Prophet From It

Sit down everyone, relax and hum a few bars of I love New York.  

Friend Without Benefits is going to make a prediction in the New York State governor’s race.   

Yeah, I know the election’s not till November and there are still primaries to be won and all kinds of stuff can happen, but I’m imbued with the spirit of prophecy right now so follow along. 

Kathy Hochul became governor thanks to Prince Andrew of Albany’s man hands. She’s the governor because Andrew Cuomo was a horny bastard (you can leave out horny if you prefer). 

She’s an accidental governor with a weak political resume.

Erie County Clerk.  Erie County Deputy Clerk.  One year in the US House of Representatives after winning a special election then losing to a Republican for a full term.  

I’ll admit, in the afterglow of Cuomo’s dethroning, she seemed like a breath of fresh air.  

But when faced with the hard part of the job, Hochul has wilted like a bunch of $10 bodega roses (no offense to roses but they are the official flower of New York State).  

Let’s start with her pick for second in command.  She tapped Brooklyn State Senator Brian Benjamin to help with downstate black voters who never heard of a Hochul.  Bad choice.

The Feds have busted Benjamin and charged him with five felonies in an alleged scheme to trade taxpayer money for campaign contributions.  

To make matters worse, he lied on his Lieutenant Governor disclosure forms and Hochul’s staff didn’t catch it.  And to make matters even worser, on the eve of his arrest she said she supported the guy.  

Amateur hour.

This year’s state budget negotiations have further shown the empress has no clothes.

It’s a bloated, spend, spend, spend budget including $600 million of our money for a football stadium in her hometown of Buffalo.  

On the crime issue that’s tearing New York City apart, she and that pathetic pair of legislative leaders, Carl Heastie and Andrea Stewart-Cousins, put lipstick on a pig.  They made some small changes to New York State’s worst in the nation bail laws.   

So it’s now prediction time.  Break out the ouija board and the magic eight ball.  In November, New York State is going to go…red!

Republican Long Island Congressman Lee Zeldin will be the next governor of the Empire State.  

But there is a big if —more on that in a minute.  

On the crime issue, Zeldin is going to beat the hell out of Hochul. 

In New York City crime is bad and there’s no end in sight.  Mayor Eric Adams is trying but it will take him beyond the November election to start driving down the crime stats. 

The crime issue will help Zeldin eat into Hochul’s Democrat advantage in the Five Boroughs.

Suburban voters are also worried about crime in their own communities because of the offender-friendly laws passed in Albany.  That will help Zeldin a lot in the rest of the state.

On the competency issue, the Brian Benjamin fiasco will haunt Hochul right up to election day. He’ll likely be on the ballot as her running mate even though he may be getting fitted for an orange jumpsuit.

Zeldin is also going to be helped by the national Republican wave in November’s midterm elections that for sure will put the GOP in charge of the House if not the Senate as well. 

Remember, Zeldin is from Suffolk County Long Island.  Suffolk went for Trump in the last election.  And in neighboring red-leaning Nassau County, Republican Bruce Blakeman recently came back from the dead and displaced Democrat Laura Curren as County Executive.  

Now here’s the big if.

Zeldin’s Achilles heel is his dedication to Donald J. Trump, our former deceiver-in-chief. 

Zeldin will be the next Governor of New York if he doesn’t fly to Florida to kiss Trumpelstilskin’s ring and beg for his endorsement.  

Zeldin has be a rational Republican in the New York tradition of Rockefeller, Javits, Pataki, Bloomberg (?)  Not a radical Republican.

He has to expose Hochul for what she is, a small-time, confused politician who gets bulldozed by the progressives that are forcing their know-it-all ideologies onto communities that yearn for physical safety, financial security and social sanity.

Zeldin has to show how he’s going to woo back New Yorkers who fled the state during COVID and who’ve tasted tax freedom in Florida, North Carolina and Texas.

He has to convince New York voters that one party rule has led the state to the rim of ruin and is also fundamentally bad for democracy.

If Zeldin can do all this he will win in November.  

But Lee, I’m begging you, please stay away from the menace of Mar-a-Lago!  Give voters reasons to vote for you, not against you.  And be careful for what you wish for.  Have you been to Albany in February?