U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, the Republican Party’s designated gubernatorial nominee and his running mate, New York Police Department Deputy Inspector Alison Esposito, stopped by Capital Tonight Thursday to discuss a number of issues including their position on the hotly debated bail reforms that were originally passed in Albany in 2019.
The ticket wants the bail law fully repealed and judicial discretion restored. The congressman said that the way the original reform was described in 2019 doesn’t comport with the reality on the ground.
“When somebody doesn’t have the ability to pay the smallest amount of bail on the most minor offense and has a clean record and there’s no flight risk, and they’re going to show back up in court — that is the one end of the extreme that was used as justification to propose this bill in the first place,” Zeldin said. “Unfortunately, they cast a really wide net.”
Lieutenant governor candidate Alison Esposito, a longtime officer with the NYPD, was asked if she noticed any changes on the streets after bail reform was first put into effect.
“Immediately. Jan. 1. I remember an individual committing a robbery and shooting someone. And he was back out on the street,” Esposito told Capital Tonight. “And I believe it was in about 15 days, he was shot committing another robbery.”
Esposito said 2019’s bail reforms led to a “revolving door of justice."
A 24-year veteran of the NYPD, Esposito was asked how she would make the lieutenant governor’s role her own.
“I expect to be given a lot to do. This is definitely not just a title role,” she said. “Law enforcement is my bread and butter and it’s where I come from, but there are a lot of passions when it comes to New Yorkers. Mental illness is one of them.”
Esposito wants to address mental illness safely and humanely, which she said includes expanding Kendra’s Law.
“I think that we are the greatest state in the country. New York City, Rochester, these are some of the greatest cities in the country, and it’s just inhumane to watch people sleeping in below frigid temperatures on the sidewalk because they choose to,” she said. “I’m about being compassionate.”
Kendra’s Law allows courts to order certain individuals with mental illness to receive assisted outpatient treatment. Those subject to an order can be hospitalized, with or without their consent, if they don’t follow the treatment plan. Gov. Kathy Hochul has proposed making it easier to order someone into assisted outpatient treatment if they’ve had it before.
In order to address inflation, Rep. Zeldin takes a page out of the Republican playbook.
Besides suspending the gas tax, he said "we need to cut taxes across the board in this state. We need to tap into, safely, our own natural resources,” Zeldin said, referring to hydrofracking. “We need to greenlight pipelines. We shouldn’t be banning gas hook-ups on new construction.”
Zeldin also mentioned the loss of an estimated 25,000 jobs that would have come to New York if Amazon had been able to build its headquarters in the state. Those plans were scuttled in February 2019 after a political backlash led by some Democratic politicians who objected, in part, to the promised $3 billion in government incentives.
Zeldin said it’s time to change the “culture” in New York.
“All this stuff, on the tax side, on the spending side, chasing new opportunities, new jobs, generating new revenue, it all contributes toward improving our economy,” he said.
When asked why they think the national debate around critical race theory would resonate in a state as diverse as New York, Esposito said teachers have been teaching kids to hate themselves.
“It’s the tone of critical race theory. It’s divisive. And it’s teaching our children that 'you’re on that side because of this, and you’re on this side because of that.’ That’s what I don’t agree with,” Esposito explained. “Not that history is not important. We need to know history.”
Zeldin said their candidacy is gaining traction among communities of color.
“I’ve lost count about how many dozens of times I’ve done events with the Asian American community, in Flushing, in Brooklyn or in Chinatown. Meeting with the Black pastors and their first ladies in Sunnyside, or the Hispanic voters of the South Bronx,” he said. “I was just with the Jewish voters of Crown Heights a couple of days ago. I will be the first Jewish Republican governor in this state.”