New York's Democrat Attorney General Letitia James has been busy ramping up her attacks on former President Donald Trump in the final weeks of her reelection campaign, but what she's not doing is debating her GOP opponent to explain to voters why she deserves another term.
Among the explanations she owes to Empire State voters is why she tried to abandon her post as attorney general in order to mount a run for governor, only to drop out after failing to gain traction against fellow Democrat Kathy Hochul.
James dropped out of the gubernatorial contest before the primary and quickly announced she would run for reelection as attorney general — but is that really the job she wants and that she's committed to if she was ready and willing to jump ship in search of more power? Is she only running for reelection in order to preserve the power she does have in order to continue what she herself has explained as an obsession with taking down Trump and his family?
Perhaps James' work to announce a conveniently timed $250 million civil lawsuit against Trump, his three oldest children, and his business is what has kept the AG too busy to agree to or participate in any debates?
While polls in the New York AG race are few and far between, a new survey conducted by Trafalgar and released this week shows a statistical dead heat between James and her GOP opponent, Michael Henry. As Vespa reported:
You’d think James would be a lock for reelection, but a new poll from Trafalgar has Republican attorney general candidate Michael Henry in a statistical dead heat with James. If we want to get technical, he’s beating James, with 44.2 percent to her 43 percent.
Polls like that, you might think, would lead James to refocus her campaign on protecting New York residents from surging crime and deadly drugs and see her seek to debate Henry in order to make her case to voters. But she isn't. In fact, it sounds like she isn't even answering invitations from Henry's campaign, and also isn't responding to inquiries from reporters on the topic.
Letitia James REFUSES to debate me.
— Michael Henry (@michaelhenry4ag) September 23, 2022
Maybe it's because I'm ahead in the latest poll?
New Yorkers deserve to hear why she supports pro-criminal policies and why she won't go after rampant pay-to-play corruption right in front of her.https://t.co/H6PBtM5WXZ pic.twitter.com/31xplBJjY3
Instead, James is rerunning her first campaign which was premised on taking down Donald Trump, as the press conference announcing her new civil suit this week demonstrated.