Endorsement: Lee Zeldin for Governor

The destructiveness of Governor Kathy Hochul and her one-party Democratic Party state government has reached a tipping point.

Over two million New Yorkers have left - just moved away. Its harder and harder to survive - as a business, as a working person, or as a family. Violent crime is skyrocketing, with criminals turned loose after arrests for violent crimes. 25% of small businesses have been destroyed - each one a family's life's work gone. Just walking down the street is now life-threatening with released criminals and violent drug addicts everywhere.

New York is headed the way of Detroit - a once golden city, reduced to a burned-out impoverished shell by crime and corrupt government.

Governor Kathy Hochul - who succeeded the disgraced Andrew Cuomo just one year ago - is a political monster.

She sold out millions of children - in exchange for political support from the teachers unions. Now most New York children are years behind.

Hochul sold out New York's taxpayers - and lined her own pockets - with "pay-to-play" deals like the $1 billion stadium-casino project in Buffalo (where her husband stands to earn tens of millions) or her award of a Covid-test kit contract for $650 million - to a big campaign donor who was charging double - double - the market rate for the kits.

And the "political games" Hochul plays read like a "dirty tricks" manual: A rotten Gerrymander so awful that the Democratic NY Court of Appeals threw it out; Changes to the election law to make fraud easy; A proposal - withdrawn for this year - to "destroy the suburbs" by outlawing single-family home zoning - to put high-density apartment blocks into every neighborhood. A refusal to repeal the "no-bail" law that forces judges to let loose virtually every criminal arrested in New York. Hochul has run New York's government like a mob boss - shaking down businesses, siccing her regulator-goons on political opponents, and doling out tens of billions to her crony favorites.

New York is at the breaking point. That is no exaggeration: Over 30% of New Yorkers are now planning to move-out to Florida or the Carolinas. That means a collapse of real estate values, business customers, and revenues. It means we will become Detroit - or worse.

Congressman Lee Zeldin (R-Long Island) is the last hope for New York. He is a solid, mainstream Republican. He is anti-crime, pro-business, and pro-parents, and pro-jobs. Zeldin has been in the US Congress since 2014, and was a State Senator for four years.

This is not one of those "nuanced" elections fought over marginal tax rates and a few social programs. This is about New York's salvation or destruction. And that's no joke.

The Leader endorses Lee Zeldin for Governor. He is New York's best, last hope.