GOP gov nominee Lee Zeldin ‘all in’ on using budget to push bail reform repeal
Republican gubernatorial nominee Rep. Lee Zeldin vowed Monday to use his power over the state budget to press for tougher New York bail laws if he beats Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul this November.
“I’m not going to wait until some poll comes out or some bad experience on the streets in the middle of March before I offer some change. I’m calling for repeal now,” Zeldin said at a New York City press conference.
The GOP standard bearer said he would use existing gubernatorial budgetary powers as a policy weapon if necessary.
“I will call for repeal the first day I’m in office and it will be part of that first executive budget. It will be part of legislation that’s submitted. I am all in,” Zeldin said Monday.
New York governors can include policy proposals in their proposed budgets, which lawmakers must either then approve or risk political fallout from constituents for voting against spending on popular items like public school funding.
If legislators refuse, a governor can play hardball per a 2004 court decision that allows them to hold the budget up while keeping state government operations going through temporary spending resolutions.
Zeldin said he would also lean on the “bully pulpit” as governor to crush likely resistance from Albany Democrats, who are defending supermajorities in the state Senate and Assembly this November.
“You can go into that state senators district, hold a rally, hold a press conference, bring their constituents in and say: ‘Even though your state senator told you this, he or she is not actually doing that up in Albany’ and create the conditions through public opinion and our process so that that state senator is getting back into their car, driving to Albany and begging for a vote to repeal cashless bail as quickly as possible,” Zeldin said Monday.
Spokesmen for Democratic state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie — who would be the two negotiating with the next governor — did not respond to requests for comment Monday.
Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo notably used his budgetary leverage to push legislators on policy proposals – including controversial changes to bail laws approved in the 2019 budget that soon became a lighting rod for criticism from police and their political allies.
Critics have blamed those reforms – which were later tweaked in budgets backed by Cuomo and Hochul – for contributing to an ongoing increase in crime across the state that includes a 31% spike in crime in New York City in June 2022 compared to June 2021.
The issue is now a key part of Zeldin’s efforts to become the first Republican governor elected in two decades while helping his party undo the Democratic legislative supermajorities that can override gubernatorial vetoes.
“New Yorkers are scared and they have every right to be. The governments number one job is public safety and security, and keeping their people safe. Kathy Hochul and this administration is failing miserably,” GOP LG nominee Alison Esposito, a former NYPD deputy inspector, said at the Monday press conference.
A Hochul campaign spokeswoman declined to comment.
Zeldin’s attacks on bail reform have intensified in recent days following a Thursday night attack by fellow Army veteran David Jakubonis, who allegedly rushed Zeldin while wielding a bizarre, pointed weapon a campaign event outside Rochester.
Another recent case involving suspected drug smugglers released after being charged with second-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. Recent reforms meant the suspects could not be held on bail.
Jakubonis was charged with attempted assault in the second degree, an offense where reforms also precluded cash bail, before being released hours later.
“As a former prosecutor, I will tell you that when someone comes at someone else’s neck … that alone is meeting the elements of some very severe charges that are on the books,” Zeldin said Monday at a campaign stop in New York City.
Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley, a co-chair of Zeldin’s campaign committee, reportedly recused herself from the case. Her office has said they followed the lead of the Office of the Monroe County Sheriff in charging Jakubonis, who was later jailed on a federal assault charge.
“She wasn’t involved in that charging decision. I was asked whether or not I believe that the attacker should be arrested, which I expressed that I did believe that. I also expressed that he would likely end up being released to the cashless bail and that’s wrong,” Zeldin said Monday.
Progressive district attorneys like Alvin Bragg in Manhattan have become targets of criticism by Zeldin, who has been endorsed by the Post’s Editorial Board, and other Republicans for their advocacy of reforms aimed at decreasing the number of people incarcerated for non-violent offenses.
Such reforms, however, have allowed potentially violent people to be released after being arrested, according to Zeldin, a situation that he is vowing to address despite likely opposition from progressive lawmakers.
“I believe that cashless bail is going to be an issue as it should be in state legislative races and in some of these districts that might be bluer. Hopefully you have incoming State Assemblyman and state senators in those districts who are willing to take a stronger stand,” he said Monday.
