Lee Zeldin, Kathy Hochul’s campaigns face accusations of sign stealing as NY gov race enters final stretch

Supporters of the dueling candidates for governor say campaign signs are going missing at an alarming rate ahead of the final day of voting on Nov. 8 in the tight race for governor.

Campaign signs promoting Republican Lee Zeldin (R-Long Island) have been taken down across the five boroughs in what supporters claim is a partisan effort to help Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.

“My neighborhood is experiencing an unprecedented effort by city agency employees to remove political signs- specifically signs supporting Congressman Zeldin for Governor,” Councilwoman Inna Vernikov (R-Midwood) said Wednesday after outlining reports of alleged malfeasance on Twitter.

“My constituents are rightfully angry that their tax dollars are being used to suppress their political speech,” the Brooklyn pol added about what she suggested were “politically motivated attempts” to boost Hochul.

A video posted to social media Tuesday showed Assemblyman Peter Abbate (D-Brooklyn) as he removed dozens of pro-Zeldin signs that he said were posted to utility poles in violation of city law.

“People want to know why there’s crime going up. We don’t enforce the law,” Abbate told The Post while adding that he has alerted city sanitation workers to the purported problem in neighborhoods like Bay Ridge, Sunset Park and Boro Park.

“What’ll happen is they put them up. After the election, they fall down. They go into the street. They clog the sewers with the leaves. It is against the law,” Abbate said.

But Zeldin and his supporters say Abbate and the city Department of Sanitation are using existing rules as a pretense to target him as he pushes to pull off an historic upset against the embattled Democrat Hochul with the help of support in the outer boroughs.

“I’ve known Peter for years, but I’ve never heard of him out cleaning the sidewalks on his regular morning walk ever before,” Councilman Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island) said.

A Sanitation department spokesman denied that politics were playing any role in efforts to keeping public property like traffic medians, curb lines and utility poles free of partisan blight.

But some Brooklynites are wondering about the mysterious level of attention pro-Zeldin signs are getting in a city where Democrats control local government.

“It’s not like the streets are clean and there isn’t a rat problem,” a Brooklyn resident said of a video showing what appeared to be city workers removing signs from Ocean Parkway. “This is a serious waste of city workers, and very transparent. This is a supervisor.”

Midwood resident Shmuel Hirshman, speculated that a recent ticket – which has since been tossed – issued by a sanitation official over litter was really about the Zeldin sign he planted in front of his house on behalf of a friend.

“The only thing that’s sticking out is the sign, and again I can’t say for sure that’s he gave me a ticket, I can just that I said ‘What, no one else on the block?” Hirshman said before noting how a neighbor had a seat cushion laying in his yard.

Meanwhile, some Democrats have expressed concerns about the imbalance in campaign signs planted by the Zeldin campaign compared to Hochul, after criticizing her campaign in recent weeks amid polling showing her once mighty lead over Zeldin evaporating to single digits.

Of the sign stealing, Zeldin told reporters Wednesday at a campaign stop in Manhattan: “If you’re a state assemblyman, you should be spending your time knocking on doors. You’re on the ballot as well. Go advocate on behalf of yourself for candidates who support you. You could go put up signs for your own candidate. Don’t be going around taking off signs,”

The Hochul campaign declined to comment on the partisan accusations of sign stealing.

“I’ve been very clear, I don’t want to see any Democrats taking down any Republican signs. I find that’s the kind of campaign behavior that probably better not in our suburbs, but the suburbs of Moscow,” Democratic state Party Chair Jay Jacobs told reporters Wednesday.

But he said pro-Hochul signs have been disappearing in places like Long Island – a key battleground in the race – where Republican officials control local government.

“I will tell you, come to Nassau County,” Jacobs said — without any video or photographic evidence — while claiming that local sanitation officials were yanking Hochul signs under the auspices of public sanitation.

“You’d imagine that the Republican signs would be litter as well,” he added.