New York State Republicans are going all in on public safety.
The Republican candidates for governor and attorney general — Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and attorney Saritha Komatireddy — hammered their opponents on public safety during a rally at a country club in Rensselaer County.
"These Democrat socialists that Kathy Hochul is campaigning with, they hate America," Blakeman told rally attendees. "They hate America. So we got to do this: We've got to make our voices heard at the ballot box on Tuesday. So let's get in the fight."
The rally with a couple hundred attendees and other GOP candidates running in the Greater Capital Region was the start of a campaign push to turn out Republicans in Upstate New York. Blakeman campaigned near Oswego Sunday afternoon, and he and Komatireddy will stop in Rochester, Syracuse, Binghamton and a Buffalo suburb on Monday.
Komatireddy argued her Democratic opponent, New York Attorney General Letitia James, was too busy attacking political opponents like President Donald Trump to focus on fighting crime. Despite polling showing James ahead, Komatireddy's campaign has seen a surge of support and donations after an Oct. 8 debate with James.
"Tish James could not defend her failing record," Komatireddy said. "She could not defend her ruthless, unethical, illegal, immoral pursuit of political enemies. She could not defend the fact that under her watch, crime in New York is up, mentally ill people are out on the streets not getting taken care of, and fraud is so rampant we are all getting ripped off."
The violent crime rate in New York State fell between 2022 and 2025, but it's still above pre-pandemic levels and the current national violent crime rate, according to the Council of State Governments Justice Center.
Blakeman's 17-minute speech also criticized Hochul's positions on green energy, fracking, transgender rights and taxes, as well as her working relationship with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who Blakeman described as a "communist." But much of it targeted Hochul for signing the "Local Cops, Local Crimes Act," which bans local law enforcement agencies from entering 287(g) cooperation agreements with U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement.
"She never talks about that, and quite frankly, the media doesn't either. Shame on them," Blakeman said. "They talk about ICE this and ICE that. When are you going to talk about the victims of these crimes? There are families in New York State who are going to have empty seats at their Thanksgiving dinner. They're not going to be with their loved ones opening presents under the Christmas tree this year because of Kathy Hochul's policies."
Nassau County, which Blakeman oversees, was one of the counties that terminated its cooperation agreements with ICE after Local Cops, Local Crimes went into effect.
Hochul and other Democrats have argued the ICE cooperation ban protects immigrant communities and ensures law enforcement resources are focused on addressing violent crimes.
The Rensselaer County Sheriff's Office ignored the new state law and maintained its 287(g) agreement with ICE. Sheriff Kyle Bourgault, who is fighting a pair of court battles to keep the agreement, sang the national anthem, and County Executive Steve McLaughlin served as the rally's emcee.
McLaughlin ended the rally by calling on Republican voters to ignore recent polling from Siena University and Marist showing Hochul with double-digit leads over Blakeman, calling the surveys "horrible."
"Don't believe these nonsense polls that are designed to beat you down," McLaughlin said. "They're designed to dampen your enthusiasm. They're designed to get Republicans to say, 'Oh well, we can't do it.' We damn sure can do it."
Election Day is Tuesday.
