Exclusive | DEsposito, Gillen in dead heat in contentious race for 4th Congressional District

The contentious race between GOP Rep.Anthony D’Esposito and Democrat Laura Gillen appears to be much closer than previously believed in New York’s 4th Congressional District, a new poll shows.

The poll from Gotham Polling & Analytics has the two in an essential dead heat with the freshman Republican polling at 46% of likely voters and his Democratic rival at 45%.The race for the swing seat has been thought of by pundits as a “toss-up” for weeks now as the Dems try to reclaim the house seat until a recent poll gave Gillen a strong lead.

The Gotham poll, shared exclusively with The Post, surveyed 734 voters who said their top issues were inflation and the economy as well as immigration.Women voters also checked abortion as one of their top issues.

About 6% of the respondents remained undecided in the poll, which was done via text message between October 11 and 19.D’Esposito won the seat two years ago in the same match-up against Gillen by a 3.6 percentage-point margin.

The GOPer though has been under fire after it emerged that he hired a mistress to work at his Garden City district office.Earlier this week a Newsday/Siena College survey had Gillen with a staggering 12-point lead on D’Esposito.A poll Dems have embraced with Nassau County Democratic leader and state party chairman Jay Jacobs said it reflected the on-the-ground sentiment.

“Laura Gillen is going to win substantially,” Jacobs said earlier this week.Internally, though, D’Esposito’s had him up 3 points over Gillen.

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