BY: Keith S. Shikowitz: Editor in Chief/Investigative Reporter
The 2026 campaign is moving at warp speed. This election season can be considered a watershed one. People have said that the fate of the state and country is at stake. Senator Bill Weber is facing a challenge to his seat by Nyack Mayor Joe Rand and Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman is challenging Governor Kathy Hochul for her seat in Albany.
If you go by the crowd that was present at the event last night, there is a lot of momentum for Weber and Blakeman. It was standing room only.
Aiden Rowan chairman of the Young Republicans for the county, who also serves on the executive board of the Rockland County Republican Committee opened the event. “Thanks for coming out tonight to support Senator Weber.” He then announced all of the elected dignitaries who were present. His final announcement was to introduce Weber.
He put the microphone down and began, “Thank you, everyone for coming. It’s so exciting to be here tonight. I’ll get to the County Executive from Nassau County in a second, but you know we were talking earlier tonight about the successes that we’ve had in New York state elections last year and I think what’s going to be a great prelude to all of us having great victories this year as well. Right here are the two county executives, Ed Day from Rockland County. He pointed to Blakeman. The two counties that basically won everything in this past election, but that’s a good indication of where we’re going to go because things were tough last year, right?”
He then pointed out the major victories in Rockland County that the Republicans had in the 2024 elections.
“The county executives here know exactly what I mean in terms of the constituents really big opposition to that because of the unfairness of it, the bail reform, the crime, all of these things that are in New York City, we don’t want in the suburbs, and that’s why it’s important that we elect county executive. Bruce Blakeman is someone from the suburbs who understands the suburbs, who will bring values to Albany that will actually help the suburbs instead of giving everything to New York City. So with that, I want to thank everyone for coming on my behalf. I work hard for you all. We’re going to win collectively as a team, but I want to introduce County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who’s here.”
“Thank you, thank you very much, Bill. First of all, running for governor is a tremendous responsibility because you have all the down ballot races that quite, frankly, are just as important as winning the governor’s race because without enough senators that are Republicans and Conservatives, we’ll have a situation that even if I get elected. They’ll be able to override the vetoes that I’ll make on all the crazy policies that they have. So re-electing Bill Weber is a priority for me, and I know it’s a priority for you. He’s a great senator. He’s a fighter. 100% voting record with the Conservatives.” Blakeman said.
Weber interjected, “Yeah, I’m getting an award 99%.”
Blakeman continued, “I feel very at home here, because in Nassau County we have so many Republican and Conservative elected officials and led by your great, great county executive Ed Day, and each and every one of you. I feel like I’m in Nassau County with all these Republican elected officials. So, thank you so much for all you do each and every day.
People said to him that he was going to get killed in the Hispanic and Latino communities. He was going to get crushed there. He replied that he didn’t think so. He went into those communities and talked to their leaders, and at first they were hostile. “They say, you know, what do you guys do in our communities? I said, we’re trying to make them safer. If we don’t rid these communities of these criminals that came here undocumented, not vetted, we don’t know where they came from. Many of them were criminals in the countries that they came to.”
He explained to them that they’re going to recruit their kids into gangs, overcrowd your schools and have homelessness in your business communities.
“They said, you know, Blakeman’s right. Maybe he is doing the right thing. We got 46 criminals out of Nassau County just last month, 27 of them were in gang-related activities. The communities that were Latino and Hispanic, they appreciated that. I got 56% of the Hispanic and Latino vote last election because I went to them and told them why I was doing what I was doing so their communities would be safe.”
“The other thing I did was, I had these moms that were very annoyed with Kathy Hochul because their kids still had masks on their faces and their reading scores were down, their math scores were down, their socialization skills were down, their science scores were down. They just wanted the masks off the kids. The moms came to me, and they said there’s a 0.001% chance that my kid’s going to get seriously ill, but he and she have been wearing these masks for two years now. It’s ridiculous. I signed an executive order and I said, Masks are optional. It’s up to the parents to decide if they want their kids to wear masks.”
“Well, Kathy Hochul and Letitia James went crazy. They said that I was a danger, that I wasn’t following the science. I said, following the science? I’m following the science. You’re the ones not following the science. You guys are making it up as you go along. With that, she threatened to have the attorney general go to court and get an injunction. But when she started to hear from every county, and I’m sure they said it in Rockland County too. She then did a U-turn and she said, it’s up to each county to decide. We were fighting for the moms.”
Cashless bail has been an issue since the law was passed back in 2019. Blakeman gave his view on it.
There have been many national issues that directly affect the local communities. One of which is boys playing on their teams and being in girls locker rooms. “I had this photo session with these little girls from a soccer team, 12-year-old girls soccer team. All the elected officials know this. When the kids win a championship, they go to their elected officials, they take a picture with a trophy. It’s a very nice thing to do, but these girls had an agenda. When we were done with the picture, They said, Mr. Blakeman, we want to talk to you. I said, “What do you want to talk about?” They said, “We don’t want boys playing on our teams. We don’t want to play against boys. We don’t want them in our locker rooms. We don’t want them in our bathrooms. You’ve got to do something about that.”
He agreed with them 100%. He passed a law in Nassau County that says just this. Boys play with boys and girls play with girls. A simple note. He said that it resonated with people.
“Even Democrats who had common sense realized how ridiculous it was to have biological males in girls’ bathrooms. It’s obscene. You would have gotten locked up five years ago for doing something like that. Now you’ve got a governor and an attorney general who, who want to do that.”
“Here’s the bottom line. Mike Lawler is incredibly important, not only to this district, not only to the state but to America, we have a slim margin in the House of Representatives. We have to work very, very hard to make sure that President Trump has a solid majority in the House of Representatives. So, I know you’ve done a great job for Mike, but we’ve got to do even better because they’re coming after him this year.”
Blakeman then turned his focus to Weber. He said he is one vote in the Senate, otherwise there would be a supermajority in the Senate. “We lose one senator and they get back the supermajority. Incredibly important. Not that, not just that we believe in him, not just that we love his service to our state and to this district, but the fact of the matter is the whole state depends on him getting reelected.”
He continued, “I mean, Hasn’t he had an amazing year? Just think of it. It was a year ago that he was inaugurated. Think about everything that he’s done in a year. Some people don’t like his message, but how can you argue with his performance? It’s been stunning. Going after a drug lord dictator. Bringing peace to the Middle East. Going out and fighting for things that are important. The Big Beautiful Bill with all those tax cuts. He’s done a magnificent job. We’ve got to get in the fight. We’ve got to fight for our kids and our grandkids. We’ve got to make sure that we leave them in a better state than what was left to us because that’s what parents and grandparents are supposed to do.”
He explained that in his opinion, if Kathy Hochul gets 4 more years as governor, think about it. She embraced Mamdani. She embraced un-American values. This is a fight for New York State and it’s a fight for America. I know I’m preaching to the faithful, but now we have to increase your numbers tenfold. We need to get people out of their bubble, get them out of their apathy and get them to go out and vote and recruit people to vote and take back our state. It begins on the grassroots level.
Blakeman concluded, “I want to thank each and every one of you for your public service and for your support, for a great Senator Bill Weber, for great Congressman Mike Lawler, all the elected officials. I want you to know that I am running for all of your children and grandchildren. I will fight as hard as I can to make sure that we don’t let people with un-American values take over our state. May God bless you all and may God bless America.
Weber thanked Blakeman and asked is Supervisor George Holman was still there? In the town of Clarkstown that we’re in right now, 5 – 0.
