GOP sees real chance to win in NY as $500K pours into pro-Lee Zeldin super PAC

Republicans see a real opportunity to take the New York governor’s office for the first time in decades and are pumping money and support into Rep. Lee Zeldin’s surging campaign against incumbent Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.

With exactly two weeks until the Nov. 8 election, records show the Republican Governors Association gave $500,000 to a pro-Zeldin super PAC, which has helped Republicans catch up in the money game against Hochul as her once-formidable polling lead began evaporating weeks ago.

“Democrats are breaking out in cold sweats. Kathy Hochul ignored the top issues currently on voters’ minds – rising crime and the skyrocketing cost of living – her entire career in Albany. The RGA’s investment in the race is a sign of our confidence in Lee Zeldin’s ability to win after he built the best statewide Republican campaign New York’s seen in decades and brought the race to a statistical tie,” RGA spokesman Will Reinert told The Post Tuesday.

RGA Chair Doug Ducey, the outgoing governor of Arizona, even urged donors to funnel money to Zeldin in a Monday phone call, the Wall Street Journal reported, following months when the party was focused on gubernatorial races in other states like Arizona.

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The late push from the national party comes as part of a bigger effort by outside groups to help Zeldin in a race now rated as a “toss up” by RealClearPolitics.

Records show Zeldin and pro-Zeldin super PACs have raised roughly $38 million to compete against Hochul’s $45 million war chest — a big change from weeks ago when the incumbent Democrat had about twice as much as the Long Island pol and his allies.

Records show that the Republican Governors Association donated $500,000 to a super PAC supporting Rep. Lee Zeldin. Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

The NGA, which did not respond to a request for comment, has given $1.2 million to the group since Oct. 4 with records showing no other spending on the race before then.

“We’re still raising more as we speak,” Councilman Joe Borelli, a spokesman for the group, which has aired digital and TV ads criticizing Hochul’s record on crime.

“We’re not leaving any stone unturned and will not pull a single punch until 9 p.m. on Election Day,” Borelli added in reference to when polls close on the final day of voting on Nov. 8.

Save Our State has raised $3.7 million in recent months alongside nearly $14 million given to a second pro-Zeldin PAC called Safe Together New York, which has received about $9 million from conservative super donor Ron Lauder, heir to the Estée Lauder fortune, to hit Hochul over bail reform and rising crime.

The race between Zeldin and Gov. Kathy Hochul has now been rated as a “toss up” by RealClearPolitics. Hans Pennink

“The stakes are too high to sit idly by. New Yorkers no longer feel safe walking in their streets, and have been leaving by the thousands. It’s time to restore bipartisan leadership in Albany,” Lauder told The Post.

Zeldin’s campaign has raised about $20 million over the course of his campaign to become the first Republican elected to statewide office in two decades despite Democrats outnumber Republicans two-to-one among registered voters.

Hochul has blasted the outside spending as “dark money” while defending her own mass fundraising following growing accusations of pay-to-play schemes with campaign donors, including people tied to Manhattan real estate, Medicaid transportation contracts and a no-bid, $637 million contract for COVID-19 rapid tests.

Estée Lauder heir Ron Lauder donated $9 million to a pro-Zeldin PAC called Safe Together New York. Photo by Michael Kappeler/picture alliance via Getty Images

The governor has leveraged her money advantage for months to blanket the airwaves with adds criticizing Zeldin over his pro-life record, opposition to gun control and votes to overturn 2020 presidential election results.

“In the final two weeks, the governor’s formidable war chest will amplify her message on the airwaves and serve as a firewall against billionaire-backed outside groups,” reads a campaign memo released by the Hochul campaign Tuesday.

The memo also stated that “for every dollar that the campaign spends on television, outside independent expenditure groups must spend $1.30 to match.”

Hochul allies like state Democratic Party Chair Jay Jacobs have claimed that the pro-Zeldin groups are illegally coordinating considering how Borelli’s ties to Save Our State and the Zeldin campaign he serves as a ceremonial co-chair.

“It’s clear that millions of dollars are being funneled into these independent expenditure committees that are coordinating with the Zeldin campaign that violates law,” Jacobs recently told reporters after filing a complaint with the state Board of Elections.

While the money has helped Republicans better match Hochul on the airwaves, they say that it is nonetheless hard to compete against her considering the advantages of incumbency that range from doling out local funding to using state aircraft to travel the state at taxpayer expense.

But money to spread key GOP talking points helps with two weeks to go until election day.

“Issues of crime, corruption and inflationary government spending help even the score,” John Faso, a former GOP congressman tied to the Safe Together PAC, told The Post.

Additional reporting by Carl Campanile