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Two men were shot outside of New York gubernatorial hopeful Lee Zeldin’s home on Long Island on Sunday.
The shooting is not in anyway connected to the congressman, the Suffolk County Police Department as confirmed.
Zeldin, 42, first revealed information about the shooting in an interview with the New York Post hours after it took place.
He said that his twin daughters, Mikayla and Arianna, 16, were in the home at the time doing their homework. They unharmed but a bit ‘freaked out,’ Zeldin said.
Zeldin told the newspaper: ‘They heard the shots. Boom! They went upstairs and locked themselves in the bathroom.’ He added that his daughters called 911.
Rep. Lee Zeldin pictured with his wife, Diana, and his two daughters
According to his Twitter page, Zeldin was attending an event in the Bronx alongside his wife, Diana, as part of his campaign to unseat New York sitting Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul.
Zeldin, who represents eastern Long Island in Congress, accused Democrats of being soft on criminals and overzealous in imposing safety protocols intended to fight COVID-19.
Police have confirmed that they are investigating a shooting that took place along Saint George Drive West in Shirley, New York. The conditions of the two victims are unknown.
In a statement, Zeldin said: ‘The two individuals who were shot were laying down under my front porch and the bushes in front of our porch.’
He added: ‘My understanding is that they have been transported to area hospitals. I do not know their identities.’
The conservative added: ‘Like so many New Yorkers, crime has literally made its way to our front door.’
Zeldin also took time to praise the actions of his daughters: ‘After my daughters heard the gunshots and the screaming, they ran upstairs, locked themselves in the bathroom and immediately called 911. They acted very swiftly and smartly every step of the way and Diana and I are extremely proud of them.’
Zeldin departs a ‘Moms 4Zeldin’ town hall on the Upper West Side of Manhattan on October 7th
Latest polling shows that Zeldin is in with a chance of unseating Hochul in November
Incumbent Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul (left) is just two points ahead of her Republican challenger Lee Zeldin (right), currently a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, in a new Trafalgar Group poll
This is the second high profile instance of violent crime to impact Zeldin. In July, Zeldin was accosted while giving a speech in Rochester, New York, by a drunk Iraq veteran.
Despite initial attempts by Republicans and conservative activists to blame the attack on Democratic supporters, the perpetrator, David Jakubonis, told investigators that he did not know who Zeldin was when he got up on the stage.
Just this week, a new poll showed that Zeldin was just two points behind Hochul in what should be a blow-out race in the deep-blue state.
In September, Zeldin called for a probe into sitting Hochul’s apparent dodgy dealings.
In 2021, Hochul’s administration inked a deal to buy 52 million Covid-19 Carestart tests for $637 million. At the same time, the state of California made a similar purchase but paid 45 percent less than New York, according to the Albany Times Union.
The report says that the price increase was because Hochul went through a campaign donor’s company to facilitate the purchase. Whereas California went straight through the manufacturer, AccessBio.
A Trafalgar Group survey released Thursday showed Hochul, who took over for disgraced Gov. Andrew Cuomo last August, with 44.5 percent support.
Zeldin, an ally of former President Donald Trump, received 42.6 percent support in the survey.
About 10 percent of the electorate remains undecided, while Libertarian Larry Sharpe hovered around 3 percent.
About 10 percent of the electorate remains undecided, while Libertarian Larry Sharpe hovered around 3 percent.
The survey is of New York likely voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percent.
The poll was conducted September 30 through October 3.
Hochul’s campaign has tried to portray Zeldin as too Trumpy, while Zeldin has used a playbook similar to other Republicans on the fall ballot and played up high crime rates.
In September, however, Zeldin’s campaign admitted that one of the GOP candidate’s ads included footage of crimes being committed in California – not New York – and some of the New York footage predated Hochul’s tenure, according to NY1.
Hochul, however, had served as Cuomo’s lieutenant governor before he resigned over allegations of sexual harassment.
Another Zeldin ad portrayed Hochul as ‘even more corrupt than Cuomo’ pointing to claims that Hochul gave no-bid contracts to campaign donors.
Early voting in the race begins October 29.
Despite the close poll, Zeldin’s shot at the governor’s mansion remains long.
Other recent polls showed Hochul with a comfortable, double-digit lead.
And the last time New York elected a Republican governor was 20 years ago, when the state elected Gov. George Pataki for a third term. Since then, the state has had four Democratic governors, with two of them – Eliot Spitzer and Andrew Cuomo – resigning in scandal.
FiveThirtyEight gave Zeldin a less than 1 percent chance of winning as of Friday.
In promoting himself as a law and order candidate, Zeldin’s campaign put out a video showing an assault that took place in California, misrepresenting it as an incident that took place in New York.
The voiceover in the ad says: ‘You’re looking at actual violent crimes caught on camera in Kathy Hochul’s New York.’
Some of the other footage in the video depicted crimes that took place before Hochul took office last year. While acknowledging a mistake, Zeldin’s campaign defended the ad and said the message was clear: violent crime is out of control.
Zeldin and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani speak during a ceremony at the 9/11 Memorial marking the 21st anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks
When Zeldin won his party’s nomination in March, he told an audience: ‘This is a battle for the heart and soul of our state,’ said Zeldin, an Army Reserve lieutenant colonel. ‘I’m running so the people feel they are back in control of their government again.’
He has made cracking down on crime a centerpiece of his campaign, at a time when polls indicate it’s a top issue for many voters.
‘It’s about restoring order, it’s about backing the blue,’ Zeldin told convention attendees, later adding: ‘This is a rescue mission to save our state that will be successful.’
He called for a law enforcement bill of rights that would ensure police officers have the right to self-defense.
He has also vowed to repeal criminal justice reforms passed by the Democratic-led Legislature in recent years, including a 2019 law that barred money bail and pretrial detention for most misdemeanor and nonviolent felony charges.
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