WE’RE NOT KIDDING THIS TIME: Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Democrats aren’t messing around this year — and they’ve got new numbers to prove it. After surprising losses in battleground districts in 2022, the New York state Democratic operation wants you to know they’re working overtime. Consider this: State Dems have 36 field offices in its six battleground districts, an operation that rivals that of a presidential campaign in a swing state. The Harris campaign — a more-than-half-a-billion dollar operation — has 50 offices in Pennsylvania and 48 in Wisconsin, two battleground states key to victory this year. (The Trump campaign said they have 300 Trump and GOP offices, but wouldn’t break that down by state) New York Democrats’ also shared with Playbook that they have 8,400 volunteers signed up, have contacted 800,000 voters, have knocked on 220,000 doors and made over 540,000 phone calls. State Democrats have also grown their operation largely without the help of the Harris campaign and the Democratic National Committee, which has spent $25 million on down-ballot races nationally. “We’ve got 62 days to turn out Democrats up and down the ballot across the battleground and our volunteers, organizers and staff are as fired up as ever,” Nate Munson, the state Democrats’ deputy coordinated campaign director, told Playbook. “This operation is unlike anything New York has seen before and we're excited to build on our momentum.” Meanwhile New York Republicans only pointed to five offices in battleground districts. Despite that, they are “more invested in New York than any time in its history,” according to Savannah Viar, a National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson. The Democratic muscle-flexing comes in the wake of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi's decision to ridicule the governor publicly at the Democratic National Convention, where Pelosi blamed the Democrats' loss of their House majority on Hochul’s gubernatorial race. It also shows that Hochul, who heads the state party, is focused on House races this year after the state party apparatus was labeled a disaster in 2022, when four districts turned red. Hochul’s six point win over Zeldin was also viewed as a big disappointment for Democrats. Her focus on House races was apparent at the national convention, according to former Rep. Steve Israel, a former chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Israel said the governor is going to great lengths to ask for money — not for herself, but for congressional Dems. “I saw something yesterday that I thought I would never see,” Israel told Playbook the day after the convention. “I went to the governor’s reception for donors in Chicago. Instead of asking them to contribute to her, she asked them to contribute to the congressional campaigns. I’ve never seen that. It was a very hard pitch.” — Jason Beeferman
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