REPUB SEES ‘REVENGE OF THE NORMAL PEOPLE’
Rob Astorino, winner of 2014 GOP gov nomination, says New Yorkers ‘rightfully anxious and nervous’
This is the fourth and final part of a series examining the major candidates running in New York’s Republican primary for governor. Primary Day is next Tuesday.
ALBANY — Rob Astorino wants to make Albany normal again.
He also wants the chance to do what he couldn’t eight years ago as he vies for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in next Tuesday’s primary.
“People are hungry for leadership and normalcy,” Astorino told the Daily News days before using a similar line during a heated debate against his rival Republicans. “This year is going to be revenge of the normal people.”
Like his fellow conservative candidates, the former Westchester County executive argues that one-party Democratic rule has been disastrous for state government, and he believes a Republican has a good shot at the Governor’s Mansion despite the Empire State’s deep blue leanings.
The 55-year-old knows a thing or two about running for governor against an incumbent Democrat, and should Gov. Hochul be on the ballot in November, Astorino believes he has the best chance of beating her.
In 2014, Astorino came closer than any Republican has to the executive chamber over the past two decades. He lost to disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo by 14 points, but believes the experience coupled with his past position leading Dem-dominated Westchester gives him a leg up on his competition.
“[We’re] dealing with really chaotic times, dangerous streets, unaffordability with inflation and the economy and people are rightfully anxious and nervous and scared about what’s going,” he said. “The track that we’re on with Kathy Hochul and the Democrats is definitely the wrong one.”
The state Republican Party has thrown its weight behind Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-L.I.), a Trump-supporting former state senator who also leads most polls. Astorino, who lost his own state Senate race last year, cast Zeldin as an Albany insider and a Cuomo confidant.
“When I was calling Cuomo a corrupt thug and pointing out we were going in the wrong direction ... Zeldin was voting with him and saying he should be president,” he said.
Astorino also said that working with a Dem-led Legislature in Albany wouldn’t be a problem since he governed alongside Democratic lawmakers in Westchester for eight years.
The erstwhile radio producer said unlike Hochul or Zeldin, he would bring a fresh approach to Albany politics and focus on reviving the economy in the city and upstate by legalizing fracking, welcoming tech industries and boosting manufacturing.
Astorino’s take on crime and gun violence mirrors that of most of his contemporaries. He’s quick to blame New York’s cashless bail system for recidivist troublemakers and has vowed to bring back both broken windows-style policing and “stop and frisk” despite constitutional concerns.
“Even if it was potentially abused [in the past], it doesn’t mean it can’t be done the right way, and it should be,” he said. “We can’t be coddling criminals and defaming and defunding the police. It’s dangerous.”
He has, however, set himself apart from his fellow GOP candidates by focusing on an issue that has flown under the radar for most New Yorkers: a “secret” plot to import undocumented immigrants into the state under the direction of President Biden.
Astorino has tweeted out videos of planes landing at Westchester County Airport and buses shuttling people away from Stewart Airport in upstate Orange County, claiming the federal government is clandestinely dumping “illegal aliens” in the Empire State.
Federal authorities have repeatedly said the flights are not being done in secret and are simply being used to transfer unaccompanied children who entered the U.S. to federal facilities or to family members.
“The Biden administration’s secret migrant flights from the southern border are now also regularly landing at Stewart International Airport in Orange County. Kathy Hochul does nothing, and we the citizens pay all the bills,” Astorino tweeted earlier this month.