Crime message hits home for Lee Zeldin in New York governor’s contest

ALBANY, N.Y. — Last week, Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin was standing outside a subway station in the Bronx to highlight lawlessness in New York City. Two days later, the crime scene was outside his Long Island home.

A random drive-by shooting on Sunday, when his 16-year-old twin daughters were inside the house, rocked the New York governor's race and marked the second time this election season that violence has hit close to home for Zeldin. In July, a troubled veteran attacked the congressman on stage during a campaign rally in Rochester.

Zeldin and his family were unhurt in the incidents, but the events have elevated Zeldin's tough-on-crime campaign message just weeks before he faces Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul in the Nov. 8 election. His first act as governor, he said this week, would be to declare a state of emergency on crime and try to repeal many of her criminal justice policies.

"Whether I’m in a blue county or a red county or talking to Republicans, Democrats or independents, I hear about people who care about crime and public safety,” Zeldin said in an interview. “They want to take back our streets.”

Crime ranks among voters' top concerns nationwide heading into Election Day, and the issue is pronounced in the Empire State — particularly in New York City, where daily headlines about violence have even Democrats at odds over how to best address it.

Polls in New York have shown crime as a major consideration in the governor's race, and ads by underdog Zeldin and the super PACs supporting his candidacy have derided Hochul for not doing more to address crime.

"It's a flood, and Kathy Hochul isn't up to the job of fighting crime," an ominous voice in an ad from the Safe Together NY committee, a PAC backing him, says.

Hochul has defended her legislative record in light of Zeldin's attacks — pointing to state bail laws she toughened this year after 2019 reforms were blamed for a rise in crime. She also strengthened gun-control laws — though they were partially overturned in June by the Supreme Court.

Hochul has also seen tension within her own party over crime: Left-leaning Democrats have long wanted to provide more rights to those accused of crimes while moderates like New York City Mayor Eric Adams are pressing her to toughen laws. Hochul's campaign attacks have largely been aimed at Zeldin's pro-Trump record and his opposition to abortion rights.

"We can continue to do more," Hochul said Monday about addressing crime. "I’m looking at our resources right now to see what else we can do to deploy assistance to make sure that people not only are safe, but feel safe on our subways. We’ve seen an increase in individuals taking the subways, which is a very positive sign. We want that to continue. Because the more people together, the truly safer they are."

The data also paints a mixed picture.

Major crime complaints in New York City are up 32 percent for the year through Oct. 9, compared to the same period last year, city statistics show — but major crime is still down 36 percent from 2001 and down 81 percent from 1990. Shootings that led to injuries are up 25 percent statewide over the last five years, though this year's figures are down 14 percent in the city and down 10 percent statewide compared to last year.

Hochul’s campaign knocked Zeldin’s pledge to pare back her measures since she took office in August 2021, which has also included efforts to get illegal guns off the streets.

"Just like he has no plan to address gun violence, Lee Zeldin has no credible plan on public safety nor does he understand the basics of governing or democracy, which is no surprise for an election denier,” Hochul campaign spokesperson Jerrel Harvey said in a statement, referring to Zeldin’s vote against certifying 2020 presidential election results in two states. “Governor Hochul is the only candidate in this race with a real plan to keep New Yorkers safe."

Zeldin said the statistics are only part of the story. He points to alarming individual incidents that have rattled communities: an EMT in Queens stabbed to death last month in an unprovoked, midday attack; the mass shooting in a Brooklyn subway station in April that injured at least 23 people; or the slaying this month of a Buffalo mother by her estranged husband soon after he was released from jail.

"You can try to come up with your own conclusion based off of looking at stats, but if you’re going to conclude that there isn’t an issue that needs to be dealt with, if you’re going to conclude pro-criminal laws up in Albany haven’t had any negative impact on life in New York, you’re divorced from multiple realities," he said.

Often, Zeldin links the cases back to New York lawmakers' 2019 decision under then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo to end cash bail in all but the most violent cases, which critics said has too often allowed people with serious mental health issues or other problems back to reoffend.

Zeldin — and even Adams, a former NYPD captain — wants state lawmakers to add a "dangerousness" provision to the bail laws to give judges more discretion over who is held in custody while their cases play out. Hochul, however, said that would be too subjective — history has shown judges were already disproportionately keeping poor and minority defendants in jail.

Instead, she and lawmakers in April changed the 2019 law to give judges other kinds of discretion and make more charges eligible for bail. Her supporters have also countered that state data released last month hasn't shown an uptick in rearrests or missed court dates since 2019.

"Someone walks into a judge and sometimes dangerousness is determined by the color of their skin and perception of dangerousness," Hochul said on WNYC radio in Manhattan last month. "That is an unfair system, that is not a justice system that we could be proud of."

Zeldin said the current laws are too lax, and if elected, he would end cashless bail and make more youth eligible for criminal court instead of family court after New York in 2017 raised the age of criminal responsibility to 18.

In July, Zeldin's Rochester attacker, David Jakubonis, was initially released without bail after he jumped on stage holding a pointed key chain and rushed toward Zeldin, who fended off Jakubonis as onlookers wrestled the man to the ground. Jakubonis was released from custody shortly after his arrest, outraging Zeldin, who said it was a prime example of what’s wrong with the state’s bail laws. Jakubonis, an Iraq war veteran, was soon after charged with federal crimes and remains in jail awaiting trial.

In the gun violence outside Zeldin's home a week ago, police concluded two teenagers walking by Zeldin's home in the afternoon were shot by the occupants of a passing vehicle. The victims briefly hid in Zeldin's yard. The congressman, meanwhile, was campaigning in Manhattan and received a frantic call from his daughters, who were hiding inside the house.

"They heard gunshots. They heard screaming. And what traumatized them the most was they thought the individuals right outside were coming after them," Zeldin said in the interview Wednesday.

Crime, he said, is just one of the reasons people are "hitting their breaking point" in New York, which over the last decade has led the nation in out-migration to other states, census data has shown.

"They feel like their wallet, their safety, their freedom, their quality of their kids’ education is under attack," Zeldin said.