the governor’s race early and quickly became the Republican Party favorite as he racked up county leader endorsements. He then won the party’s designation by a wide margin over his three primary opponents at the Republican state convention and though it was a competitive primary, he prevailed by a large percentage of the vote for a race with no incumbent and several legitimate candidates.

Zeldin emerged from the primary having to appeal to not only Republicans, but millions of New York’s independent and Democratic voters who he will need to pull off the upset. Not only do Zeldin’s stances on guns and abortion not match what polls show most New York voters believe in, his close ties to former President Trump, while helpful in a GOP primary, could also hurt him in the general election given Trump is hugely unpopular in the state overall.

Zeldin was among those in Congress who voted against certifying President Joe Biden’s victory on the night of January 6, 2021, even after the riot at the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters who the then-president sent there to stop that very process. When Trump was president, Zeldin voted with his agenda 88.8% of the time, according to a FiveThirtyEight analysis. 

Zeldin has laid out somewhat detailed policy plans for crime, education, political reform, fracking and gas production, and military veterans. And he has made a centerpiece of his campaign an all-out promise to end any remaining covid mandates, of which there are few, though he is also promising to rehire any state government workers who lost their jobs after refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

At the same time, Zeldin is yet to provide detailed plans for a variety of issues and challenges, including the state’s economy, though he often rails about its problems. Many of the campaign promises he has made are vaguely summed up in bullet points or phrases on his website. Despite multiple requests from Gotham Gazette asking the campaign to clarify the gaps in Zeldin’s policy platform, no response was provided.

Following public uproar over the Supreme Court’s two recent decisions overturning Roe v. Wade federal abortion rights and a century-old New York state law that required applicants for a concealed carry gun permit to provide “proper cause” distinguishable from the general public,  abortion rights and gun control are likely to be key issues among voters in the general election. Hochul is banking on it, while Zeldin is attempting to focus the conversation elsewhere. 

As a member of Congress and former New York state senator, Zeldin protested New York’s Reproductive Act of 2019, which codified Roe v. Wade abortion protections into state law, and he has indicated during the Republican primary that he would like to appoint an anti-abortion health commissioner.

Zeldin has been more vocal on his pro-gun stances – which include a promise to repeal the New York SAFE ACT, a 2013 gun regulation package that banned the sale of most assault-style weapons in the state, and do away with gun-free zones.

He has also repeatedly spoken out against the new state law passed by Hochul and the Democratic Legislature in response to the Supreme Court gun-case ruling, whereby New York now has more stringent gun permitting and concealed carry license requirements in terms of training and background checks, as well as many “sensitive locations” where concealed carry will still be prohibited.

Likely recognizing his political vulnerability on both issues in a state like New York, Zeldin has described the issues as something of a distraction from things he believes New Yorkers are more concerned about, like crime and inflation. He’s even noted that the state’s abortion laws would be unlikely to change if he was governor given the certainty of at least one house of the Legislature, the Assembly, remaining in Democratic hands.

“No matter how hard Kathy Hochul tries changing the subject, the top 2 issues of this campaign for Governor are Crime & the Economy,” Zeldin tweeted July 2. “She would rather talk about anything else because she’s in over her head, doesn’t have any solutions, & the state is going in the wrong direction.”

“New Yorkers in every corner of our state are hitting their breaking points," Zeldin said in a statement in late June. "They're tired of the attacks on their wallets, safety, freedom, and kids' education. The reality is Kathy Hochul doesn't want to talk about these issues that matter most to New Yorkers. Instead, she's busy pandering to the far left and she's going to pay a price for that at the ballot box in November."

Zeldin is particularly focused on crime: making promises to repeal bail reforms passed in recent years, fire district attorneys who are not prosecuting alleged crimes the way he would like, and increasing funding to police. He has released a “Secure Our Streets” plan that provides detail on how he would reform correctional facilities, increase penalties, reform parole, and more. 

While he also frequently discusses inflation and the state’s high cost of living, Zeldin’s plans to bolster the economy are not fleshed out in detail. He has promised to allow and accelerate fracking and natural gas extraction and loosely said he would cut taxes and deregulate businesses. But while he has sometimes expanded on these ideas in debates and interviews, he has not offered substantive details. 

Zeldin has otherwise broadly outlined plans to reform the state’s education system, including increasing parental oversight and curtailing conversations about race, sexuality, and gender identity in classrooms. He also has proposed ways to increase transparency during the state legislative and budget processes and improve government ethics, including through term limits.

A lieutenant colonel himself in the United States Army Reserve and former second lieutenant in the United States Army from 2003 to 2007, perhaps his most detailed policy agenda is to increase protections for military veterans, including by combatting veteran homelessness, expanding health care opportunities and veterans services, and more. 

Guns and Public Safety
Zeldin has zeroed in on addressing crime, which has consistently been a top concern for voters since it began to rise across the state and country during the pandemic. Almost all major crime categories have seen spikes over the past two-and-a-half year, including shootings and murders.

Zeldin has released the “Secure Our Streets” plan, which is focused on making bail and parole processes stricter, increasing police funding and support, removing District Attorneys who Zeldin believes are not enforcing the law strictly enough, reopening correctional facilities, increasing criminal prosecutions, and more.

Unlike Hochul, Zeldin does not see new or additional gun regulations as important to curbing gun violence. He instead argues that it is the illegal use of firearms that is the problem and says he does not want to infringe on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.

The congressman frequently emphasizes that he plans to repeal “cashless bail,” referencing a 2019 package of changes to the state’s bail laws that eliminated the possibility of requiring money bail for most cases involving alleged non-violent felonies and misdemeanors, allowing most defendants for those offenses to be free from jail pre-trial. Zeldin, other Republicans, and some Democrats have claimed the bail law — which has been tightened twice since its passage, including this year — has driven up crime rates, despite evidence to the contrary.

 “The data is stories,” Zeldin said as he announced his crime plan, referencing anecdotes of incidents involving individuals released without having to pay bail who went on to (allegedly) commit more serious crimes.

Hochul and legislators made significant changes to the bail law in the April state budget this year, allowing for a far more stringent approach to alleged repeat offenders and giving judges more factors to consider when setting bail. Hochul has said that the new law is not being implemented properly by judges and that New Yorkers must give it time to see the impact of the new changes. But Zeldin insists the governor and lawmakers have not gone far enough: he wants judges given even more discretion when setting bail – including allowing them to weigh dangerousness, flight risk, and more – and to remove the ban on requiring money bail for many lower-level offenses. Bail reform is a key pillar of a new platform Zeldin announced in early October called "Pathways Up."

“She’s settling for absolutely nothing,” Zeldin said on 1010 Wins in late June. “The fact is, we still have cashless bail on the books right now in New York. No matter how much Kathy Hochul is trying to give a spin-job to New Yorkers otherwise, it’s still there and causing a lot of issues.”

To improve public safety, Zeldin is offering a much tougher stance in virtually all areas and with regard to all (alleged) offenders, including adolescents, many of whom he says need “to learn their lesson.” He proposes “overhauling” the state’s Raise the Age law passed in 2017 — which increased the age of criminal responsibility to 18 for most offenses, sending many alleged youth offenders to Family Court and giving more discretion to judges in cases involving adolescents — but has not explained how.

Zeldin also wants to reverse the Less is More Act, which Hochul signed into law in September to alter some of the state’s strict parole laws, but he says simply “keep[s] criminals on the streets who instead belong behind bars.” The law changes when people can be jailed for minor parole violations, like missing an appointment, something New York has done more than any other state in the country.

He additionally pledges to end the HALT Act, which limits the amount of time an inmate can spend in solitary confinement to 15 days in a row or 20 days over two months. State correctional officers have opposed the law, unsuccessfully attempting to challenge it through litigation, but advocates say it is a necessary protection against the inhumane treatment of those who are incarcerated, and many say it does not go far enough. Zeldin has alleged that these limits on the use of solitary confinement have led to an increase in attacks on correctional officers.

Zeldin has focused a lot of his campaign rhetoric on the notion that if elected he would “fire” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on his first day in office for failing to prosecute some low-level offenses and seeking lesser charges for a variety of other crimes. Zeldin’s rhetoric about Bragg has not been supported by any data showing the policies of Bragg, who took office in January of this year, have had any negative impact on crime rates. Zeldin’s talking points also belie the fact that the procedure for a governor to seek the removal of an elected official like a district attorney, clerk, and sheriff involves a lengthy process including an appointed investigator and hearings. 

“He’s refusing to enforce the law across the board,” said Zeldin, speaking of Bragg in an interview with NY1. “If you believe that ‘DA’ stands for Defense Attorney instead of District Attorney, then go be a defense attorney.”

Zeldin says he would also increase penalties for looting businesses and hire additional police officers statewide, but he has not specified how he would do so in any detail. He also opposes any effort to “defund the police” or replace police officers with social workers in situations involving people experiencing mental health crises, and he supports qualified immunity, which protects police officers from civil liability when they are acting in the line of duty. 

To further protect and support law enforcement officers, Zeldin would enact a “Law Enforcement Bill of Rights” – which he outlined in a 2019 press release from his government office. The bill of rights would protect law enforcement officers from being prosecuted for using force in cases of self-defense and give them special privileges in the course of a criminal investigation, including allowing them to have a counsel or union representative present at any law enforcement interview. 

Zeldin also offers a series of proposals related to correctional facilities. He wants to reopen closed correctional facilities – such as Ogdensburg prison, which closed in March because of declining prison populations – and provide economic assistance to communities that have been affected by closures, while also hiring more correctional officers at prisons that remain open, while not closing additional prisons. 

Zeldin also promises to commission a study of violence in prisons to identify any additional improvements that should be made to correctional facilities. He says that under his leadership prison populations would be based on crime rates instead of what he calls “political calculations,” apparently in reference to Democratic efforts to reduce the prison population. 

“Our prison population isn’t being reduced because people are not committing crimes,” he said as he announced his Secure Our Streets plan. “Prison population is being reduced because of political calculation – because of crimes that are not being enforced; people who are being let out of prison who shouldn’t be.”  

Also included in Zeldin’s plan are several measures aimed at “supporting victims” that toughen the state’s parole process. He suggests overhauling the Board of Parole and parole hearing process: requiring unanimity for the state board to grant parole, instead of a majority as currently required, establishing a process for victims and their families to appeal parole decisions, and providing more notice of parole board hearings. 

He suggests replacing members of the parole board who have “expressed poor judgment,” but he does not say how he defines “poor judgment” or how it would be determined. Zeldin says he would also enact reforms to the composition of Board of Parole commissioners to make it more “fairly structured” – including by requiring victims' advocates and law enforcement to be included more directly in parole hearings. 

Boasting an ‘A’ rating from the NRA, Zeldin opposes new gun restrictions and wants to repeal others that have been put on the books in New York.

Despite somewhat retracing his steps, he has also been critical of red flag laws – which allow courts to keep firearms away from people deemed a risk to themselves or others — and said that he opposes raising the age necessary to buy and own semi-automatic rifles to 21, a requirement that Hochul has signed into law.

“Going after crimes committed with illegal firearms is very different than going after law-abiding citizens and denying them the right to be able to safely and securely carry their personal self-defense,”Zeldin said in a June 28 interview with 1010 WINS. “That is a right that I agree with, I support, I defend.”

Zeldin has depicted endemic gun violence in part as a mental health issue, and he has pledged to invest in prisons to address mental health patients and addiction instead, though he doesn’t offer any specifics.

Economy and Jobs
With inflation at 40-year highs, Zeldin has outlined skeletal plans to bolster the state economy through tax cuts and business regulation, increased natural gas extraction, and more. When pressed to offer a more substantive outline of those plans, Zeldin’s campaign did not provide a response. 

He has proposed a three-part plan to lower energy prices, which loosely involves allowing the extraction of natural resources in the Southern Tier and some other unspecified locations via fracking, new pipeline construction, and a suspension of the gas tax, according to a March announcement in Buffalo.

Fracking – which poses a plethora of risks to the environment and potentially public health – was initially banned under then-Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2015, a decision that was later codified state law. Zeldin has often stressed that he would reverse this ban, in addition to introducing more opportunities for natural gas and oil drilling and approving new pipelines to help lower gas prices. Despite multiple requests for comment from Gotham Gazette, Zeldin has not responded to questions about the potential pollutive impacts of these plans or offered any commitments toward protecting the environment or working to combat climate change.

As a member of Congress from Long Island, where environmental concerns are relatively ubiquitous, Zeldin has focused on some related issues such as increased federal funding for the EPA Long Island Sound Program and National Estuary Program, and he has campaigned to keep dredge waste from being dumped in the Long Island Sound, according to his website. But according to the New York League of Conservation Voters, an environmental advocacy group, he has the worst record on environmental issues in the New York congressional delegation.

“If New York would reverse the Cuomo-Hochul ban on the safe extraction of resources under many parts of the state, jobs will be created, energy costs will go down, communities will be revitalized, and our state can prosper again,” Zeldin tweeted on March 6. “Let’s make New York energy independent!”

“By safely extracting natural resources and approving new pipelines, new jobs would be created, our state would become energy independent, new revenue would be generated, communities would be revitalized, and energy costs would be reduced,” he states on his campaign website. 

Hochul passed a temporary state gas tax holiday starting June 1. Zeldin says that he too would suspend gas taxes, but go further than Hochul, and he has been critical of some of Hochul’s other energy initiatives, such as her decision to abandon the Albany Loop pipeline, a project that activists rallied against, and energy plans included in the $220 billion state budget. He is among the conservatives who have railed against the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act of 2019 that set the state on a path for major reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and increases in renewable energy production over the coming years.

To repair the state’s economy, Zeldin says he plans to “slash job-killing regulations” and create “good-paying jobs,” but he has not outlined specifically how he proposes to do that on his campaign website. Despite Gotham Gazette inquiries, Zeldin has not elaborated on these promises and priorities.

In his "Pathways Up" platform, unveiled in October, Zeldin said he would establish public-private small business incubators, starting in Harlem, and build more partnerships between public universities and employers to create stronger education-to-career pathways.

He also proposes “cutting taxes across the board” – supposedly by reducing income and property taxes, which he has mentioned in debates and interviews, but – but he does not include any specific details or plans on his campaign website and his campaign did not respond to requests for more specifics. He does note that he proposes to instate “automatic inflation indexing,” which adjusts tax brackets proportionately to keep up with inflation.

Zeldin has also opposed the planned congestion pricing program for charging vehicles to enter the central Manhattan business district below 61st Street, which Hochul has supported due to its potential reductions in traffic and emissions and increase in revenue for mass transit. 

Education 
Zeldin has made several pledges to alter the state’s education system, including by enhancing parental purview over students' education, lifting the cap on charter schools, expanding options for technical schools, banning certain teaching on race, sexuality, and gender, rolling back any existing covid mandates and vaccine requirements, and more. 

He released a “Students First Plan” in May that explains how he would reform education across the state. He says he would “end all indoctrination and brainwashing,” including by banning a “divisive curriculum that pits children against one another based on race and other factors,” in what is seemingly a nod to Critical Race Theory – the academic concept that is not part of the state’s K-12 education standards but has become a buzzword for virtually any culturally relevant race education or focused teaching about racism.

Zeldin also says that he would ensure “age-inappropriate sex education material is not taught in school,” that he would promote civics education in schools and “educate kids more about their great nation,” and that he would teach students about the Holocaust. He provides few specific details on any of these changes.

He has repeatedly emphasized that he would like to increase parental involvement in student education, outlining it in his education plan and releasing an advertisement entitled Parents’ Rights. He does not explicitly specify how he would increase parental involvement, however, though he appears to be largely concerned with increasing parental oversight of teaching around race, gender, and sexuality in the classroom. 

One of Zeldin’s major education promises is to remove the cap on charter schools, which has been hit in New York City and for which parental demand far outstrips supply. Charter schools, which are privately run public schools not beholden to teacher or principal labor union contracts, have found far more support among Republican than Democratic politicians even as they are in high demand in heavily-Democratic New York City, among other places.

“Why I’m running for Governor against Kathy Hochul reason 6,342: She won’t lift the cap on charter schools because she’s bought off by the teachers union,” Zeldin tweeted on February 1. “I support lifting the cap, because students stuck in multi-generational poverty deserve opportunity, school choice & success.”

The charter school cap and parental choice was also in his October "Pathways Up" platform, along with a promise to add more technical and trade curricula in grade schools.

Before the lifting of statewide mask mandates in schools and daycares across the state, Zeldin campaigned vigorously on lifting the requirements. He has said that he is committed to “ending all COVID-19 mandates” and is against requiring covid vaccination for school children or anyone else.

Students in New York City are currently required to receive several immunizations – such as those for the poliovirus, measles, Varicella, and Hepatitis B. As a state-wide measles outbreak occurred in 2019, the state banned students from avoiding any of those immunizations on religious grounds. Zeldin says on his website that he would reverse that rule and restore religious exemptions for childhood vaccinations.

Zeldin supports mayoral control of New York City schools.

He says he would also achieve unfunded mandate relief when it comes to education, though he does not provide specific details.

And Zeldin promises to protect and expand advanced and specialized education, expand and improve technical job training, improve school safety, and support home-schooled children, though he has not released detailed plans to achieve those goals.

Transparency and Government Ethics
When Hochul took over for Cuomo after he resigned in scandal last year, she vowed to change the culture in Albany toward more collegiality, transparency, and ethics. While she has been credited for following through in some ways, in others she has come up short. And Zeldin is seizing on the latter as he attacks Hochul, including based on her attachment to Cuomo from her time as his lieutenant governor.

Hochul’s first pick for her own lieutenant governor, Brian Benjamin, resigned over federal corruption charges. Critics also continue to say she has fallen short of her reform promises and good government groups have called the budget process one of the most secretive in history, including the massive Buffalo Bills stadium deal.

Zeldin has a 10-point “Reform Albany” plan that would establish term limits on statewide offices, appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Cuomo administration covid nursing home scandal, end the “3 persons in a room” approach to governance, and more. 

He has also launched a website, TermLimitAlbany.com, where he asks voters if they support his plans and pledges to “term limit myself” to two four-year terms, which he believes should be the law for statewide elected officials (Hochul has also expressed support for this but did not get it passed in her first legislative session as governor).

“Now more than ever, it’s clear Albany needs reform and a key step is enacting a 2 term limit on the highest office in the state,” Zeldin said in a campaign announcement. “As Governor, I would term-limit myself to 2 terms regardless of whether the state legislature takes this action.”

Zeldin promises to increase transparency and participation in decision-making processes, including by increasing the power, input, and participation of rank-and-file legislators and expanding what information is automatically disclosed to the public. He specifically notes that he would push the Legislature to more actively utilize the conference committee process between the Senate and Assembly to allow more transparency into the budget process, and that he would allow the state budget director and other high-level officials to testify in front of the committee during the that process.

While the much-maligned JCOPE is being replaced, thanks to a push by Hochul, by the new Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government to act as an ethics watchdog over state officials and lobbyists, Zeldin had his own plan on the subject that would be slightly different and he may pursue changes if elected governor.

Zeldin also wants to create the “Empire State Budget Office,” which he says would be modeled on the independent Congressional Budget Office and responsible for providing nonpartisan, objective, and impartial analysis of prospective legislation.

Zeldin also says that he would raise state agencies' responsibility to answer requests under the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), specifically by introducing stricter response timelines, requiring more detail in cases when requests have been denied, and setting a “strong presumption of approval.” He also pledges to improve state websites through a redesign for usability and combining them into a service that resembles congress.gov. 

And Zeldin has also said that he would pursue a voter identification law, something studies from the Brennan Center for Justice and other think tanks suggest may disproportionately hinder voters of color. Zeldin is also against extending voting rights to non-citizen legal residents, as New York City is attempting to do for municipal elections (that new law was struck down in court, but the city is appealing).

Covid Mandates
Zeldin has been a vocal opponent of government mandates related to limiting the spread and impact of COVID-19, such as those around vaccinations or masks. He has pledged to end any remaining covid mandates if elected governor and to rehire any state workers who were let go after refusing to get vaccinated against covid.

He also said he would end New York’s covid-related state of emergency, which Hochul has repeatedly extended during her time as governor. 

Veterans
An officer in the United States Army Reserve and former officer in the United States Army, Zeldin has several plans to bolster the support available for military veterans in the state. He says that he would eliminate veteran homelessness, expand health care opportunities and veterans services, and create a new protected class for veterans under Human Rights Law, among still more programs detailed on VeteransForZeldin.com.

There are an estimated 705,924 military veterans in New York, of which approximately 1,251 are homeless, according to data compiled by Housing Assistance Council and gathered between 2015 and 2020. 

Zeldin says that he would completely end veteran homelessness through an initiative that establishes private and public partnerships to increase housing opportunities, modeled after Ulster County’s “Patriot Project.” He also suggests expanding the number of Veterans Treatment Courts, which are modeled after drug and mental health courts, offering veterans 

a specialty court with supportive services that provide an alternative to incarceration if they have (allegedly) committed low-level crimes and have mental health or substance abuse issues. Zeldin says that only 35% of New York’s counties offer such treatment courts and he wants to ensure it becomes 100%.

Zeldin offers his support for an act proposed by Jake Ashby, New York Republican Assemblyman for the 107th district and a former US Army Reserve Officer, the “New York's Own Combat Veterans Healthcare Choice Program Act,” which would would create tax-free savings accounts to pay the healthcare costs of certain combat veterans until covered by the federal government. He says would take steps to implement the program, given that the legislation has not yet become law.

Ashby has also proposed creating a green alert system for missing veterans and military service members, similar to the amber and silver alerts for children and senior citizens, which Zeldin says he would bring to fruition.

Zeldin would also create a stand-alone Department of Veterans and Military Affairs, modeled after those in New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and other states. In New York State, there is currently a Division of Veterans Services and a Division of Military and Naval Affairs that operate under the jurisdiction of the New York Executive Department. Zeldin says devoting an entire department to veterans would show necessary appreciation.

Zeldin also plans to expand peer support, community services, and employment opportunities for veterans and enhance online efforts to help veterans more easily identify what benefits they are eligible for and better connect them to an advisor. He wants to offer veterans more workforce training programs and scholarships for technical colleges and the creation of a “New York State GI Program” that would go beyond the state’s existing college assistance programs veterans are eligible for, including the Tuition Assistance Program and Veterans Tuition Assistance.

Reproductive Rights
A long-time opponent of abortion, Zeldin protested New York’s Reproductive Health Act of 2019, indicated during this year’s primary that if elected governor he would look to appoint an anti-abortion health commissioner, and praised the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe in a campaign statement. He supports increasing adoption opportunities across the state and the need for parental consent or informed consent when abortion care is being sought.

“The reality is, we’re gonna have a balance of power in January. The State Assembly is going to be Democrat,” he said in May when pressed by reporters about how he would change the state’s abortion laws, referring to the potential power structure in Albany if he wins and Republicans possibly re-take the State Senate, which is unlikely any time soon. “The Democratic control of the New York State Assembly is not going to be sending me a bill that is going to be rolling this stuff back,” he added of abortion protections.

When subsequently pressed on how he might use the governor’s immense powers in the state budget process to influence issues like abortion, same-sex marriage, and more, Zeldin did not directly provide an answer. Meanwhile, he has promised to use budget process leverage to change the state’s bail laws.

This month as a member of Congress, Zeldin voted against the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2022, which prohibits restrictions on abortion services, and the Ensuring Access to Abortion Act of 2022. He also voted against the Right to Contraception Act, which would federally protect access to birth control – but while all three bills passed a House vote, they will almost certainly fail to overcome the 60-vote threshold to overcome a filibuster in the Senate.

Zeldin was among those who voted against New York’s Marriage Equality Act of 2011 when he was in the State Senate. While some Republicans voted for it and others who opposed it then, like Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, have since said they regret their “no” vote, Zeldin has not changed his position.

Housing
Though he has touched on the subject in some interviews and debates, Zeldin has not released a plan to address the state’s affordable housing crisis or explained why he has avoided the subject, despite several requests from Gotham Gazette for comment.

He was among the vocal critics of Hochul’s accessory dwelling unit proposal when the governor released it early this year. He also told The New York Times that he thinks the longstanding tax break to promote affordable housing, 421-a, should not have expired in the Democratic Legislature and that he does not support ”good cause” eviction legislation, which would cap rent increases and make it harder to evict tenants.

But Zeldin does not provide any substantive housing policies at a time when population growth downstate – specifically in New York City and its suburbs – has continued to significantly outpace residential development over the past decade. The resulting housing crisis has squeezed renters, kept vacancy rates at emergency levels, increased homelessness, hurt overall the quality of life, and reduced homeownership opportunities. While Zeldin has repeatedly railed against Democratic leaders for New York losing residents to other states, he has not addressed housing costs beyond property taxes as a cause.

His "Pathways Up" proposals include expediting affordable housing production, auditing the New York City Housing Authority, and providing permanent housing for shelter residents, though the plan lacks detail.

MTA & Public Transit 
As a State Senator, Zeldin notably led the effort to repeal the MTA Payroll Tax for 80% of employers. But while he has touched on the subject in some interviews, Zeldin has not released any plans to address public transit or management of the MTA, despite multiple requests from Gotham Gazette for comment on the subject.

When asked to comment on the ​​Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the New York City subways and buses as well as the commuter rails to Long Island and the Hudson Valley, Zeldin told The New York Times that the biggest problem to address was public safety. 

“The security concerns are the biggest factor I’m hearing,” he said. “The more people who feel safe and choose to ride it, that helps to stabilize the finances of public transit.”

Health Care
As a state senator, Zeldin introduced and passed Adult Day Health Care legislation for disabled and elderly veterans and opened a new health care clinic for veterans, according to his website. But aside from promises to increase options for veterans, Zeldin has remained muted on the subject of health care during his campaign, despite multiple requests from Gotham Gazette for comment about his platform.

In his "Pathways Up" platform, Zeldin called for the state to "fully fund" mental health services and create diversion programs for people involved in the criminal justice system as a result of mental illness or substance abuse. Zeldin also called for Kendra's Law -- which allows court-ordered mental health treatment -- to be made permanent and for unspecified reforms to the state Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS).

Public University System
While Zeldin is an alum of the state’s public university system – graduating from SUNY Albany before attending Albany Law School – he has not yet provided any plans for the State University of New York or City University of New York (CUNY) systems. His campaign did not respond to Gotham Gazette inquiries about his plans for the university systems.

At the voting booth (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

August 25, 2022 - Max Politics Podcast: Breaking Down the 2022 State Senate Primary Results, with Jeff Coltin

Jeff Coltin of City and State New York joined the show to discuss the outcomes of the 2022 New York State Senate primaries, particularly in New York City, and various related themes.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter @TweetBenMax. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts at Max Politics.

(l-r) Jerry Nadler, Dan Goldman, Kristen Gonzalez (top) 
Gustavo Rivera, Robert Jackson, Andrew Gounardes

New York’s second primary election of the year has concluded, determining the general election nominees for the House of Representatives and State Senate. There were several competitive races, mostly among Democrats, across the city and state and while winners have been declared in most of them, a few are too close to call and could be decided in the coming days once thousands of absentee ballots are tallied.

This was the first-ever primary held in August, a result of a chaotic redistricting process this year, and turnout was low in most races. With new district lines in place, there were many high-profile Democratic primaries on Tuesday involving incumbents facing challengers, open races and longtime Democratic officials in direct competition. Some races may not be decided for days as the Board of Elections undertakes the task of canvassing absentee ballots, including giving voters the chance to correct erroneously marked ballots. In New York City, 62,649 votes were cast through absentee ballots through August 23, but only those that were canvassed through August 19 were included in the unofficial election night results.

There was a crowded Democratic primary for the 10th congressional district, which covers Lower Manhattan south of 14th street and parts of western Brooklyn. There were six leading candidates: City Council Member Carlina Rivera; Assemblymembers Yuh-line Niou and Jo Anne Simon; Dan Goldman, a former prosecutor who led the first impeachment of then-President Donald Trump; former U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman; and U.S. Rep. Mondaire Jones, who represents the Hudson Valley’s 17th district but moved to Brooklyn to run in the new 10th. 

Goldman won the race, which was called at 12:39 a.m. on Wednesday by The Associated Press. Niou trailed him in second place, while Jones came in third and Rivera was a close fourth.

One of the most closely watched races was the Democratic primary for the new 12th Congressional District, which combined the East and West Sides of Manhattan, from roughly 13th Street to 110th Street, and set up a clash between veteran Democratic Reps. Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney. Nadler handily won the race, with 55.4% of the vote against Maloney’s 24.18%, while a third candidate, attorney Suraj Patel, got 19.02%.

Another prominent race took place in the new 17th congressional district, which spans Rockland County, northern Westchester County, Putnam County, and parts of Dutchess County. Democratic U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, won that primary despite a spirited challenge from State Senator Alessandra Biaggi.

In the 19th congressional district, there was a special election under the old district lines to complete the remaining term of Democratic U.S. Rep. Antonio Delgado after he became lieutenant governor earlier this year. The race was being watched nationally as a bellwether for Democrats as they seek to hold on to their majority in the House of Representatives by energizing their base over abortion rights in the face of a Republican wave in the midterms. Democrat Pat Ryan, the Ulster County Executive, emerged as the winner, defeating Republican Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro.

In the State Senate, several incumbent Democrats fended off tough challenges on Tuesday.

In District 31, which covers parts of Manhattan and the Bronx, State Senator Robert Jackson defeated three challengers to win his primary, including Angel Vazquez, who had been endorsed by U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat.

In Broooklyn’s District 25, State Senator Jabari Brisport held his seat against two other candidates, including Rev. Conrad Tillard, who received an endorsement from Mayor Eric Adams.

State Senator Kevin Parker held on in Brooklyn’s District 21, beating two challengers, including David Alexis, a progressive who had been backed by the Working Families Party and the New York City Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA).

In South Brooklyn, State Senator Andrew Gounardes won the primary in the newly drawn District 26, defeating former City Council Member David Yassky.

In District 33 in the Bronx, Democratic State Senator Gustavo Rivera, a progressive, defeated his moderate challenger, Miguelina Camilo.

The redistricting process created two new Senate districts in the city and there was a competitive open race for the new District 59, which spans across neighborhoods in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Kristen Gonzalez, a progressive endorsed by the NYC-DSA, came out on top in the primary, defeating former City Council Member Elizabeth Crowley, a moderate, and Michael Corbett, vice chair of the state Democratic Party. 

Here’s a full look at the results from Tuesday night, with some absentee ballots still being counted. In almost every State Senate seat in New York City, the Democratic primary winner is all but certain to win in the general election given the overwhelming Democratic voter enrollment advantage in the city.

Congressional races

In the 1st Congressional District, Republican Nicholas LaLota has won, defeating two other candidates. The new district covers two-thirds of Suffolk County, Long Island,

In the 2nd Congressional District, Republican U.S. Rep. Andrew Garbarino has won, defeating two challengers. The new district covers the South Shore of Suffolk County from Amityville to Eastport on Long Island.

In the 3rd Congressional District, Democrat Robert Zimmerman has won, defeating four other candidates. The new district covers the northern half of Nassau County on Long Island.

In the 4th Congressional District, Democrat Laura Gillen has won, defeating three other candidates. The new district covers the southern half of Nassau County on Long Island.

In the 7th Congressional District, Democratic U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez has won, defeating her challenger, Paperboy Love Prince. The new district covers parts of northern Brooklyn including the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Greenpoint, and Bushwick and parts of Queens, including Long Island City, Sunnyside, Ridgewood, Glendale and Woodhaven

In the 8th Congressional District, Democratic U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries has won, handily defeating challenger Queen Johnson. The new district spans central, eastern and southern Brooklyn including Bedford-Stuyvesant, Ocean Hill, East New York, Canarsie, Bergen Beach, Gerritsen Beach, Sheepshead Bay, Brighton Beach and Coney Island.

In the 10th Congressional District, Democrat Daniel Goldman has won, defeating a crowded field of a dozen other candidates. The new district covers Lower Manhattan south of 14th street and parts of western Brooklyn including Downtown, Gowanus, Park Slope, Sunset Park, Red Hook, and Borough Park.

In the 11th Congressional District, Republican U.S. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis has won her primary, defeating challenger John Matland.

Democrat Max Rose has won the Democratic primary for the district, defeating two other candidates. The district covers the entirety of Staten Island and parts of South Brooklyn.

In the 12th Congressional District, Democratic U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler has won, defeating fellow Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney, attorney Suraj Patel, and Ashmi Patel. The new district combines the East and West Sides of Manhattan, from roughly 13th Street to 110th Street, with variation on each side of Central Park.

In the 13th Congressional District, Democratic U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat has won, defeating two challengers. The new district covers Upper Manhattan from East Harlem to Inwood and parts of the Bronx including Kingsbridge, University Heights, and Bedford Park

In the 14th Congressional District, Republican Tina Forte has won the primary against Desi Cuellar. The district is currently represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The new district covers northern Queens including Astoria, Steinway, East Elmhurst, Corona and College Point, and the eastern side of the Bronx including Hunts Point, Castle Hill, Throggs Neck, Parkchester, Pelham, Co-op City, City Island and parts of Eastchester.

In the 16th Congressional District, Democratic U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman has won, defeating three challengers. The new district covers southern Westchester County and parts of the northeast Bronx.

In the 17th Congressional District, Democratic U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney has won, defeating State Senator Alessandra Biaggi. The new district spans Rockland County, northern Westchester County, Putnam County, and parts of Dutchess County.

In the Republican primary for the district, Assemblymember Michael Lawler has won, defeating four other candidates.

In the 18th Congressional District, in the Mid-Hudson Valley, Democrat Pat Ryan has won, defeating two other candidates.

In the 19th Congressional District, Democrat ​​Josh Riley has won, defeating Jamie Cheney. The new district covers parts of the Southern Tier, Catskills, and Hudson Valley.

There was a special election for the 19th District, under the old district lines. Democrat Pat Ryan, the Ulster County Executive, won the race, beating Republican Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro.

In the 20th Congressional District, in the Capital region, Democratic U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko has won, defeating his challenger, Rostislav Rar.

In the 21st Congressional District, Democrat Matt Castelli has won, defeating Matthew Putorti. The new district covers most of the North Country and Adirondacks, and parts of the Capital region,

In the 22nd Congressional District in Central New York, Democrat Francis Conole has won, defeating three other candidates.

In the Republican primary for the district, Brandon Williams has won, defeating Steve Wells.

In the 23rd Congressional District, Nick Langworthy, the State GOP chair, won against Carl Paladino. The new district covers parts of the Southern Tier and parts of Erie, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany, Steuben, Chemung, and Schuyler counties

There was also a special election in District 23, under the old district lines. Republican Joseph Sempolinski won, defeating Democrat Max Della Pia.

In the 24th Congressional District, Republican U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney won, defeating Mario Fratto. The new district includes parts of Western New York and the North Country.

In the 26th Congressional District, Democratic U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins has won, defeating his challenger, Emin “Eddie” Egriu. The district covers parts of Erie and Niagara counties, including Buffalo and Niagara Falls.

State Senate Races in New York City

In District 15, Democratic State Senator Joseph Addabbo Jr. has won, defeating two challengers. The new district covers parts of southwestern Queens.

In District 21, Democratic State Senator Kevin Parker has won, defeating two challengers. The new district covers parts of central and southern Brooklyn.

In District 23, Democrat Jessica Scarcella-Spanton has won, defeating three other candidates in the Democratic primary. The new district covers Staten Island’s north and east shores and parts of Brooklyn, including Coney Island.

In the Republican primary for the district, Joseph Tirone Jr. has defeated Sergey Fedorov.

In District 25, Democratic State Senator Jabari Brisport has won, defeating two challengers. The new district covers parts of Brooklyn from the Brooklyn Navy Yard to Ocean Hill.

In District 26, Democratic State Senator Andrew Gounardes has won, defeating his challenger, David Yassky. The new district covers parts of western Brooklyn from Dumbo to Fort Hamilton.

In District 27, Democratic State Senator Brian Kavanagh has won, defeating two challengers. The new district covers Lower Manhattan.

In District 30, Democratic State Senator Cordell Cleare has won, defeating her challenger, Shana Harmongoff. The new district covers Upper Manhattan from Bloomingdale and Harlem up to Sugar Hill.

In District 31, Democratic State Senator Robert Jackson has won, defeating three challengers. The new district covers Upper Manhattan from Washington Heights to Inwood and parts of the Bronx including Morris Heights, University Heights, Marble Hill and Kingsbridge.

In District 33, Democratic State Senator Gustavo Rivera defeated his challenger, Miguelina Camilo. The new district covers parts of the Bronx from Riverdale to Van Nest.

In District 34, Democrat Nathalia Fernandez has won, defeating two other candidates. The new district covers the East Bronx and parts of Westchester.

In District 47, Democratic State Senator Brad Hoylman has won, defeating his challenger, Maria Danzilo. The new district covers the West Side of Manhattan from the Meatpacking District to the Upper West Side.

In District 59, Democrat Kristen Gonzalez has won, defeating two other candidates (another two candidates were on the ballot but dropped out of the race). The new district covers parts of Midtown East in Manhattan, Greenpoint in Brooklyn, and Astoria and Long Island City in Queens.

State Senate Races Outside NYC

In District 4, Democrat Monica Martinez has won against Assemblymember Phil Ramos. The new district covers the southern parts of Suffolk County.

In District 7, Democratic State Senator Anna Kaplan has won against her challenger, Jeremy Joseph. The new district covers parts of Long Island’s north shore.

In District 51, Republican State Senator Peter Oberacker has won against his challenger, Terry Bernardo. The new district includes Delaware, Otsego, Schoharie, Sullivan, part of Broome, part of Chenango and part of Ulster counties.

In District 52, Democrat Lea Webb has won, defeating Leslie Danks Burke. The new district covers Cortland, Tompkins and parts of Broome counties.

(photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

New Yorkers will head to the polls on Tuesday to vote in primaries for Congress and State Senate, the second primary election this year following an earlier June primary for statewide and state assembly races. 

The two separate primaries were a result of a messy redistricting process that unfolded this year, with new district lines drawn based on the 2020 Census count. With the new maps in place, there are several competitive races across the city and state, especially among Democrats, with no easy predictions about the results. 

Polls will be open in New York City from  6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Find your poll site here

WATCH: Previewing August Primary Day in New York

Read: New York Congressional Races to Watch in the August Primary

Read: New York State Senate Races to Watch in the August Primary 

Here are seven things to watch in Tuesday’s primary election:

1. Turnout
Turnout is broadly expected to be low since New York has never held a primary in August before and many New Yorkers will be away for the summer. The nine-day early voting period came to an end on Sunday, with 148,331 voters casting early ballots across the state, including 76,335 voters in New York City, according to data from the State Board of Elections.

Absentee ballots also continue to come in. As of Friday, 210,152 absentee ballots had been sent to voters, including 108,874 in the city; 77,177 had been returned, including 36,890 in the city. Manhattan accounted for the most early votes and absentee ballots returned across the state. 

With two separate primaries, there is no easy way to compare turnout to previous elections. In the June primary, there were statewide candidates on the ballot and turnout fell drastically from 2018. Only 13% of registered Democrats, about 865,000, voted in the Democratic primary for governor while 16% of registered Republicans, or 447,000, voted in the Republican gubernatorial primary. 

2. Two Big House Primaries
There are two major Democratic primaries taking place in the newly drawn 10th and 12th congressional districts in New York City. 

The new 10th District covers Lower Manhattan south of 14th street and parts of western Brooklyn including Downtown, Gowanus, Park Slope, Sunset Park, Red Hook, and Borough Park. More than a dozen Democrats are on the primary ballot in the race, though there are six leading candidates based on public polls, endorsements and fundraising: City Council Member Carlina Rivera; Assemblymembers Yuh-line Niou and Jo Anne Simon; Dan Goldman, a former prosecutor who led the first impeachment of then-President Donald Trump; former U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman; and U.S. Rep. Mondaire Jones, who represents the Hudson Valley’s 17th district but moved to Brooklyn to run in the new 10th.

Goldman, Niou and Rivera have consistently been at the front in public polling. But Goldman, a moderate and an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, seems to be the apparent frontrunner, having put $4 million of his own personal wealth into his campaign and receiving the coveted endorsement of The New York Times. 

The primary winner will face Republican Benine Hamdan in the November general election.

The new 12th congressional district combined the East and West Sides of Manhattan from roughly 13th Street to 110th Street, leading to a fiercely contested primary between veteran Democratic Reps. Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney. Also in the race is Suraj Patel, a young attorney who previously unsuccessfully challenged Maloney twice, and a fourth candidate, Ashmi Sheth, who has run a limited campaign.  

Read: Contentious NY-12 Primary to Conclude, with Nadler and Maloney Careers on the Line

Experts say that absentee ballots could be decisive in both races. 

Read: Absentee Ballot Programs Could Be 'Single Most Important Factor' in High-Profile NY-10 and NY-12 Congressional Races

3. State Senate Incumbents Face Tough Challenges
Several Democratic State Senators are facing tough primary battles as they contend with their new district lines. 

In District 21, which covers parts of central and southern Brooklyn, State Senator Kevin Parker faces two challengers: David Alexis, a progressive endorsed by the Working Families Party and the New York City Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA); and Kaegan Mays-Williams, a former assistant district attorney in Manhattan.

State Senator Andrew Gounardes currently represents District 22, from Bay Ridge and Borough Park to Gerritsen Beach. But he is running for reelection in the newly drawn District 26, spanning parts of western Brooklyn from Dumbo to Fort Hamilton, including Gounardes’ base in Bay Ridge. He is being challenged by David Yassky, a former City Council member, former policy advisor to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and Bloomberg-era Taxi & Limousine Commissioner

State Senator Gustavo Rivera’s district lines changed drastically and his home is now outside the new District 33, which covers parts of the Bronx from Riverdale to Van Nest. If he wins, he will have to move to the new district. Rivera is facing massive opposition from the Bronx Democratic Party, which is backing his challenger, Miguelina Camilo, president of the Bronx Women’s Bar Association and a first-time candidate. 

State Senator Robert Jackson is running for reelection in the newly drawn District 31, which covers Upper Manhattan from Washington Heights to Inwood and parts of the Bronx including Morris Heights, University Heights, Marble Hill and Kingsbridge. He faces three opponents but the toughest challenger among them is Angel Vasquez, a political consultant and former chief of staff to former State Senator Marisol Alcantara, who Jackson unseated in 2018. Vasquez has been backed by several elected officials and others led by U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat.

The other two challengers are perennial candidate Ruben Dario Vargas and Spanish-language interpreter Francesca Castellanos.

4. Progressive-Moderate Battle for New Triborough Senate Seat
The redistricting process essentially created two new State Senate seats in the city with no incumbents in either: District 17, an Asian plurality district in South Brooklyn; and District 59, which includes parts of Midtown East in Manhattan, Greenpoint in Brooklyn, and Astoria and Long Island City in Queens. 

There is a heated primary battle in District 59. There are five candidates on the ballot but only two main contenders, former City Council Member Elizabeth Crowley, and Kristen Gonzalez, a product manager for American Express backed by the Democratic Socialists of America - New York City. Michael Corbett, vice chair of the state Democratic Party, is also running, while the other two candidates have dropped out. Nomiki Konst, a former journalist and one-time public advocate candidate, abandoned her bid for the seat and endorsed Gonzalez, while small business owner Francoise Olivas dropped out and backed Crowley. 

In District 17, there is no primary race. Iwen Chu, chief of staff to Assembly Member Peter Abbate Jr., has the Democratic nomination and is all but assured to win the general election given the heavy Democratic enrollment advantage in the district.  

5. Mayor Adams' Endorsements
In several competitive races where moderates and progressives are facing off, one prominent voice has been attempting to influence the outcome. Mayor Eric Adams, a moderate Democrat, has made endorsements in more than a dozen races this year, including previously in the June primary, as he hopes to help elect Democrats who will support his policy goals, particularly on changing the state’s bail laws. 

“I just want reasonable thinking lawmakers. I want people that are responding to the constituents,” Adams said at an unrelated news conference on August 18. “The people of this city, they want to support police, they want safe streets, they want to make sure people who are part of the catch-release-repeat system don't continue to hurt innocent New Yorkers.”

Adams has endorsed former Council Member Elizabeth Crowley, a moderate, in District 59 over progressive Kristen Gonzalez. He has backed State Sen. Parker for reelection. He also held a fundraiser for Miguelina Camilo, who is running against State Sen. Rivera. 

One of his choices was particularly controversial. He endorsed Rev. Conrad Tillard in his primary challenge against State Senator Jabari Brisport, a progressive running in District 25, which covers parts of Brooklyn from the Brooklyn Navy Yard to Ocean Hill. The New York Daily News reported soon after that Tillard has a history of anti-Semitic, anti-abortion and anti-gay remarks, but Adams nonetheless defended him, saying he is “a lot different than the man who said those things decades ago.”

6. Rose Poised for Rematch Against Malliotakis
Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis is expected to win her primary for District 11, which covers the entirety of Staten Island and parts of South Brooklyn, against her opponent John Matland, a health care worker. Malliotakis, the only Republican Congress member in the city, took the seat in 2020 after defeating Democrat Max Rose, who won the district in 2018 by unseating Republican Dan Donovan. 

Rose is hoping for a rematch against Malliotakis this year. He is seeking the Democratic nomination for the seat against progressive activist Brittany Ramos DeBarros and Komi Agoda-Koussema, a public school teacher. If he should win, he will likely face Malliotakis in the general election and though the district leans towards Republicans, Democrats will see it as an opportunity to flip the seat. 

7. Others With a Lot on the Line
There’s a lot on the line in Tuesday’s primary for players across the political board. 

The Working Families Party and the NYC-DSA saw several of their endorsed candidates lose in the June primary and tomorrow's election is their second shot at flexing their political muscle. The two organizations have endorsed progressive candidates in several competitive races, including both incumbents and challengers. In the 10th congressional district, the WFP has backed Assemblymember Yuh-line Niou, presenting a big test for the minor party in its own backyard in Brooklyn. Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez, a WFP standard bearer, has put all her weight behind Council Member Carlina Rivera instead of endorsing Niou or her Democratic House colleague, Rep. Mondaire Jones. 

Read: Congressional Race in Its Base a Big Test for Working Families Party 

The WFP has also endorsed State Senator Alessandra Biaggi in the open race for the 17th congressional district that spans Rockland County, northern Westchester County, Putnam County, and parts of Dutchess County. Biaggi is running a spirited campaign from the left against U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. 

In the 16th congressional district, which covers southern Westchester County and parts of the northeast Bronx, the WFP endorsed Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman, who is trying to hold on to his seat against three primary challengers: Westchester County Legislators Vedat Gashi and Catherine Parker, and Mark Jaffe, president and CEO of the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce. 

Gashi, a moderate, has emerged as the toughest contender of the three and has been endorsed by former longtime Rep. Eliot Engel, who Bowman ousted from office in 2020.  

The NYC-DSA and WFP’s endorsements also overlap in some cases. Both have endorsed Gonzalez against Crowley in Senate District 59, Alexis against Parker in District 21, and Brisport in District 25 against his primary challengers. 

Political observers are also closely watching the 19th congressional district. There is an open race under the new district lines, which cover parts of the Southern Tier, Catskills, and Hudson Valley. The seat has been empty since Antonio Delgado was appointed lieutenant governor and two candidates are running in the Democratic primary to replace him: attorney Josh Riley and small business owner Jamie Cheney. The winner will face Republican Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro in the general election.

But Delgado’s resignation also triggered a special election, also set for Tuesday, for the remainder of his term under the current district lines, and Democratic Ulster County executive Pat Ryan and Molinaro are running for the seat. At the same time, Ryan is running in the primary for the 18th congressional district, putting him on two separate ballots. Most of the current 19th District is included within the newly-drawn 19th, while other parts of the district have ended up in the new 18th District. 

The special election is being seen as a harbinger of what could happen in the fall general election, as Democrats are hoping to fend off a red wave that threatens their House majority by energizing their base over the Supreme Court’s recent decision to strike down the national right to an abortion. 

For Democratic Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the primary will be a test of his political power as well as he has endorsed two challengers in competitive races against incumbent progressive Democrats. He endorsed Angel Vasquez, who is challenging State Senator Robert Jackson in the newly drawn District 31, and has also backed Miguelina Camilo against State Senator Gustavo Rivera in the new District 33. 

Espaillat has also endorsed Council Member Rivera in the 10th congressional district.

Note- this article has been updated. 

(l-r) Jerry Nadler, Carolyn Maloney, Suraj Patel

Once allies in Congress, Representatives Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney have become fierce competitors as they both run in the new 12th Congressional District of New York in this month’s Democratic primary. The two long-time House members were each first elected to Congress in 1992, but a chaotic redistricting process led to both their bases being drawn into the same new district, which includes much of both the East Side and West Side of Manhattan from about 18th Street to the north end of Central Park.

That election is set to come to a conclusion on primary day, Tuesday, August 23, with the winner all but certain to win the general election and be in Congress come January given the district’s immense Democratic tilt.

Also in the race is attorney Suraj Patel, who has challenged Maloney the past two primaries, almost defeating her in 2020, and Ashmi Sheth. While Patel has raised significant campaign funding and polled relatively well, Sheth has not garnered any apparent momentum.

Patel, who is running on “generational change,” “fresh ideas,” and being an “Obama Democrat,” appeared alongside Nadler and Maloney in two televised debates, where he sought to contrast himself to the veteran lawmakers, each of whom has chaired a powerful House committee this term. Nadler and Maloney are running on their power in Congress and accomplishments over their decades there.

Nadler has contrasted his and Maloney’s voting record (particularly on the Iraq War, Patriot Act, and Iran nuclear deal) while both he and Patel have questioned her past skepticism about childhood vaccines.

Maloney has questioned Patel’s commitment to the communities of the district and Nadler’s ability to get a priority rail freight tunnel built while touting her ability to move the Second Avenue Subway ahead. She has also stressed the importance of female leadership amid the battle over reproductive rights.

Patel has said both veteran lawmakers have been unable to effectively lead in the most important fights of recent years against Republicans and that they are not offering new ideas to solve problems, pointing to his own extensive policy platform.

Polls have shown Nadler as a heavy favorite in the primary, but experts warn it and others happening this month are very difficult to predict given the timing and expected low voter turnout.

“I didn’t want to run against my good friend Jerry Nadler,” Maloney said in a NY1/WNYC debate. “We have been good friends and allies for years. Unfortunately we have been drawn into the same district. I would have much preferred to have the old district that I had.”

If the low-voter turnout in the June gubernatorial primary is any indicator, it is expected that the confusion of a second primary, along with many voters leaving the city for August vacations will lead to relatively few ballots cast, though the communities of NY-12 include some of the highest turnout areas of the city.

“Someone joked that many West Side voters will be upstate while the East Side voters will be in the Hamptons,” said Basil Smikle, director of Public Policy at Hunter College and former executive director of the New York State Democratic Party. “That's not far off.”

Those factors have made absentee ballot programming seen as a potential difference-maker in this and other primaries this month for U.S. House and State Sente seats.

“I think the media interest and the close competition between two highly-respected veteran members of the House, plus a robustly self-funded vibrant young candidate in Patel, could create the kind of horse race that has traditionally generated higher than expected turnout,” said political consultant Bruce Gyory.

Nadler is banking on his Upper West Side base staying true to its typcal highest-turnout-in-the-city showings. The Upper West side has a large population of politically engaged public school parents who have a long record of voting for Nadler, Smikle said. Meanwhile, Maloney may see some of her East Side base eaten into by Patel, who is in his third run to represent the area (in its new form the 12th district has gained much of the West Side while losing parts of Queens and Brooklyn where Patel did well in 2020 especially).

Nadler has sought to cement himself as the progressive in the race based on his voting history, which even Patel has acknowledged is difficult to assail. He pointed in the NY1/WNYC debate to his votes against the Iraq War and Patriot Act and for the Iran nuclear deal, while Maloney took oppositve stances.

In hindsight, Maloney said in an interview with Gotham Gazette that she stands by her decisions to support the Patriot Act and oppose the Iran nuclear deal, but regrets voting for the Iraq War.

“The classified briefings said they had weapons of mass destruction and could come in and blow up Times Square in my District,” Maloney said of the Iraq War vote on the Max Politics podcast with host Ben Max, editor of Gotham Gazette. “Now, it turned out to be not true, but that’s retrospect. At the time, I did not know. And if they were saying they were going to hurt the people I represented, I was obviously very concerned. But I regret that vote now.”

Maloney also expressed regret about her history of questioning childhood vaccines, which became a focus for her about a dozen years ago and has been a source of intense criticism from Patel, Nalder, and others.

Both are among the judgment calls that Patel has used against Maloney, and part of his larger argument for change.

“We need people with new ideas and energy,” Patel said during the NY1/WNYC debate. “It’s 2022. It’s time to turn the page on 1992.”

Nadler and Maloney have pushed back. “What have you done?,” Maloney has repeatedly asked Patel during debates or, rhetorically, during the podcast.

They both argue that a long tenure of experience should be seen as a strength.

“With seniority comes clout and the ability to get things done,” Nadler said. “Both Carolyn and I have used that clout very effectively.”

“Both campaigns have made this race about their roots and personal history,” said Camille Rivera, Partner at New Deal Strategies, a progressive political consultancy, about Nadler and Maloney. 

In Maloney’s own words, when asked during the debate how she is different from Nadler, Maloney said “in many ways we’re similar,” but that “when you compare our records of accomplishment, my record speaks for itself.”

But during the interview with Gotham Gazette, Maloney had a different answer. "And I didn't quit on the Second Avenue Subway, which I went to Congress to build, and I've now built it,” she said when asked to differentiate herself with Nadler. “I think a major difference between me and Mr. Nadler is he came to Congress wanting to build his rail freight tunnel, it's still not built."

Also, as Rivera said, Maloney is “running as a feminist champion,” and portrays Nadler as “just another white male who needs to get out of the way.” Nadler, on the other hand, “has leaned into his record and his progressive bonafides” and is “running on [Trump] impeachment, voting rights, and anti-corruption, painting Maloney as wealthy and out-of-touch.”

Both Nadler and Maloney have used ‘identity politics’ as leverage for their campaigns. Nadler, raised Orthodox in Brooklyn, is the last remaining Jewish lawmaker in New York City’s delegation to the House of Representatives. Maloney serves as one of the House’s 123 female members, representing just 28.3% of the 435 seats.

“It’s not lost on either campaign that there will be a loss of federal representation no matter who wins. Jerry Nadler is the last Jewish member of the New York delegation, and Carolyn Maloney is a woman running in a post-Roe environment,” Rivera said. “Identity may well be a difference-maker, but they are also well-established, well-respected politicians.”

Gyory said he foresees the possibility of female voters favoring Maloney and Jewish voters favoring Nadler, but the way Jewish women vote this election could be of utmost interest.

“Jewish women in this district will feel cross-tugged,” Gyory said. “Thus how Jewish women break in this district between Maloney and Nadler will be a key, perhaps the key, to the outcome.”

Meanwhile, many  elected officials, advocacy groups, labor unions, and other typical political campaign endorsers have had to make difficult choices between Nadler and Maloney. For some longtime close allies the choice has been easy, but others that have consistently endorsed both, the race has pitted two Democratic stalwarts.

“Major endorsers, who have historically endorsed both candidates when they ran in separate districts, have either stayed out, been forced to pick sides, or co-endorsed, which is an awful place to be in,” Rivera said.

The New NY-12
In addition to the Upper West Side, Nadler’s current district, NY-10, also covers the west sides of Midtown and Lower Manhattan, as well as parts of Brooklyn, including Borough Park and Bensonhurst. Maloney currently represents NY-12, which includes the East Side of Manhattan, Greenpoint in Brooklyn, western Queens, and Roosevelt Island. 

New York’s modified 12th District, altered as a result of redistricting, will only encompass Manhattan neighborhoods. It and other new districts will take effect come January in terms of representation in Congress, thus forming the election boundaries in these races. The new NY-12 includs the Upper West Side, the Upper East Side, all of Midtown, and a smattering of neighborhoods just to the south.

Voters in the new 12th district voted overwhelmingly for Joe Biden in the 2020 election, at 86.1%, according to Redistricting & You from the CUNY Mapping Service. According to the director of that service, Steven Romalewski of the CUNY Graduate Center, Nadler’s current district is more Democratic than Maloney’s, with Democrat making up 72% of the registered voters compared to 62%.

Representing some of New York City’s wealthiest areas, the median household incomes in both Nadler’s and Maloney’s current districts are both well above $100,000, according to Census Reporter. They are among the richest congressional districts in the nation.

Jerry Nadler
Nadler’s interest in politics can be traced back to his time at Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, when he was elected president of his senior class. Assemblymember Dick Gottfried, Nadler’s former classmate, confidante, and fellow New York Democratic politician, helped Nadler with his class presidential campaign. 

“If you knew Jerry Nadler when he was 14, nothing about him today would be a surprise,” Gottfried told Columbia College Today. “Almost everything you would say about Jerry today, you would say when he was a teenager.”

Nadler has been a progressive leader for many decades. He was one of the founders of West Side Kids, a Democratic reform group, advocating for liberal and anti-war candidates in New York City politics, according to the Columbia profile. On his House website, Nadler touts being the first member of Congress from New York to openly support marriage equality. 

Before he was elected to Congress, Nadler represented the Upper West Side in the New York State Assembly for 16 years. He is seen as an Upper West Side institution, associated with other icons of the area, like Zabar’s, one of his frequent haunts.

“It would be very unfortunate if there was no Jewish representation from New York,” Nadler told the Washington Post. “As it would if there was no Latino representation or no Black representation.”

As the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Nadler gained national attention for leading the first impeachment trial of Donald Trump. He was one of the seven House Managers appointed to lead the prosecution of the sitting president, and helped to introduce and pass the articles of impeachment in the House. 

“If the President puts himself before the country, he violates the president’s most basic responsibility. He breaks his oath to the American people,” Nadler said in his opening statement of the House Judiciary Committee’s impeachment inquiry hearings. “Even if the president is unwilling to honor his oath, I am compelled to honor mine.”

Unlike Maloney and Patel, Nadler declined to participate in an in-depth interview with Gotham Gazette on his candidacy for Congress this year.

Carolyn Maloney
Maloney has a long history of activism and resume as an elected official. She started her career as an ESL teacher in East Harlem, and successfully advocated to restore funding for the program, according to her campaign website. She then worked as for the Department of Education and as an aide in the State Legislature.

Maloney soon pivoted to politics and was elected to New York City Council in 1982. As a City Council member, Maloney introduced New York’s first LGBT equality bill. She was the first woman to give birth while serving in the Council and Maloney tried to pass inclusive paid family leave.

Ten years after she was first elected to the City Council, Maloney ousted Republican incumbent Bill Green from his Manhattan Congressional seat. Green had served in the district for 14 years, and Maloney won despite being outspent by Green by $380,000. “Ms. Maloney campaigned with puppy-dog energy, shaking hands, pushing through crowds to introduce herself, always smiling,” The New York Times wrote of Maloney following her 1992 victory. She has held the seat since despite several challenges.

“I’m running to win,” Maloney said on Max Politics. “I've never lost an election and I don't intend to start now.”

Maloney is often hailed as a staunch fighter for women’s rights and as been a leading voice in the effort to pass the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution, which would prohibit discrimination based on sex. 

“It is long past time to cement gender equality in our nation’s most important text, the Constitution, once and for all. With the ERA, we secure equality under the law for women and all marginalized genders. While the last four years have shown us that we may not be able to control who is on the Supreme Court, in the White House, or in charge of Congress and local government, we can control the document they interpret and the legal parameters under which they operate,” Maloney, who served as the lead House sponsor of the ERA, said in a 2021 statement.

In Congress, Maloney became the first woman to chair the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. In the role, she authored the CARD Act, which provided consumer protections through a credit cardholder bill of rights, and the Debbie Smith Act, which created a grant program to provide law enforcement with the resources to oversee the forensic testing of DNA rape kits. She has also chaired a long list of oversight hearings on many pressing issues, including gun violence and reproductive rights, the 2020 Census, and more.

During the interview with Gotham Gazette, Maloney touted her work on consumer protection, bringing infrastructure funding back to the district, and more. She became especially defensive around questions about her past vaccine skepticism and touted bringing covid vaccination centers to her district.

After some back and forth that included an apparent reference to cutting the interview short, Maloney said she regrets having asked questions about vaccines.

Patel is not the only candidate highlighting Maloney’s past vaccine views. Nadler’s campaign website says Maloney “has been a leading anti-vaccine voice in Congress.”

“I think I’m unfairly attacked. [Nadler] knows it’s a lie. He knows that I support vaccines,” Maloney told Gotham Gazette, but when asked did not explain what about how her past has been presented is untrue.

“I regret any statement I ever made asking a question about vaccines,” Maloney eventually said.

Suraj Patel
Patel — an attorney and adjunct professor of business ethics at NYU who has also worked in his family’s hospitality business — is running for the third consecutive time to represent the 12th congressional district. If elected, he would be the first Indian American from New York to serve in Congress.

During his recent appearance on Gotham Gazette’s Max Politics podcast, Patel said he has talked to thousands of NY-12 residents on the streets who have led him to believe that they are ready for a change in national leadership. He also emphasized the need for a younger generation of Democrats with new ideas, values, and energy to fight against Trumpism and “win back the rights we've lost over the last few months,” in reference to the Supreme Court overturning Roe abortion rights.

“The status quo has failed New York and it's failed the Democrats and it's failed in Washington,” Patel told Gotham Gazette. “After a combined 60 years of incumbency, 1990s Democrats like Carolyn Maloney and Jerry Nadler have lost every major battle to Mitch McConnell and the Republicans, whether it's on abortion, gun control rights, and securing our democracy or climate change.”

Patel added that Democrats have had control of the state’s three branches of government, yet have not codified abortion protections or other important civil rights into law (those based on Roe v. Wade, Griswold vs. Connecticut, Obergefell v. Hodges, and Loving v. Virginia), which he said is “an indictment” of “misplaced priorities.”
At the same time as he’s criticized Nadler and Maloney, Patel has been an ardent supporter of another ‘1990s Democrat’ in President Joe Biden. Patel worked on the Obama-Biden campaigns and worked briefly in the Obama administration.

Patel is offering himself as the candidate with ideas for solving problems, and he has released an extensive policy platform. His main priorities if elected would be to improve public safety, control the cost of living, and protect civil liberties, as outlined on his campaign website alongside many other categories.

To increase affordability of the city and beyond, Patel’s “Abundant Society” plan calls for driving down inflation and the cost of healthcare, housing, and higher education. His proposal includes building at least five million new homes by consolidating the House Supply and Affordability Act, YIMBY Act, and HOME Act; repealing the Faircloth Amendment, which limits the number of public housing units that federal authorities can create; reintroducing the Services for Ending Long-Term Homelessness Act; passing Build Back Better and the Green New Deal for Public Housing Act; protecting existing tenants through the Eviction Crisis Act; and implementing the Biden-Harris Administration Housing Supply Action Plan.

His other recent omnibus plan, “Dynamic Society,” argues that “America is meant to build, invent, and create.” The proposal advocates for reinvesting in science and technology by spending 2% of GDP each year on research development, including funding for public universities, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and more, as well as seed funding into a national green infrastructure and investment bank to modernize infrastructure and prioritize loans and equity to public science and technology.

Among other pieces, the plan also aims to guarantee an advance market for commercialized technology, increase funding to a variety of government research initiatives, and reform the National Environmental Policy Act to make it more difficult to block environmental projects.

During the podcast, Patel explained that his plans are national but also relate to the district, which is home to many research institutions, especially public health. He said the two plans are a “long-term, new economic” argument to strengthen the “manufacturing and middle-class capacity of this economy” through “the dynamic ingenuity” of the district for research development technologies and innovation.

Patel calls himself a “pro-growth” candidate, arguing that there needs to be a “new economic argument” that does not denounce growth, but aims to build in abundance to combat rising prices and scarcity when it comes to housing and much more.

While speaking on the podcast, Patel said cities including New York are facing a “livability crisis,” and many people have had to choose between living in the city or raising a family.

“When I say we need to make a new argument for New York values, it means understanding the mediums by which we can change the conversation and message a new economic argument for Democrats and for the middle class and for this country,” Patel said on the podcast. “And it's not standing up in front of a podium with Carolyn Maloney and Jerry Nadler, an easel, talking about on C-SPAN something that's irrelevant to people's lives. My campaign and I have sprung into action so many times just in the last three months to make change.”

In their two past match-ups, Maloney has criticized Patel for his campaign’s deceptive use of dating apps to lure political supporters and past “creepy” Faceboook comments he made about meeting a young gymnast. In those and this campaign, she has repeatedly questioned Patel’s commitment to the district, asking what he has done for the communities between his congressional runs.

While Patel has critiqued Nadler at times, most of his criticism has gone toward Maloney, especially a focus on her past vaccine skepticism. He has posted a one-minute campaign video alleging Maloney was a “committed anti-vaxxer” and noting Nadler exercised his “good judgment” in endorsing her during the 2020 NY-12 congressional race.

According to both Patel’s and Nadler’s campaign websites, Maloney has introduced or sponsored nine anti-vaccine bills, held anti-vaccine hearings, and spoken at anti-vaccine rallies, repeatedly raising questions about the debunked theory that childhood vaccines can foster autism in kids.

“Her voting record is completely out of step with this district,” Patel said of Maloney during the podcast. “On top of everything, she was the leading anti-vaxxer in Congress for 15 years…​​if you want to be a representative from a district like this, you should be pro-science and pro-democracy, full stop.”

When Maloney’s history of vaccine skepticism and Nadler’s support for her in the past came up at the NY1/WNYC debate, Nadler said to Patel, “I endorsed Carolyn despite her unfortunate record on vaccines, because in the contest between you and her, I frankly thought she was the better candidate.” Patel then asked where he stood now, and Nadler replied, “I still think so.”

State of the Race
Polling has shown Nadler as the favorite in the race, with some surveys indicating he could run away with the election.

“Whether Patel takes more votes from Maloney’s base on the East Side or from Nadler’s base on the West Side” will largely determine the outcome of the election, Gyory said.

While Nadler has not faced serious challenges to his seat, Maloney has, including most recently from Patel.

Patel challenged Maloney in the old District 12 in 2018 and in 2020. In his first attempt, Patel ran as a progressive and campaigned with then-candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Patel lost by roughly 20 percentage points, receiving 41.2% of the vote. 

Patel’s second run against Maloney was a much tighter race, decided by a difference of only 3,300 votes and Patel losing by only 4%. But, significant areas of success for him in Brooklyn and Queens are no longer in the 12th Congressional District.

“This time around, it looks as though the Patel strategy is run on a ‘generational change’ message, but it’s hard to say how successful that will be, given both neighborhoods’ decades of loyalty to both Maloney and Nadler,” Rivera said of the Upper East and West Sides.

This race has also taken a strange twist around the candidates’ support, or lack thereof, of Democratic President Joe Biden.

During the NY1/WNYC debate, when asked if Biden should run again in 2024, the three candidates gave three different answers. Patel responded first with a simple and resounding “yes,” while Nadler and Maloney were not so sure.

Nadler said it was “too early to say” and that it “doesn’t serve the purpose of the Democratic Party to deal with that until after the midterms,” while Maloney casted doubt on Biden’s potential candidacy, even though the president has said he intends to seek a second term.

“I don’t believe he’s running for reelection,” she said.

Two days later, Maloney went on national TV to apologize to Biden but then doubled-down.

“Mr. President, I apologize. I want you to run,” Maloney said on CNN. “I happen to think you won’t be running, but when you run or if you run, I will be there 100%.” 

Maloney then gave a different response to Gotham Gazette.

“It was silly of me to conjecture on President Biden’s decision to run, and there should be no question whether I support him,” Maloney said on Max Politics. “I have before, and I will do it again.”

When asked if she thought Biden would run again, Maloney responded in the affirmative: “Yes, I do,” she said, changing her stance. It then became public that Maloney had also previously told the New York Times editorial board that she didn’t think Biden would run, during interviews as part of the endorsement process that ultimately yielded the board’s support for Nadler.

Nadler and Maloney have both received many high-profile endorsements in the race, though none may be as powerful as The Times.

Nadler has also been endorsed by Senator Chuck Schumer, the left-wing Working Families Party, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, many New York elected officials including Comptroller Brad Lander, and many West Side electeds like State Senator Brad Hoylman, Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, and City Council Member Gale Brewer; among many other endorsers.

Maloney has won the support of women’s rights icon Gloria Steinam and groups like Planned Parenthood Action Fund, many East Side elected officials including Assemblymembers Harvey Epstein and Deborah Glick and City Council Member Keith Powers; among many other endorsers.

Patel’s most notable public endorsement is from former presidential and mayoral candidate Andrew Yang, though Yang left the Democratic Party last year. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg apparently told a Patel campaign volunteer that he voted for Patel in the primary.

Maloney, one of the richest members of Congress, recently came under fire for loaning her campaign $900,000. She then had the most money in the race to spend, with Nadler second and Patel third, but all had significant resources.

“On the money front all three candidates have the funding to get their message out,” said Gyory. “Maloney putting in $900,000 from family money gives her an advantage but not a prohibitive advantage. I don’t think money will drive the outcome in this contest.”

Getting out to vote (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)

New York's August party primary elections for seats in the State Senate and U.S. House of Representatives is fast-approaching, with primary day Tuesday, August 23. There are several high-profile races, including the highly-competitive Democratic primaries in the new 10th and 12th congressional districts. There are other congressional races and many competitive State Senate primaries.

Dr. Christina Greer, political science professor at Fordham University and co-host of FAQ NYC, and Sally Goldenberg, City Hall bureau chief for Politico New York, joined host Ben Max, executive editor of Gotham Gazette, to preview primary day during a special for Manhattan Neighborhood Network. Watch the conversation: