Bail reform supporters launch six-figure ad blitz to boost NY Dem senators ahead of election

Bail reform supporters are launching a six-figure ad buy to boost swing district Democratic state senators endangered by the sharp spikes in violence and robberies tied to their passage of the soft on crime measures. 

“These ads are asking New Yorkers to bury their head and pretend like all is safe in our city,” Staten Island Councilman Joe Borelli, a spokesman for the Save Our State PAC that is firmly anti-bail reform, told The Post Friday.

“Every single Democrat on the ballot should be asked over and over whether they want to commit themselves to maintain the chaotic status quo,” Borelli added.

The ads are being paid for by the Vera Action group associated with the left-leaning Vera Institute of Justice.

The lefty think tank and its associated political arm have been outspoken defenders of bail reform in recent years with the brutal killing of Christina Yuna Lee earlier this year in her Chinatown apartment.

One of the ads funded by Vera Action claims that thousands of people have kept their jobs because of the controversial changes.

A second ad features former Albany Police Chief Brendan Cox sticking up for bail reform despite widespread condemnation from other people tied to law enforcement including Democratic Albany District Attorney David Soares.

This pro-reform digital ad push is specifically aimed at helping five Democratic incumbents: state Sens. Anna Kaplan, Pete Harckham of Westchester as well as Samra Brouk and Jeremy Cooney who represent Rochester and surrounding suburbs.

Kenneth Moore, the Democratic candidate to replace former state Sen. Todd Kaminsky for a Nassau-based seat is the fifth candidate getting help in cyberspace from the ads launched by Vera.

Kaplan, Harkcham, Brouk and Cooney are respectively facing former state Sen. Jack Martins, Malverne Village Trustee Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick, entrepreneur Len Morrell and former Gates Police Chief Jim VanBrederode in the upcoming legislative elections.

The four incumbents all voted in favor of the state budget passed in April that included changes to bail reform that critics say fell short of empowering judges or otherwise tightening laws enough to keep recidivists from reoffending once they are arrested and subsequently released per reforms originally passed in 2019.

GOP candidates are vowing to repeal bail reform if given the chance by voters this November.

Democrats have a 43-seat supermajority in the 63-member state Senate that hangs in the balance ahead of the final day of voting on Nov. 8.

Republican rivals and outside groups funded by conservative mega-donor Ronald Lauder are spending big to assail Democrats from Gov. Kathy Hochul on down the ballot over bail reform ahead of the Nov. 8 elections. 

“It’s good to see the truth being told after years of misinformation and demagoguery around the issues,” state Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris, who oversees campaign efforts as chair of the Democratic State Senate Campaign Committee said in a text Friday.