Mondayās debate between the RepubliÜ«can candidates for governor featured plenty of inter-party strife, but no pair of gubernatorial hopefuls sāniped at each other more than Rep. Lee Zeldin and businessman Harry Wilson.
āIn January of this year, he asked me to be on his ticket. Now why is he honestly attacking me now? Because his campaign is disintegrating,ā Wilson claimed, days after he formally sued Zeldin (R-Long Islšand) alleging campaign financeź§ violations.
Zeldin denied that he had any interest in associating politically with Wilson, at the debate, which also included former Westchester Executive Rob Astorino and exā-Trump White House Aide Andrew Giuliani.
āI never asked and I wouldn’t ask ‘Never Trump’ Harry Wilson,ā Zeldin said as Wilson tried to talk over him.
The Wilson campaign clarified after the debate that the millionaire businessman, who is self-funding his campaign, was referrinšg to a Jan. 12 phone call when Zeldin supposedly tried to convince him to run for state comptroller.
A Zeldin spokesperson did not immš¤”ediately respond for comment on the purported push to get Wilson to run for comptā roller.
The clash was one of manš“y between the two candidates ā who have millions more to spend in the homestretch of the campaign compared to Astorino and Giuliani.
Zeldin has the official backing of the state party in the primary and has led most polling in a race that still appears up in the air with early voting slated to begin June 18. The primź¦ary date is June š28.
The winner š§øof the GOP primary will face the Democratic nominee, expected to be Gov. Kathy Hochul, in the November election.
āNotice that ‘Never Trumper’ Harry Wilson didn’t deny the fact that he refused to vote for Donald Trump over Joe Biden,ā Zeldin said at one point before bashing Wilson for his past campaign donation to Democratic Manhattan Distrš°ict Attorney Alvin Bragg.
āYou went to Harvard? Yes. But don’t think you’re smarter than the Republican voters across the state of New York who can figure you out, Never Trumper! They figured you out that you worked twice for Obama. They figured out that you fired your unvaccinated employees,ā Zeldin said at another point in the debate.
Wilson defended his business recordā on vaccines by sayingš³ it was a cost of doing business given federal rules.
āMr. Zeldin āhas never had private sector jobs. He does not understand how businesses work. I ran a nursing home business. President Biden was introducing a vaccine mandate for all nursing home employees. And we had to deal with that,ā Wilson said.
Wilson for his party, hardly shied away froš¬m labeling Zeldin as a career politician who went with the politicź¦al winds during his time in state and federal government.
āI won more votes and got closest to winning statewide than any Republicanź¦¦ in the last 20 years running the most fiscally conservative platform in the last in my lifetime,ā Wilson said of his losing 2010 campaign for state comptroller against Democrat Tom DiNapoli.
āThat is not what Mr. Zeldin is trying to do. Why is he doing this because he will do anything and say anytź¦hing to distract from his terrible record as aā quote Cuomo clone, which defines his time at Albany,ā Wilson said.