No, Blakeman is not closing the gap as his campaign douses GOP’s 2022 momentum

There are media reports that Democrats are in such a panic about surging Republican gubernatorial hopeful and Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman that they dispatched $4.34 million to Gov. Kathy Hochul's campaign — like it was a lifeline.

No. That is not what happens.

The Greater Empire PAC, a local creature of the Democratic Governors Association, raised $4.47 million for attack ads against Blakeman.

Most of the money came from major donors, including one-time GOP paymaster Michael Bloomberg, $1 million; the Greater New York Hospital Association, $1 million; the Sports Betting Alliance, $600,000; and John B. Hess, $500,000.

Yes, the Greater Empire PAC is aligned with the DGA, but these donors are looking to curry favor with Hochul and, in the words of Jim Martin, the leader of Leadership for New York, create a mandate for the governor that allows her to push back on her party's hard left.

Frankly, if Blakeman were surging or closing the gap, big players throwing in this close to the election would be suicidal.

There was a Pollfinity poll released Oct. 13 that showed Blakeman trailing Hochul, with 43 percent to her 47 percent.

The poll's margin of error of 4.8 percentage points, a function of the 499 registered voters, already makes it unhelpful because, as soon as one breaks down the turnout model by males and females, the error rate doubles.

President Donald J. Trump has been on the road rallying for Republican candidates, but the rally locations have defied a single theme.

In dual events in North Texas and over the border in Oklahoma, the president was visiting some of the reddest districts in the country.

Trump then came to Syracuse to energize Western New York voters for Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bruce Blakeman — in a state where there has been no Republican governor in two decades.

At the Oct. 9 Syracuse rally, Trump saluted Blakeman as the man to fix the Empire State, hobbled by crime and decline.

"He'll save this state," Trump said. "He'll turn the state around, and I will help him from the White House."

Trump couldn't have hurt Blakeman, especially in Western New York and Upstate, but compare his effort with the steamroller that was Pataki.

In Gov. George Pataki's last campaign for a third term, he was so dominant that he was endorsed by several senior Democrats, including former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, former New York Gov. Hugh Carey, and the serving mayors of Albany and Buffalo.

Then-Rep. Lee Zeldin made a heroic run four years ago.

It looked like Republicans had turned the corner.

In 2022, Republicans won all four of the non-Brooklyn or Queens House seats, as they flipped a total of four House seats and held them all.

Their 11 out of 24 seats represented the highest GOP total since 2000, when Republicans won 12 out of 31 seats. In the 2002 midterms, they fell to 10 out of 29 seats.

In the governor's race, Zeldin ran a statewide campaign, raising $24 million, the highest total for a Republican since George Pataki's $40 million in 2002 for his successful third-term campaign.

Zeldin's challenge garnered 47 percent of the vote to Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul's 53 percent, the closest gubernatorial contest since Pataki took down Gov. Mario Cuomo in 1994, 49 percent to Cuomo's 45 percent.

Conservatives here are confused as they mourn the loss of the Empire State as a new front in the political warfare against Democrats — a stark contrast with the enthusiasm felt after the 2022 midterms and the 2024 presidential election.

Now, it is clear that whoever convinced whomever that Blakeman was the right man to challenge Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul was obviously confused or ill-informed — or both.

Blakeman's tragic campaign has successfully doused whatever fire was still burning from the GOP's return to electoral relevance.