Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul defended her record on bail reform while launching repeated attacks against Republican rival Rep. Lee Zeldin at a Friday night candidate forum.

The PIX11 forum was broadcast at a time when polls have been showing a tightening race between the two candidates ahead of the Nov. 8 election.

“We made the changes that people talked about wanting. We made targeted bail reform changes. The problem is they only went into effect a few months ago,” Hochul told the moderator during her half of an hour-long forum hosted by the station in lieu of a debate.

“I will have conversations with the Legislature about anything else we can do to improve public safety,” Hochul added while deflecting calls from Republicans and some Democrats to call lawmakers back to Albany to address changes to controversial criminal justice reforms passed in recent years.

The forum represented a reversal of roles in the race following months where Zeldin was in attack mode while Hochul largely ignored her opponent.

“I believe that judges should have discretion to weigh dangerousness. It’s something Mayor [Eric] Adams is calling for,” Zeldin said while contrasting his position on bail compared to hers while talking up his desire to work with Democrats if elected while seemingly keeping criticism of his opponent to a minimum.

Hochul showed no such restraint following criticism from fellow Democrats about her “hot mess” campaign alongside polls showing a tightening race despite big advantages with fundraising and registered Democrats versus their GOP counterparts.

“For Lee Zeldin to talk about a crime strategy without talking about guns, that’s just disingenuous,” she said of gun control measures passed under her watch like a ban on the sale of semi-automatic rifles to people under age 21 after an 18-year-old allegedly massacred shoppers at a Buffalo supermarket.

She also repeated past attacks over abortion, gun control and Zeldin’s ties to ex-President Donald Trump while deflecting potential gaffes while taking a question from host Mannarino.

“They told us that in the next budget – they’re not in their budget cycle right now – that that is something they will look at,” Hochul said when asked what President Joe Biden has told her in response to her requests for federal aid to deal with the ongoing arrivals of migrants from the southern border.

“Right now they’re in the process of starting their asylum proceedings and temporarily staying in housing in the city,” Hochul added when asked whether she supported sending migrants upstate in order to ease the pressure on New York City.

On that point at least, the two candidates seemingly agreed, with Zeldin too saying that Uncle Sam ought to pick up the tab for the rising costs associated with migrants.

“I directed my team to amass as many as many test kits as they could in the shortest amount of time,” Hochul said while repeating past defenses of alleged pay-to-play with a COVID-19 rapid testing distributor tied to $300,000 in campaign cash while landing a no-bid, $637 million contract.

The embattled Democrat also swatted away notions that she was not doing enough to address rising homicides on city subways.

“Cops and cameras,” she said while highlighting administration efforts on those points – a notable contrast to Zeldin’s arguments that the Legislature should act immediately to change state laws to make it easier to jail repeat offenders before their court appearances.

Zeldin and Hochul have yet to debate following weeks of disagreement over when and where and how many times they ought to meet.

Physical distance did not keep the candidates from clashing on an issue dividing the state in the most literal of ways.

“There is no definition. It’s kind of like the UFOs exist,” the Long Island pol said when asked where downstate ends and upstate begins.

“I think it begins north of Westchester,” Hochul, a Buffalo native, said.