In case you somehow missed it amidst all of the other breaking news this month, in New York State, Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin has pulled into what some polling groups are describing as a “toss-up” race to replace unelected Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul. Before anyone begins holding their breath this early, Zeldin still has a bit of a hill left to climb, particularly among likely voters, and victory is far from assured. But he’s currently holding a position that should have been impossible – at least on paper – in a state where Democrats hold a two-to-one registration advantage. Some people have definitely been paying attention, however, and they clearly don’t care for what they’re seeing. This group includes the powers that be at the New York Times. They are clearly aghast at the idea that some crude, conservative Republican might crash their liberal garden party and Nicholas Fandos of the Gray Lady thinks he’s struck on a solution. Rather than trying to defend the results of Hochul’s policies (which would be an impossible task) or attack Zeldin over his proposals, he’s dug up some older news items showing that Zeldin was a fan of the Bad Orange Man. The title of the piece says it all. “Zeldin Built His Profile Defending Trump. Will New Yorkers Mind?

On the day the U.S. Capitol was ransacked, as stunned lawmakers emerged from hiding and police officers were still counting the injured, Representative Lee Zeldin of New York walked into the Rotunda, held up a shaky camera and went live on Fox News.

Other Republican leaders had already begun distancing the party from President Donald J. Trump, whose monthslong campaign to overturn his election loss helped incite the violence. But that evening, Mr. Zeldin sounded all but ready to exonerate him.

“This isn’t just about the president of the United States,” he said, referring to what prompted the riot that he condemned. “This is about people on the left and their double standards.”

Fandos goes on to describe Zeldin by saying “there is perhaps no other major candidate as deeply associated with Mr. Trump.” He points out that Zeldin is attempting this atrocious feat in “a state that has so thoroughly rejected the former president.”

The author describes how Lee Zeldin was an early supporter of Donald Trump’s foreign policy goals and how he “defended” Trump when other Republicans (presumably Liz Cheney) accused him of racism. The piece goes on for paragraph after paragraph, with mentions of Donald Trump outnumbering Zeldin’s own name by a heavy margin.

Of course, the one thing that’s missing almost entirely from the New York Times piece is all but the most fleeting references to the actual platform that Zeldin is running on and the disastrous conditions in the state under Kathy Hochul’s tenure that the Republican is highlighting. It’s not as if people haven’t been noticing. As of last month, 70% of New Yorkers believe that their state is “on the wrong track.” When your numbers are that far underwater and your party controls every lever of power at the state level, you really don’t have anywhere to hide.

The other problem that the liberal power structure has encountered in trying to demonize Lee Zeldin and convince everyone to stick with the same lame horse for another spin around the track is that he simply hasn’t turned out to be the monster they’re trying to paint him as. Zeldin is affable, warm, and empathetic when meeting with voters or speaking with the press. He is never vulgar and doesn’t carry a rhetorical flamethrower. He has been calmly pointing out all of the negative outcomes of current liberal policies that have been driving people out of the state in droves. And he has eloquently formulated a series of proposals to address those issues. And he rarely, if ever, mentions Donald Trump until reporters force the conversation in that direction.

This is apparently all that the panicky editors at the New York Times have left to throw at the wall in the hope that something might stick. They can’t defend Hochul’s soft-on-crime, big-spending policies with a straight face. And they can’t tear down Zeldin’s common sense proposals. All they have left is a flailing effort to tie Donald Trump around Lee Zeldin’s neck like an albatross and hope to preserve the failing status quo.

None of this means that Zeldin will go into the final stretch as the favorite. Not one poll has given him a measurable lead to date. But there has been a lot of movement in this race and it’s all been in Lee Zeldin’s direction. I won’t be holding my breath, but I’m also not ruling out a miracle next month either.