Bruce Blakeman for governor campaign launches TV ad — in President Donald Trump's backyard

Bruce Blakeman’s first advertising buy in his run for governor was placed not in New York but in Florida — home of President Donald Trump.

While the Blakeman campaign said the ad is targeting New Yorkers who moved to the Sunshine State, Democrats and analysts said it is about winning Trump's endorsement. Which could help in the short run but could cut differently later, they said.

Blakeman, the Nassau County executive who scored a big reelection victory last month, had been competing with North Country Rep. Elise Stefanik to be the Republican to take on Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul. But Stefanik shocked state politics Friday by abruptly quitting the campaign and announcing she wouldn't seek reelection to Congress.

The 30-second ad is running in West Palm Beach, Florida, cable television zones, according to Medium Buying, which monitors campaign advertising. Blakeman’s ad bashes Hochul. "Like President Trump, Bruce Blakeman is a strong executive who gets things done," a narrator says.

The Blakeman campaign said the ad targets New Yorkers who left for Florida, "driven out by high taxes, rising crime and chaos."

"I want to bring them back to the Empire State, where their families and friends still live, by ending the madness and restoring common sense," Blakeman said in statement sent to Newsday.

The ad also will begin running on cable stations in New York, according to Medium Buying.

The Hochul campaign said the Florida ad shows "Blakeman put Trump first and New York last."

"That would be my take on this — that this is courting an audience of one," said Lisa Parshall, a political scientist at Daemen University, outside of Buffalo. "This is more about getting the endorsement of Trump, especially this early out."

By Yancey Roy

yancey.roy@newsday.com@yanceyroy