Oh, this was fantastic news to wake up to!

.@RealClearNews just named the NY Gov race a TOSS UP !@leezeldin clearly has momentum behind him.
🔥 🗳 🔥 💥 🤯 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/P4zZJOCQXL

— Joe Borelli (@JoeBorelliNYC) October 15, 2022

With a tad over 3 weeks to go, long-shot, while surviving every shot at him, Lee Zeldin of New York has masterfully moved into a toss-up race for the governorship of New York. As a master of retail politics, it’s really not surprising that Zeldin’s warmth and accessibility make him popular with those he meets in personal encounters.

After my presser yesterday & before heading into the subway, I ended up in an impromptu chess match with a man who has played more than a few games in his day. I think he realized though he challenged the wrong person to a chess match.😂We called it a draw before it got too ugly. pic.twitter.com/4UT8qidfKL

— Lee Zeldin (@leezeldin) October 14, 2022

But making himself a contender across the length and breadth of New York state with its vast and vociferous liberal/progressive enclaves? He’s had to do some real work…and shown he’s up for it. At one time down as much as 24 points in some polls, he’s within 5 points now.

Anecdotally, people are sharing myriad examples in neighborhoods (And businesses!) festooned with Zeldin signs, yet nary a Hochul sign to be seen. Maybe, just maybe, people in the deepest, most affected liberal enclaves are finally waking up to what progressive policies have wrought on their lives.

I went to 8th Ave last week to my favorite Vietnamese restaurant and saw a bunch of businesses with Lee Zeldin signs on their windows as well. https://t.co/lVOXLKRvMg

— Milo Daytona (@DaytonaDesign) October 12, 2022

His challenger, interim governor Kathy Hochul, really has done nothing to help herself climb out of the hole created for her by disgraced ex-governor Andrew Cuomo, inept former NYC mayor Bill DeBlasio, current fashion-plate, and oblivious NYC mayor Eric Adams, and a co-starring slate of permissive Soros district attorneys. She has, in fact, taken the “dig my hole deeper” shovel in hand, and happily broken ground for new trenches. The horrific crime wave sweeping NYC is one example. Everyone from the police unions to citizens/business groups to NYC mayor Adams himself has begged Gov Hochul to recall the legislature to fix the 2019 bail reform statute. She refuses to do so. In the face of horrific attacks followed by senseless murders, all repeatedly committed by released repeat offenders under the new cash bail guidelines, the governor insists on waiting for the crime data to be “analyzed.” In the meantime, the resultant chaos isn’t the reforms. It’s all bail judges’ fault, not knowing what they’re doing. They should take a class or two…

Gov. Kathy Hochul doubled down Monday in her blame game with New York judges, claiming her administration is busy gathering data to prove her assertion that bail reform laws don’t need to be changed any further — the state’s justices just need to do a better job.

“What I want to start seeing is the implementation of those laws at all levels. And we’re going to be releasing data on whether or not they really are understanding the power and the broad discretion that judges have had before but even more so now,” Hochul said broadly of judges at a Yonkers press conference.

Some members of the judiciary have not taken kindly to Hochul blaming them for rising crime or her recent offer to fund more training for them regarding bail changes approved by Albany Democrats in the state budget passed last April.

“To say we are behind the curve is totally fallacious — it is exactly the opposite,” Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for New York’s Office of Court Administration, fired back against Hochul in a statement to The Post.

Zeldin will have none of it, and people believe him.

There is no evidence that Kathy Hochul has any ability or willingness to be the strong Governor we need to secure our streets. 

There is plenty of evidence that pro-criminal laws, soft on crime DAs and lax, far-left judges are making life in New York much less safe. https://t.co/iAL9tLePFc

— Lee Zeldin (@leezeldin) August 8, 2022

It doesn’t help her inept cause that the liberal papers invariably step on themselves trying to paint Zeldin as a foaming-at-the-mouth zealot. After he was attacked at a campaign rally earlier this year by a man who charged the congressman with a pointed object, they quickly tried to make light of it as only a small, pointy thing, or that the wanna-be assailant was quickly subdued, so what’s the fuss. And they buried it like yesterday’s garbage. Folks with half a brain are thinking, “That could have gone really badly!! What are you talking about?” Again, your lying eyes versus the narrative they need. The New York Times helpfully stepped into another recent scary moment for Zeldin, with an attack on him for a shooting just outside his home.

Last week, Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin was standing outside a subway station in the Bronx to highlight lawlessness in New York City. Two days later, the crime scene was outside his Long Island home.

A random drive-by shooting on Sunday, when his 16-year-old twin daughters were inside the house, rocked the New York governor’s race and marked the second time this election season that violence has hit close to home for Zeldin. In July, a troubled veteran attacked the congressman on stage during a campaign rally in Rochester.

Can you imagine the nerve of the man? He got upset (I notice they held back from using POUNCE, but you know they meant it.).

Hochul’s entire campaign has consisted of screeching about protecting abortion, while completely dismissing or ignoring any concerns about anything remotely important to her constituents. She can’t be bothered or they just don’t understand the data points. Hochul also is having to tap-dance around some serious pay-to-play accusations…

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s campaign is drawing millions of dollars in contributions tied to real estate power brokers seeking or doing business with the state — including donors salivating to develop a prized vacant Hudson Yards parcel across from the Jacob Javits Convention Center, records show.

…even as she whines about…

…“I don’t have the benefit of having billionaires dumping millions and millions of dollars as recently as this week into dark money Super PACs,” Hochul said, referring to independent Super PACS supporting her Republican gubernatorial opponent…

However, when you look at the money, it makes what Lee Zeldin has accomplished so far even more impressive. Compared to the NY Dem machine, he’s on a shoestring budget.

…Hochul is still outpacing Zeldin, having raised $11.7 million to his $6.4 million from June 28 through Oct. 3, according to the latest state campaign financing report.

Hochul would never be seen making a video with Italians at the Columbus Day parade (talk about festive – that was a fun one) or with everyday business owners like this latest from Zeldin, and that costs her dearly. She assuredly doesn’t have the most approachable persona to begin with, and has done nothing but dictate and dismiss since ascending to the throne.

Yesterday, outside Paesan's Pizza in Pine Hills, I hosted a press conference on NY’s crime crisis that now has the owner of Paesan's seriously thinking about shutting his doors. To take back our streets and save our state, Hochul’s Gotta Go! pic.twitter.com/Cz4Fh1fibp

— Lee Zeldin (@leezeldin) October 16, 2022

Got my fingers crossed on this one. It CAN be done.