Blakeman finds Hochul’s weakest spot — her lefty – Latest News
For months, Gov. Hochul’s Republican opponent, Bruce Blakeman, has been looking for a compelling argument that will flip the political tide in his favor.
Heart be nonetheless, he might need struck gold simply in time.
Blakeman, the Nassau County govt, is laser centered on the incumbent’s too-cozy relationship with Gotham’s socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani.
It’s an alliance the GOP nominee believes is distorted as a result of, as Blakeman sees it, Mamdani is looking the pictures and Hochul is tagging alongside for the experience.
“It’s Mamdani the commie and comrade Kathy,” he advised me Tuesday.
The governor’s odious behavior of doing the mayor’s bidding is turning into a staple of Blakeman’s pitch to voters that Mamdani is “running the Democratic Party and Hochul is taking orders from him.”
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It’s a highly effective message about an outrageous alliance ready to be exploited.
The governor’s five-year Albany spending spree, together with her bail-out of Mamdani’s extravagant funds with billions of state money, and her passage of the pied-à-terre tax, demolish ceaselessly the Big Lie that she is a average.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani attends the annual New York State Financial Control Board assembly with Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday, August 12, 2026. Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
‘Helpful’ alliance: Kat
It’s a ruse that the lefty media are completely satisfied to swallow hook, line and sinker.
Hochul repeated the false declare in a latest interview with Politico, saying “I’m a moderate Democrat,” whereas additionally acknowledging she and Mamdani continuously see issues the identical method.
“So I think our interests are more aligned than people believe. I don’t think it’s a socialism versus capitalism debate,” she insisted.
Oh, however that’s precisely what it needs to be and could be if she hadn’t surrendered the high ground in a craven bid to draw the mayor’s youthful followers. It doesn’t trouble her that many are anti-Israel and anti-American.
Nor does she appear even mildly troubled that Mamdani doesn’t consider Israel ought to exist because the Jewish homeland.
Candidate for New York Governor Bruce Blakeman speaks to the press during a rally to “End Jew Hatred” after final week’s disruption at a Jewish synagogue on Wednesday, August 19, 2026, in Manhattan, New York. Michael Nigro
Asked by Politico about Mamdani campaigning for her, she mentioned, “I think he’ll be helpful.”
The alliance touches on the battle roiling the Democratic Party, and the place Hochul stands.
For instance, it’s not clear what she thinks of Hasan Piker, the racist and antisemitic streamer who declared that “America deserved 9/11.”
Piker’s newest outrage was a latest assertion the place he mentioned American Jews are successfully guilty for violence in opposition to them after they help Israel.
“If Jews in America keep putting this idea out there that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone is going to come around and take action,” Piker mentioned, “not against the state of Israel, mind you, but against American Jews.”
The outrage was an excessive amount of even for Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s radical Dem nominee for Senate, who campaigned with Piker previously.
This time, he mentioned he opposes “any rhetoric that puts the community at risk.”
No phrase from Mamdani, of whom Piker mentioned lately on Twitch, “I love the guy.”
He additionally mentioned he finds it “awesome” that Mamdani surrounds himself with some people who’re “cooler” than he’s, apparently which means more radical.
He has additionally faulted Mamdani for endorsing Hochul, saying she couldn’t be trusted.
I’m not conscious of any remark the place Hochul denounced Piker, or raised questions on Mamdani’s relationship with him.
‘Super’ backing
Count on Blakeman and the 2 tremendous PACs supporting him to refuse to permit her to get away with that. If she will be able to’t denounce vile creatures like Piker and demand that Mamdani do the identical, she deserves to be toast.
The alternatives for Blakeman come at a important time.
Although a latest Siena ballot confirmed he had cut Hochul’s lead in half, to 10 factors, he nonetheless faces a steep climb.
The ballot’s best information for him was that he holds a five-point lead amongst unbiased voters, who outnumber registered Republicans within the state.
He additionally holds an eight-point lead in downstate suburbs, however is getting completely crushed within the metropolis, 64%-19%. If something like that holds, Hochul would win in a landslide.
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But Blakeman is lucky in that two tremendous PACs are selecting up the battle for him.
Because marketing campaign legal guidelines prohibit any coordination, Blakeman mentioned he has had no contact with both group.
One of them is known as Strong and Safe New York and is backed by Knicks proprietor James Dolan. It began working adverts on TV and social media attacking the governor’s report.
“Kathy Hochul blames President Trump for everything,” a narrator says in a single advert.
“But the president didn’t raise our energy bill 48 times — Hochul did.”
It additionally says, Trump “didn’t put illegal migrants in hotels and stick us with the bill — Hochul did.”
And this, too, “The president didn’t raise taxes and tell New Yorkers to get the hell out — Hochul did.”
The second tremendous PAC is getting began and organizer Jason Meister believes he can raise hundreds of thousands to tie Hochul to Mamdani and defeat what he calls the “Marxist, Communist wing of the Democratic Party.”
Meister, an insurance coverage govt and a Trump supporter, ran a “Defend NYC” tremendous PAC that focused Mamdani during final yr’s mayoral race whereas backing Andrew Cuomo.
Meister advised me he sees this yr’s race as truly a lot simpler than that one, which he described as telling Republicans and average Dems to “hold your nose and vote for Cuomo.”
This time, he mentioned, he’ll goal these Dems with a related message to get them to vote for the GOP candidate, telling them to carry their nostril and vote for Blakeman.
Roadmap for Bruce
Meister is conscious of the percentages, and the truth that the latest GOP highwater mark within the 5 boroughs got here with Lee Zeldin’s 2022 race in opposition to Hochul and Trump’s 2024 marketing campaign.
Both bought simply 30% within the metropolis, and misplaced the state by about six factors.
Meister sees these contests as roadmaps, particularly as a result of black voters, a conventional energy for Dems, haven’t been turning out in huge numbers for socialists in New York and across the nation.
He sees the scenario as an benefit for Blakeman, in that Zeldin and Trump didn’t have the benefit of working whereas there was a socialist in City Hall.
He believes many metropolis voters are repelled by Mamdani’s agenda of “destruction by design” and the spreading of socialism throughout the nation.
Mamdani bought about 1.1 million votes final yr, however virtually as many New Yorkers voted in opposition to him.
In a crowded discipline, Cuomo completed second with 906,000 votes and Curtis Sliwa got here in third with almost 154,000.
Meister sees a golden alternative in that end result, saying “we are aiming for all those people who didn’t vote for Mamdani as well as those who did and already are disenchanted.”
It’s the appropriate strategy, and possibly the one method Blakeman can win the state.
By doing even modestly higher than the 30% of the town vote that Trump and Zeldin bought, he may finish Hochul’s reign of error.
