Last Updated on October 9, 2022
New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, holds a narrow lead over GOP challenger Lee Zeldin, according to a recent poll from Trafalgar Group. According to the poll, Hochul remains ahead by just under two percentage points — — 44.5% to 42.6%.
According to the poll of 1,087 likely voters, Libertarian candidate Larry Sharp remains far behind with 3.3%. An additional 9.7% of respondents remain undecided.
The latest survey provided much better news for Zeldin than in previous polls, some of which have Hochul ahead by double digits. “On Nov. 8, we are going to win this race for governor,” Zeldin said in response to the results.
On November 8th, we will FIRE @kathyhochul, END one-party rule in Albany, and SAVE our state. Losing is not an option! https://t.co/QaDw7LyL4w
— Lee Zeldin (@leezeldin) October 6, 2022
Trafalgar also polled another key race in the state and found more troubling news for Democrats. According to the pollster, incumbent New York Attorney General Letitia James trailing GOP challenger Michael Henry 45.5% to 44.4% with a 2.9% margin of error.
James has grabbed national headlines as a result of her years-long investigations into former President Trump. James — who campaigned on prosecuting then-president Trump — recently filed a lengthy civil suit against him, his adult children and the Trump organization.
Both Hochul and James have received extensive criticism over the state’s sharp rise in violent crime, particularly in New York City. Felony crime in the city was up over 15% citywide last month compared to September 2021, recent NYPD statistics showed.
Former Governor David Patterson recently commented on the city’s crime wave, saying that he has never felt more unsafe on the streets of NYC than at any other point in his life. “I never felt as unsafe as I do now just walking around,” the ex-governor told radio host John Catsimatidis during a recent interview.
“For the first time in my life, even in the late ’80s and ’90s when the crime rate was killing 2,000 people a year, I never felt as unsafe as I do now just walking around,” he said.
Patterson noted several high-profile subway killings over the past year, including three knife attacks that occurred in one day last Thursday. “You’re hearing about an assault on the subway almost every other day,” he said.
Patterson — a Democrat who served as governor from 2008-2010 — warned that his party could be in for a rough November if crime is not addressed. He pointed to Democratic losses in Nassau County’s executive and district attorney races, when he said the party got caught in the “monsoon” of voter concerns about crime, the New York Post reported.
“That could happen again unless some of these people who have not been speaking out start doing it,” he said, adding, “I don’t want to be the one in November to say, ‘I told you so.’”
Lee Zeldin has previously accepted offers by CBS-2 and PIX-11 to debate Hochul on TV. But Hochul’s campaign has not accepted those offers and said the governor instead would only agree to a single one-hour debate, just before Election Day, hosted by NY1. Zeldin has rejected that offer given Hochul’s rejection of the other two, the New York Post reported.
