Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman Sean Patrick Maloney downplayed his party’s struggles in deep-blue New York.
During an appearance on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday, Maloney claimed that Republicans are wasting money in their efforts to flip his seat in the 17th District, as well as win the state’s gubernatorial race. Maloney contended that Republicans are simply “lashing out” in anger, using dark money, because they do not have plans to tackle issues.
“Speaking of New York, as you mentioned, the Republicans have gone in big to try to defeat you,” host Jonathan Karl said. “They think that your seat is winnable. We’ve also seen recent polling that shows that Governor [Kathy] Hochul is facing a very tough challenge, much tougher than expected, from Lee Zeldin, the Republican. Could we really see Democrats in trouble in New York of all places?” he asked.
“What I can tell you is that [Republicans are] acting like angry people and they’re lashing out with what they’ve got which, is big, dark MAGA millions,” Maloney said. “Like I said, they’re lighting on fire $7 million trying to beat me and on the day after the election, they’re going to lose this seat and wish they had that $7 million out in races they could win.”
“That tells me they’re not good at their jobs and I don’t want those people making decisions about my national security, or my economy or my reproductive freedom because they’re angry people, using dark mega-millions to try to win power,” he continued.
“No, what you’re seeing is a bunch of irrational angry decisions using money, not a plan to help our communities or move our country forward.”
“The other side is acting like angry people and they're lashing out with what they've got which, is big, dark MAGA millions…They're lighting on fire $7 million trying to beat me," Rep. Sean Maloney tells @JonKarl.
"They're going to lose this seat " https://t.co/Kh1yT6iIsS pic.twitter.com/9nrSunYXxV
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) October 23, 2022
But for all of Maloney’s bluster, he and Governor Hochul appear to be in very close races that they risk losing. There are no major public polls of Maloney’s home district, New York’s 17th, but internal polling obtained by FiveThirtyEight shows that Republican Michael V. Lawler holds significant leads in the race by as much as 6 points.
Meanwhile, the New York governor’s race is listed as a toss-up by RealClearPolitics. Recent polls have shown the contest is extremely close: A poll from the Trafalgar Group released earlier this month found that Zeldin was within the margin of error against Hochul. Another poll from Quinnipiac showed that Zeldin trailed by just 4 points. Most recently, a poll by Co/efficient showed that Zeldin leads Hochul. Zeldin has surged in recent weeks with his focus on rising crime.