NY GOP governor’s race takes shape ahead of party convention

NEW YORK — As the state Republican convention approaches, the party’s colorful primary campaign for governor began to take a more defined shape this week, and even gained a late entry.

The crime-focused race, which has already seen a candidate hit with a flying flower pot, appears to have multiple viable contenders hoping to earn the GOP’s red banner in deep-blue New York.

They include Rep. Lee Zeldin, a Donald Trump-tied Long Island lawyer with significant institutional backing; Rob Astorino, the party’s nominee in 2014; and Andrew Giuliani, son of Rudy, who had the strongest voter support in a recent poll of the race.

On Tuesday, Harry Wilson, a 50-year-old businessman, jumped into the campaign, too. The mild-mannered millionaire, who grew up working-class in Johnstown, may offer a moderate option in the race but has yet to release a full platform. He ran for state comptroller in 2010.

And on Wednesday, Zeldin introduced his running mate, Alison Esposito, a police inspector, in a chaotic news conference outside Police Department headquarters in lower Manhattan. Esposito, who has been a cop for about a quarter-century, said the NYPD will “never leave” her soul.

At the announcement, Zeldin parried protests of his vote to overturn President Biden’s 2020 victory, and laid out a platform focused on crime and opposing pandemic health guidelines instituted by Gov. Hochul.

“This feels like a rescue mission for New York,” Zeldin said.

A demonstrator stood to his side with a yellow sign that said: “TRIED TO OVERTURN THE ELECTION. LEE ZELDIN: UNFIT TO SERVE.”

But Zeldin continued, ripping into Hochul over her decision to maintain a mask mandate in schools at least until next month. Hochul, a moderate from Buffalo, is the overwhelming favorite in the Democratic primary.

“It’s important to follow the science? Kathy Hochul didn’t even follow the political science,” Zeldin, 42, said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to urge universal masking in classrooms. In a statewide Siena College survey conducted last week, 58% of New Yorkers said they do not want Hochul to lift the school mandate before March.

Zeldin is in position to earn the New York GOP’s nomination at its convention next week and has the backing of almost every country chapter.

The convention, which follows the Democrats’ equivalent event in Manhattan last week, is expected to run from Monday to Tuesday in Garden City, Long Island. Nick Langworthy, chairman of the New York GOP, quickly endorsed Esposito on Wednesday, another signal of Zeldin’s strength.

But Giuliani, whose father was New York City’s mayor from 1994 to 2001, has the highest favorability rating with Republican voters, according to the Siena poll.

Forty-seven percent of Republicans viewed Giuliani favorably in the survey, compared with 27% for Zeldin. More Republicans had opinions on Giuliani, though. Twenty-one percent of Republicans viewed Astorino favorably, though most did not have an opinion.

Steven Greenberg, Siena’s pollster, said voters were responding to Giuliani’s last name.

“This race is wide open,” Greenberg said, adding a riff on a Yogi Berra-ism. “Even though it’s getting late, it’s still really early.”

With a mouth that roars like his dad’s but little political experience, Giuliani launched his campaign last May, saying that crime was his top priority and that he expected his Trump-loving father to play a major role in his campaign.

The 36-year-old Giuliani was smacked with a flower pot while trying to break up a fight in Manhattan last month.

He has the support of Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee in New York City’s mayoral race last year, a potential boost downstate. But he could also irk liberal city voters with his unfounded claims that the 2020 presidential election results were unclear.

Astorino, the former Westchester County executive and onetime gubernatorial nominee, also launched his campaign last spring.

Astorino, 54, speaks Spanish and recognizes Biden as the winner of the 2020 race. The former radio producer said he expects to appeal to a spectrum of voters with his focus on crime and the economy.

“I’m going to build coalitions,” Astorino said Wednesday afternoon. “You have to do that as a Republican in this state.”

Whoever wins the nomination will battle the Democrats’ more than two-to-one advantage in New York voters registered to their party.

“It is an uphill climb for any Republican,” Greenberg said. “Who knows what the mood of voters will be come November? But they have their work cut out for them.”

(Thomas Tracy contributed to this story.)