Republican candidate for governor Harry Wilson stopped in Syracuse Friday as part of a tour to roll out his plan to fight crime and also build support for his campaign. He took aim at the state’s bail reform laws of 2019, which he says created more problems than they tried to solve.
“I believe judges should have discretion around setting bail," Wilson said. "That’s common sense. And we should allow judges to have a dangerousness standard as 49 other states and the federal government do today. That’s a core part of the problem eviscerated by the bail reform and has not been addressed by the cosmetic changes introduced by Governor Hochul and the failed leadership in the legislature.”
Wilson says law enforcement also needs financial and staffing support to fulfill their mission. He also had harsh words about the state’s failed redistricting process. New York’s highest court this week threw out the congressional and state senate maps drawn by the democratic majority in the state legislature.
“We’re talking about redistricting and not real problems because a bunch of politicians wanted to protect themselves," Wilson said. "They wanted to pick their own voters in a process that was clearly biased. There’s not a single person who can look at that map and see the crazy pirouettes they went through to create heavily democratic districts and say that was a fair process.”
The court ruling doesn’t impact the statewide primary races such as Governor, which will go on as planned June 28. But congressional and senate primaries are likely delayed until August. Wilson says it’s an example of what’s wrong with Albany.
“All this time," Wilson said. "all this money, it could be tens of millions dollars wasted if there’s two primary dates, all because a group of people who are out of touch with voters and taxpayers wanted to protect themselves. It’s disgusting.”
Wilson is one of eight republicans seeking the nomination. Congressmember Lee Zeldin was the party’s designee. Others include Rob Astorino and Andrew Giuliani.
