The Republican primary for New York’s governor’s race will be a four-way match-up after the state Board of Elections ruled Monday that Rob Astorino and Andrew Giuliani secured enough signatures to get on the ballot.
Astorino, the former Westchester County executive, and former White House staffer Giuliani will join the presumptive Republican Party designee Lee Zeldin and businessmen Harry Wilson.
Zeldin, a Long Island congressman, has challenged Astorino and Giuliani’s petitions — angering his opponents.
“It’s unfortunate, but unsurprising, that Lee Zeldin tried to subvert the will of almost 100,000 Republican voters who reject his party-boss, establishment candidacy,’ said Astorino.
“Zeldin is an old hand at Albany Swamp tactics. He learned them from Andrew Cuomo whom Zeldin once touted for the presidency. Fortunately, Republicans will have the option of supporting an actual conservative on June 28th.”
Astorino referred to Zeldin’s time in the state Senate, when he once gushed in a 2011 press conference that “if [Cuomo] were in the White House right now, our nation would be in a better place today than it is.”
Giuliani, the son of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani who served as a White House aide to former President Donald Trump, called the election board’s decision “a good day for 2.9 million Republicans and a good day for democracy.”
“Lee is a product of a back-room deal in Albany. We will make our case to 2.9 million Republicans and then 19 million New Yorkers,” Giuliani said.
Wilson, a successful businessman who has helped turn around struggling companies, is stressing his managerial skills as a can-do executive, which he says makes him best equipped for the governorship. He was the Republican candidate for state comptroller in 2010, narrowly losing to Democratic Tom DiNapoli.
The Zeldin campaign, in a statement Monday night, said, “Congressman Zeldin is very much looking forward to settling this score at the ballot box and leaving it potentially to a District Attorney to decide what to do with the Giuliani campaign’s forgeries and any other violations of Election Law.”
