The latest move by the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) is sparking fears from liberals that Republicans are on the cusp of flipping the deep blue state of New York’s governorship. The DGA will dunk cash into New York to prop up Gov. Kathy Hochul, who took over after disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned. Republican nominee Rep. Lee Zeldin is polling just four points behind Hochul and has benefitted from a Republican surge across the country. This could mean the GOP flips the governorship of the state.
Politico reports:
“Republican super PACs have spent a record amount of nearly $12 million to insert an election denying, abortion banning, MAGA Republican who would make New York less safe by rolling back laws to take illegal guns off the street,” DGA Communications Director David Turner said. “The DGA is taking nothing for granted and won’t sit idly by.”
The DGA previously gave Hochul the maximum allowable amount of $69,700 soon after she took office last year. It has also given the state Democratic Committee $219,800 since then, its largest investment in the state since Republican Gov. George Pataki’s last year in office in 2006.
The Republican Governors Association has similarly been a minor player in recent New York elections. Then-Chair Chris Christie defended the absence in 2014 by saying the RGA doesn’t “invest in lost causes.”
RGA has given $1.2 million of contributions in recent weeks to Save Our State, one of the independent expenditure committees boosting Zeldin’s efforts. It gave $750,000 to another such group, Safe Together New York, last Thursday.
Although the exact dollar amount of the DGA’s spend is unclear, it remains a shocking sign that Democrats are now having to defend even some of the most adamantly Democrat-dominated states.
