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Sitting Senator and Former City Council Member Face Off in New Brooklyn State Senate District


Andrew Gounardes, left, and David Yassky


Following a chaotic redistricting process in New York, an interesting State Senate primary is shaping up in parts of Brooklyn.

State Senator Andrew Goundares, who represents the current 22nd district, and former City Council Member David Yassky are the only two Democratic candidates who have entered the race for the new 26th State Senate District. The district includes some of Gounardes’ current district, notably his home turf of Bay Ridge, as well as the neighborhoods of Dyker Heights, Fort Hamilton, Cobble Hill, Gowanus, Red Hook, and parts of Sunset Park, Park Slope, and South Slope. Some of those areas were part of the City Council district represented by Yassky from 2002 through 2009.

The winner of the August Democratic primary is expected to win the general election easily given the heavy Democratic tilt of the district. Early voting will be August 13 to August 21, and primary day is August 23.

The new 26th State Senate District is part of the redrawn Congressional and Senate district maps mandated by the decennial process using new Census data. The first new boundaries drawn by Democrats in the New York State Legislature were ruled unconstitutional, delaying the previously scheduled primaries for these two sets of races from June to August. State Assembly and statewide primaries remain in June. 

Following the redistricting, State Senator Brian Kavanagh, a Democrat who has represented the current 26th district since 2017, decided to run for reelection in the newly-redrawn 27th district, which is centered in Lower Manhattan, including major parts of his current district. With his Bay Ridge home and political base drawn into the new 26th and no other incumbent there, Gounardes opted for that race.

The close to 320,000 residents of the new district, per 2020 Census data, are 49.9% white, 23.9% Hispanic, 15.3% Asian, and 6% Black, according to Redistricting & You: New York from the CUNY Mapping Service. Voters of these neighborhoods casted their ballots heavily Democratic during the 2020 presidential election, with 81.5% voting for now-President Biden and 18.5% voting for then-President Donald Trump, according to Redistricting & You.

The 2022 Democratic primary between Gounardes and Yassky forces Gounardes to campaign in a lot of new territory, but with the strengths of incumbency, including recent state government accomplishments, while Yassky attempts a comeback after several years out of office, but able to rely on at least some longtime support in his old district.

Andrew Gounardes
State Senator Gounardes has represented the 22nd district serving neighborhoods in Southern Brooklyn since 2019 after he turned a seat from Republican to Democratic in the 2018 election, helping his party flip the State Senate after many years in the minority.

That change meant Democrats controlled all of state government and were able to pass a very long list of pent-up priorities on topics including voting reform, reproductive rights, gun control, climate action, and much more. Democrats in the Legislature have now spent the last four years passing more and more legislation and crafting new state budgets, while also dealing with the pandemic.

As he runs in the new 26th district, Gounardes is touting many of his accomplishments of the last two terms, including legislation and funding efforts he spearheaded on issues like speed cameras in city school zones, workplace sexual harassment protections, support for freelance workers, investments in CUNY, and more.

If reelected to the Senate, Gounardes told Gotham Gazette that his top priorities will be to expand his work on the more than 60 bills he has written and passed in office, including transportation accessibility and reliability, pedestrian safety, workers’ rights and more.

“My approach to this job is really community-based and community first, and so I view my role as elevating the voices of the different communities that I represent, and I will continue to do that,” Gounardes said. “Because I’ve had a lot of on-the-ground experience working with diverse communities, I’m best positioned for the new challenges and new issues, and some of the new neighborhoods that this [current] district did not cover, and I’m eager for that opportunity.”

When asked about his vision for the 26th district, Gounardes said he hopes to push for full accessibility of the subways, noting that the neighborhoods have access to many subway lines. He said the district is heavily affected by traffic violence, which has led him to prioritize pedestrian safety and address other public infrastructure concerns, such as reimagining the crumbling Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.

Gounardes said much of the district is home to working class New Yorkers and that he is focused on upholding workplace fairness and strengthening protections for immigrants. His campaign outlines the importance of protecting victims of sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace through increasing the statute of limitations from three years to six years, granting fair pay regardless of gender and race, and more. 

Gounardes also has plans to increase the affordability and accessibility of housing, healthcare, childcare and education. He wants to invest funds into CUNY and SUNY and other higher education programs, reform the property tax system and pass legislation regarding the compensation for personal data among Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and other companies. 

During a recent podcast interview with Gotham Gazette editor Ben Max, Gounardes said he is excited about running in the district where he has spent most of his life, and he believes he has a strong base of support due to his relationships with community activists, political leaders and elected officials in the neighborhoods

“Despite the conservative leanings of my current district, I’ve stayed true to my values,” he said on Gotham Gazette’s Max Politics podcast, when asked about how he may adjust his politics to a more progressive district as he seeks votes there. “I led on issues that I think are incredibly important to deliver for people in the neighborhoods I represent, plus the neighborhoods across the city, dnd I don’t think that’s going to change at all with this new district.”

As he declared for the new district, Gounardes quickly announced a number of endorsements in the primary, including New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who represented Park Slope in the City Council prior to winning citywide last year, City Council Members Justin Brannan and Lincoln Restler, both of whose districts overlap some with the new Senate district, as well as District Leaders Joanne Seminara, Julio Peńa, Douglas Schneider, and Chris McCreight, and others.

Gounardes also has a long list of labor unions and other organizations with him in this year’s election, including 32BJ building service workers, the state nurses association, public employees union DC37, the RWDSU retail workers union, the communications workers, transportation workers, CUNY faculty union, the Working Families Party, the Bay Ridge Democrats, and more.

Gounardes previously worked as an aide to then-City Council Member Vincent Gentile and as Counsel to then-Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, whom Gounardes endorsed in his successful mayoral bid last year and considers a close ally. Among other topics, they worked together recently on the speed camera legislation that passed, allowing the expansion of the school zone program that has proved to enhance street safety.

“We have a thing in my office, that no matter what happens on any given day, if we could end every day knowing that we helped at least one person then we will have done our job,” he said. “And so for me, the joy of being able to be in this position is knowing that we have the ability to affect people’s lives for the better — some ways big and some ways small.”

David Yassky
Yassky said he is running for the new 26th State Senate District to represent some of the same neighborhoods he had previously served as a City Council Member for the 33rd district, which covered neighborhoods in downtown Brooklyn.

“Albany is a mess, just to sum it up in a word,” Yassky told Gotham Gazette in an interview. “I have real concerns about where the city and state are heading. It’s still the greatest place in the world to live, and I am bullish on New York City long-term, but there are real warning signs.”

Yassky has recent state government experience to draw from. Since leaving the City Council at the end of 2009, after losing a bid that year for city comptroller, Yassky became the commissioner of the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) as an appointee of then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He later became the dean of Pace University School of Law from 2014 to 2018, and then worked as the Director of State Policy in Governor Andrew Cuomo’s administration from 2019 to 2021. He was named to Eric Adams’ mayoral transition team in late 2021.

If elected into the State Senate, Yassky’s top priorities would include housing, transportation, climate, the impact of the pandemic on education, and public safety. “The safety issue is real,” he said. “The state Legislature has not grappled with that, and in some ways, they've exacerbated the problem.”

Yassky said a large part of public safety concerns — on the streets and in the subway — is tied to mental health and the effects of covid isolation over the last two years. He said the state needs to massively increase the number of residential facilities, ranging psychiatric hospitals, crisis stabilization centers, and supportive housing, in order to address the root of many crimes.

Yassky said the 26th district also has opportunities to build more affordable housing by partnering with community-based organizations that have concrete plans. He believes that state legislators have not adequately addressed the concerns of residents who live in New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) developments, and said that public housing is in worse shape than when he left City Council. “New York City is housing half a million people as a landlord, and it's the worst landlord in the city,” he said, mentioning wanting to work with tenant leaders and reduce bureaucratic delays.

On transportation, Yassky said the state has a “once in a generation” opportunity to improve the transportation network given the massive federal infrastructure bill passed last year by Congress and President Biden. He pointed to the Brooklyn Queens Expressway and the importance of involving the community in an infrastructure plan before it is unusable.

Yassky added that the bike lanes are not properly laid out for the usage of e-bikes and e-scooters, and said he wants to create a regulatory system that ensures public roadways can be shared safely among electric vehicles, bicycles, and others.

He also said he would be focused on continuing to move the state toward more use of wind and solar energy. Yassky hopes to clean up the Gowanus Canal, similar to how he helped lead the transformation of Newtown Creek in Greenpoint from a dead waterway, he said.

During an Independent Neighborhood Democrats endorsement meeting last month, Yassky said his agenda would also focus on addressing gun violence, the status of gig workers, and the conversion of empty office buildings and hotels into housing.

Yassky pointed to what he said were his top accomplishments in the City Council, including passing inclusionary zoning, tripling the number of jobs in the film and television industry through incentives, changing taxi cabs to hybrid electric vehicles, and converting the city’s garbage collection to a barge and rail system.

“It’s been a while since I’ve knocked on doors and talked to people that I didn’t know about politics and policy, and I love it,” Yassky said of campaigning this year. “I was lucky in the past, and I’m lucky now, to be running in an area where people really care about their neighborhood, they’re engaged, they want to talk about what’s right, and they have different points of view often.”

Before the Legislature’s new maps were thrown out in court and new districts were drawn, Yassky had been campaigning to represent the 23rd State Senate District, with parts of Brooklyn and Staten Island. Then his home base in Downtown Brooklyn was drawn into the new 26th district. After the new district lines were introduced, Yassky lost a prior endorsement from the Independent Neighborhood Democrats to Gounardes.

Prior to his time in the City Council, at TLC, Pace University, and Cuomo’s office, Yassky was a budget analyst for the New York City Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget then chief counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Crime under then-Rep. Charles Schumer, where he helped pass the Brady Bill, which mandates background checks on some firearm purchasers and implemented a five-day waiting period on some gun purchases.

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Rachel Cohen, Gotham Gazette

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Democratic Candidates for Governor Make Closing Arguments at Final Debate Before Primary


Jumaane Williams, Kathy Hochul, & Tom Suozzi


The three Democratic candidates for governor met at the final debate of the race on Thursday night, among their last opportunities to make an impression with voters before early voting begins on Saturday for the June 28 primary. Governor Kathy Hochul, who is running for her first full term, continues to have significant fundraising and polling advantages over her opponents, U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi and New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.

At Thursday’s debate, hosted by NBC New York, Telemundo, and the Albany Times Union, the candidates covered some of the same ground from their previous debate encounter last week, with Hochul spending the hour fending off criticisms from her challengers and promoting her brief but busy record as governor. But the candidates, especially the underdog challengers, appeared to show an additional sense of urgency, likely knowing they needed to cut into Hochul’s standing as voting is set to commence.

Suozzi was particularly dogged in his attacks against the incumbent, with several tense exchanges between the two. While Hochul was often on the back foot and at times struggled to rebut the criticism, Suozzi may have crossed the line into rude and patronizing behavior toward the state’s first female chief executive. While she kept her composure throughout, at one point Hochul sternly told Suozzi to stop interrupting her.

He highlighted her past conservative-leaning positions on guns and undocumented immigrants. And he questioned her commitment to ethics over both her appointment of Brian Benjamin – who was Hochul’s lieutenant governor before resigning in the face of federal corruption charges – and her negotiation of a new stadium deal for the Buffalo Bills, whose concessions contract is held by a company where Hochul’s husband is a top executive. 

Hochul later said that her selection of Benjamin was the biggest mistake of her political career. She, in turn, pointed out Suozzi’s “hypocrisy” as he is currently facing a potential ethics investigation in the House of Representatives over his stock trading portfolio and missed disclosures. 

For his part, Williams repeatedly critiqued Hochul’s leadership and what he called her failure to address perennial issues including gun violence, the lack of affordable housing, and economic stagnation upstate. He pointed often to Hochul’s six years as lieutenant governor under former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who she replaced nine months ago when he resigned in disgrace. “You can't spend six years taking credit for the good things that happened, and then not take accountability for the bad things that happened,” he said at one point in the debate.

The debate covered a broad array of issues including public safety and gun violence, tenant protections, taxes and economic policy, education, climate action, abortion rights, mental health and more. But the candidates had little time to address each issue and consequently offered few solutions or plans to address them. There is little ideological difference between Hochul and Suozzi, both of whom are centrist Democrats with liberal streaks, while Williams sought to again clearly set himself apart as the progressive alternative in the race. 

But policy differences did emerge on several fronts.  

A major piece of legislation that failed to pass in the state Legislature this year was the “good cause eviction” bill, which the governor has not publicly supported. At the debate, she would not say whether she would have signed the bill if it made it to her desk, despite being asked twice by the moderators. Williams on the other hand has been an ardent advocate for the bill, which would strictly limit rent increases and evictions that landlords can pursue, and has sought to go further on tenant protections.

Suozzi is also not a supporter of the bill and, when asked about solutions for lowering rent burdens, simply stressed the need to build more affordable housing and invest more resources in public housing. 

The three candidates were particularly divided on tax policy. Asked about lowering one possible state tax, they each had a different answer. 

Hochul touted the recent temporary suspension of the state gas tax and expedited middle-class tax cuts that were passed in previous years. She did not say what tax she would cut but rather insisted, “We're not raising taxes on New Yorkers because they have suffered enough.” 

Williams said he wants to “rightsize” the state’s inequitable property tax system and raise taxes on billionaire New Yorkers to fund everything from housing to education. “That ‘not raising tax’ line is a Republican line that's meant to protect rich donors at the expense of people who need assistance,” he said, referring to Hochul’s answer. 

Suozzi promised to cut state income taxes by 10% and reduce property taxes, particularly for senior citizens. “Real people are suffering because we have the highest taxes in America,” he said. 

The current governor’s race is taking place as the specter of Cuomo continues to haunt the state’s political scene. The former governor has continued to plot a political comeback despite being brought down amid multiple scandals that included sexual harassment and assault allegations, a cover-up of covid-related deaths among nursing home residents and making millions of dollars on a covid leadership memoir that appeared to rely on prohibited use of state resources in its production.  

At the debate, Suozzi was the only candidate who said he would nonetheless accept an endorsement from Cuomo, when the moderators posed the question. “I think that he's still very popular among a lot of people in New York State,” Suozzi said. “And while he has a lot of baggage, along with what he's done, he's accomplished a great deal in the state of New York.” 

Williams and Hochul both said no. 

As the state braces itself for a U.S. Supreme Court decision that could overturn restrictions on the concealed carry of firearms in New York, officials have expressed concern that the current gun violence crisis could be further exacerbated. But at the debate, the candidates gave few solutions for that possibility. 

Hochul said her administration will be ready to act as soon as the decision comes down from the court, though they are in a wait-and-see pattern to determine their approach. “I can't say right now what the approach will be because I have to see what basis they use to strike down the law and then we'll figure out what the answer is and make sure that our law can be legally sustainable,” she said, adding that she’s been in conversation on the issue with the legislative leaders.

Williams and Suozzi took the opportunity to highlight Hochul’s past as a favored candidate of the National Rifle Association. “Unfortunately, we're ten years behind on this because we had a governor in Congress who's doing the work of the NRA,” Williams said, insisting that the state should have spent $1 billion on gun violence prevention programs in the state budget adopted in April. 

Hochul has previously explained that her positions have since evolved, which Suozzi has repeatedly pounced on. “She says she's evolved. She didn't evolve after Columbine. She didn't evolve after Virginia Tech,” Suozzi said. “The only thing that’s evolved are the governor's political ambitions.” 

The debate around public safety has been particularly fierce this year when it comes to the New York City subway system. Early this year, Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams (who endorsed Hochul this week, she noted) partnered on a plan to use a combination of state outreach workers and NYPD officers to remove homeless people from the system, particularly to provide assistance and treatment to those with severe mental illness. 

Asked about the success of the program, Hochul implied that it was too early to judge. “We're just getting started,” she said. “We've been in this office just a matter of nine months. It is a long-standing problem. But at least we're recognizing it and we're not ignoring it and hoping it goes away.”

Williams again pointed to Hochul’s six-plus years in state leadership. “The thing that we need is a governor who has been working on these issues like I have in the city to build a structure of continuum of care for mental health,” he said. 

Suozzi called for an expansion of Kendra’s Law, which allows court-ordered outpatient treatment for people who might be a danger to themselves or others and was indeed expanded by Hochul and the Legislature in the state budget deal. “This is the number one issue we face in the state and the governor has not treated it like the number one issue that it is,” he said of public safety overall. 

There were a few areas of agreement among the three. They were all on the same page when it came to increasing wages for home health-care aides as the state faces a major shortage of those workers. They all spoke of greater resiliency measures that would protect New Yorkers who live in flood zones. And all three supported legislation that would mandate that schools teach Asian American and Pacific Islander history. 

There was no consensus, however, on the question of whether elementary school curriculums should include required lessons on gender identity and sexual orientation. 

Williams supported the measure. “We just have to teach children at the level that they can understand and not above that,” he said, noting that the conversation has to have nuance.

“I wouldn't teach children under fifth grade about sexual orientation or about genitalia or about sexuality,” said Suozzi. “I think that that's up to parents to do that.”

“Everything has to be age appropriate and parents involved,” said Hochul, who didn’t take a clear stance but said she would work with legislators, parents, and local school boards.

At times, Williams found himself on one side of an issue with Hochul and Suozzi on the other. Asked about the state’s Excluded Workers Fund, which provides relief to undocumented New Yorkers who couldn’t receive federal pandemic relief, he was the only one to say he would replenish the fund and increase its total funding. 

Williams was also the only one to say that state funding should be used for travel and lodging for people coming to New York to seek abortions. The governor recently provided $35 million to bolster reproductive clinics in the state. But, she said at the debate, “I don't support taxpayer dollars being used to pay for transportation but I'm working with the advocacy groups, the not-for-profits, corporations to help fill these gaps and let people know that this is a safe harbor for people.” Suozzi expressed support for safe and accessible abortion care, but opposed the use of state funds for travel and lodging for abortion care. 

Faced with a mental health crisis among young people across the state, the candidates did not offer concrete plans. Hochul touted $10 billion funding in the state budget to recruit health care workers, particularly mental health workers. Williams insisted that schools need more funding for mental health services for students. 

Suozzi faulted both for emphasizing more spending. “We don't have more money,” he said, again referencing the state’s high taxes but not acknowledging how flush state coffers are due to tax revenue and federal pandemic aid. He said current funds should be reallocated towards youth mental health.

The candidates presented differing visions for the struggling upstate economy. Williams has long criticized Cuomo, and by extension Hochul, for repeatedly sinking billions of dollars into large-scale projects in upstate communities with meager results. He insisted that the funds should go to small businesses instead to spur local growth. 

Suozzi said he would cut taxes and regulations to incentivize entrepreneurship. 

Hochul said the upstate economy has been “neglected for decades.” “It never received the attention it needed…It's an important part of our ecosystem,” said the Buffalo native. She offered no direct solutions but indicated that she would be a strong cheerleader for upstate. “It's about telling employers, ‘you come to a place like upstate New York, you'll have low cost power, the most highly-educated, skilled workforce, the hardest working people,’” she said. 

Even as the state continues to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, another threat is looming in the form of Monkeypox, which has begun to spread in New York. The candidates were each asked how they would treat it differently compared to covid. 

“It's all about being ready, treating it like a military operation,” Hochul said, pointing to the steps she’s already taken to respond to spikes of the coronavirus. 

Williams pointed to the chaotic decisions of the Cuomo administration in the early days of the pandemic, and said he would do things differently. “We'd have clear, concise information. We’d have resources to the people who are hardest hit,” he said.

Suozzi said he would have a “comprehensive plan” in place, but gave no other details.

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

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Democratic Candidates for Lieutenant Governor Debate Experience, Policy, and Vision


(l-r:) Ana Maria Archila, Antonio Delgado, and Diana Reyna


The three Democratic candidates for New York lieutenant governor met on the debate stage Wednesday night for the first and only time before voters go to the polls this month.

In the debate, broadcast by Spectrum News NY1, newly-appointed Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado faced off against activist and nonprofit leader Ana María Archila and Diana Reyna, a former City Council Member and Deputy Brooklyn Borough President. The candidates tried to distinguish themselves on their track records, views of the role of lieutenant governor, and stances on issues including government corruption, crypto-mining and the environment, gun control, abortion, housing, and more.

Candidates for Lieutenant Governor and Governor run in separate party primaries, with the winners then forming a ticket for the general election, where the nominees of each party appear together on the ballot.

Governor Kathy Hochul's running-mate, Delgado was recently sworn in after Hochul's first  lieutenant governor, Brian Benjamin, was indicted on federal corruption charges related to his fundraising as a State Senator and resigned while declaring his innocence. Democratic lawmakers changed the law to allow Delgado, then a member of Congress representing parts of upstate, to bump Benjamin from the ballot at the behest of Hochul earlier this year.

Archila is running with gubernatorial candidate Jumaane Williams, the New York City Public Advocate and a fellow progressive. Reyna is running with U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi of Long Island, and the pair are on many issues running to the right of Hochul and Delgado while Archila and Williams run to their left.

Though he joined the race quite late, Delgado has significant advantages as Hochul's running mate, a sitting office-holder, and his sizable war chest he was able to transfer over from his congressional campaign account as well as the financial support he is getting from Hochul, who has raised tens of millions of dollars more than her opponents. Delgado has quickly picked up endorsements in the race alongside Hochul, including from a growing list of elected officials and labor unions.

Williams and Archila are supported by much of the New York left, including the Working Families Party and many elected officials. They have raised limited funds, however.

With two of the last three lieutenant governors becoming governor following a resignation, including Hochul, moderators Errol Louis and Susan Arbetter pressed the candidates on how prepared they are for the top position, especially given that none of the three have significant state government experience.

Asked about overcoming that gap, their understanding of the levers of power in Albany, the budget process, and their willingness to stand up to the governor, the three candidates talked about their work in government or advocating for change from the outside.

"I bring to bear a certain level of experience, a certain record," Delgado said, referring to legislation he's passed in Congress under Presidents Trump and Biden, as well as billions in dollars of funding he said he helped secure for New York. "And when I come into this position, the expectation is that I'm an active partner."

Archila said she was willing to publicly oppose the governor on issues they disagreed on and insert herself into budget negotiations. "The lieutenant governor should be a forceful advocate for people each and every single day," she said. "Instead of standing quietly in the background, instead of just cutting ribbons."

Reyna touted her nearly two decades in city government. "I served as a budget negotiating member in the City Council for 12 years. I'm the only lieutenant governor candidate who has had executive government experience," she added, referring to her time as deputy to then-Borough President Eric Adams.

The candidates were asked about avoiding conflicts of interest with campaign donors.

Delgado said he supported national public campaign financing in Congress and wanted to place more regulations on lobbyists.

"We need to make sure that the revolving door of state legislators becoming lobbyists is chilled and frozen," Delgado said.

Asked, given the significant financial support he’s received from people involved in the cryptocurrency industry, whether he backs a moratorium on reopening fossil fuel plants to provide the energy needed for crypto-mining, Delgado said the bill that passed both houses of the Legislature "should be seriously considered."

State legislators passed the moratorium at the end of the legislative session and Hochul has said she will not make a decision on signing it until after the election. When pressed, Delgado denied any relationship to a crypto-currency billionaire who has funded a Super PAC that has generously supported his campaign. "I have no connection to this individual. None," he said.

Pressed again on whether Hochul should sign the bill, Delgado demurred: "I think she should give it some serious thought."

"This is a perfect example of the governor being an obstacle to progress and the lieutenant governor saying nothing," Archila said, articulating a main thrust of her campaign: that if elected she promises to be an outspoken lieutenant governor, not simply an extension of the governor’s office. Though she did not name Hochul, at one point Archila said that unlike the then-lieutenant governor, she would not have remained silent when then-Governor Cuomo was making deadly decisions about COVID-19 and nursing homes.

"When Governor Cuomo sent people who had COVID-19 back into nursing homes, that decision cost the lives of thousands and thousands of New Yorkers. I would have never stayed quiet," she said.

Archila said Hochul should sign the crypto-mining-related moratorium bill immediately, while Reyna said she wanted to hear more from potentially-impacted communities and that she was wary of hurting economic growth. Archila responded by saying she had already done so, and those at most risk of the climate impacts need to be protected. Archila was also the only candidate to support a ban on new commercial and residential gas hook-ups in upstate New York (the Legislature is considering a bill for a statewide ban starting in several years, but it did not pass before the end of the legislative session). 

On the attack much of the debate, Archila also criticized both Delgado and Reyna for taking money from wealthy donors. "Actions speak louder than words," she said. "Both of my opponents have accepted money from industries that dominate the debate in Albany. Antonio, you don't know the person who has spent a million dollars on behalf of your campaign? You should tell him to stop."

Reyna responded by saying that Archila also had special interests supporting her, citing elected officials and the Working Families Party.

On government ethics, Reyna said she wanted to see more staffing go to JCOPE, the state's recently-replaced ethics watchdog, for legislators to be full-time positions, and to institute a temporary ban on lobbying after leaving office.

Both Archila and Delgado said they would call for a special legislative session to enact gun control measures if the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down the state's concealed carry laws. They also said gun rules should be the same in urban and rural parts of the state. Archila called for $1 billion for community violence prevention programming, part of her public safety platform with Williams.

"Raising the age from 18 to 21 [to purchase a semi-automatic gun], would actually not have stopped many of the firings of assault weapons that have happened in New York and other parts of the country," Archila said of one gun control law Hochul recently signed. "I would urge the Legislature to go back to Albany and have the strongest legislation possible to prevent handguns from being carried in subways and public transportation in public places," she said of the potential Supreme Court ruling.

Delgado stressed a tailored response to the possible concealed carry ruling, which Hochul has previewed in broad terms. "I know the governor is already working with the legal team to figure out how, depending on the dictum and the holding, which is gonna be very important to the analysis here, how we can sharply respond to this ruling," he said.

Reyna said she is not focused on the Supreme Court case at this time and that the discussion should be on illegal gun trafficking from states with looser gun laws rather than the potential court decision. "I will have to further discuss with the Legislature, if elected lieutenant governor, and with the governor to understand exactly what implications that will have in the state of New York."

"This ruling is not what I'm focused on," Reyna said. "I'm focused on the violence that's taking place here, the iron pipeline issues that we have to resolve."

The candidates held differing positions on recent changes to the state bail law, with Archila expressing disappointment in amendments over the last two years that watered down sweeping reforms first passed in 2019. Reyna said she wanted to "fix bail reform" to see fewer people "languish in jail" without elaborating. "But what is also true is that the issues that we see here today, are is a revolving door of criminals, the opportunities to see lawlessness in the streets," she added and said more should be done to improve the discovery process.

Delgado said he supported giving judges more discretion in setting bail, which the recent changes did to some extent, but not as much as is favored by Hochul, Suozzi, and Mayor Eric Adams, who endorsed Hochul on Wednesday morning despite a close alliance with Suozzi and longtime working relationship with Williams, a fellow Brooklyn Democrat.

"I think what happened when the bail reform bill was passed, and I flagged this, back in 2019, when you strip away the discretion from the judges, it can be problematic," Delgado said. "And I think there's been some dynamics there, when it comes to repeat offenders being let back into the very communities that we're trying to protect."

Each candidate expressed strong support for strengthening legal protections and aid for people seeking abortions in New York in the face of the expected end of Roe v. Wade, pending another Supreme Court case where an opinion is expected this month.

No candidate offered a glowing defense when asked whether State Democratic Party Chair Jay Jacobs, a longtime ally of disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo, should remain at the head of the party. "I don't. I've only spoken with him once. I'm not a fan," said Archila.

"No, he has not included Latinos in anything he has organized," Reyna said.

"I think it's about what the people decide, what the party decides. It's not my choice to make," said Delgado. Hochul opted to keep Jacobs in place when she became governor in August of last year, and he quickly endorsed her for a full term via this year’s election.

The candidates were asked about policies they support to address New York’s affordable housing crisis.

Delgado called for more investment in transit-oriented housing and development of housing available to all income levels, including what he called workforce development options and the creation of more middle-class home ownership opportunities.

Archila touted her position with Williams to build or preserve over 1 million units of permanent affordable housing, and enact more homeowner and tenant protections. She noted they are the only ticket to support the Good Cause Eviction legislation that has been among the most high-profile bills under consideration in state government but did not pass in the legislative session that just ended.

Reyna called for higher density in commercial, transit-rich areas.

All three candidates called for more regulations on corporate real estate buying, and the movement of permanent housing units to the Airbnb marketplace for short-term rentals.

Asked whether they support a plan in the offing that would lower the threshold for overtime pay for farm workers, Delgado said he supports those workers becoming eligible for overtime after a smaller number of weekly hours (the potential move is from 60 to 40) along with a tax credit for farm owners that was approved in the state budget this year. "I think the budget was able to get it right here," he said. "I think the tax credit that's being provided now to the farmers to make sure they can sustain themselves, while at the same time providing this overtime, is of critical importance."

Archila spoke about the importance of respecting the difficult conditions and rights of farm workers and said she supports the overtime increase and wants to see tax benefits delivered more quickly to farmers rather than being phased in over a decade under the current plan. Reyna said the law needs sufficient oversight in order to be effective.

On the pandemic state of emergency first declared in March 2020 by then-Governor Andrew Cuomo, both Reyna and Archila criticized the state's response. Reyna called the shutdown "a mistake," pointing to the economic consequences. "This is a customer base of many, many small businesses,” she said of the many commuters who began working from home. “And we know that the small business is the local economy of every city," she said.

Delgado indicated support for the measures that were taken, saying they saved many lives, but noted a less drastic solution appears possible in future covid surges. "Moving forward with the science that we now have, the medication that we now have, I would love for us to proceed with caution but to proceed, nonetheless," he said.

Archila said there was more the state should be doing now to protect people from COVID-19. "We…have to make sure that we are investing in the infrastructure of health care and shoring up the systems that allow people to weather the storms," she said.

Early voting in primaries for statewide and Assembly seats begins this Saturday, June 18 and goes through June 26; primary day is June 28.

***
by Ethan Geringer-Sameth, reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

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Where They Stand: Compare Democratic and Republican Candidates for Governor on the Issues


(l-r) Top: Jumaane Williams, Kathy Hochul, Tom Suozzi; Bottom: Rob Astorino, Harry Wilson, Lee Zeldin, Andrew Giuliani 


The Democratic and Republican primaries in the race to become the next Governor of New York are fast-approaching, with early voting June 18-26 and primary day June 28. With three Democrats and four Republicans making their cases to voters and so much at stake for the future of the state, it's all the more important to compare where the candidates stand on the issues and what they are promising to do if elected.

Use the interactive tool below to compare the Democratic or Republican candidates for Governor on a variety of issues, selected based on the topics that candidates have been focused on or that are particularly pressing. Choose up to three candidates at a time on up to five issues at a time.

This comparison tool, brought to you by Gotham Gazette and The Daily News, is being regularly updated as the primary unfolds and candidates continue to offer their stances and proposals on major issues facing New Yorkers.

Read more: Where They Stand: Compare Democratic and Republican Candidates for Governor on the Issues

Republican Candidates for Governor Meet for Fiery Debate


Rob Astorino, Harry Wilson, Lee Zeldin, and Andrew Giuliani (l-r)


With early voting for the June 28 primary set to begin on Saturday, the four Republican candidates for governor faced off in the sole debate of the race on Monday. The debate was hosted by CBS2, and moderated by anchor Maurice DuBois and reporter Marcia Kramer.

Appearing in person at the debate were former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, and businessman Harry Wilson; Andrew Giuliani, a former White House aide and the son of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, participated virtually after refusing to abide by CBS’ COVID-19 vaccination requirement to be present in the studio.

The hour-long debate was an acrimonious one with the candidates repeatedly sniping at each other as they addressed issues including former President Donald Trump’s culpability in the January 6, 2021 insurrection, public safety and gun control, abortion rights, the rising cost of living, vaccine mandates, congestion pricing, and more. 

Zeldin is the frontrunner in the race, having been endorsed by the State Republican Party and many party officials, while a recent Emerson College poll showing him in the lead with 34% of the primary vote. Astorino, the 2014 Republican nominee for governor, came in second in that poll with 16%, Wilson trailed with 15%, and Giuliani was in last place with 13%. It was apparent at the debate that Astorino and Wilson were seeking to cut into Zeldin’s lead by repeatedly attacking his record as a former state senator and trying to link him with disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat. 

Zeldin, for his part, did his best to emulate the Trump playbook, dubbing his opponents “Never Trumper Wilson,” noting the businessman refused to vote for Trump in 2020, and “Rolex Rob,” a reference to the luxury watch that Astorino was gifted by a real estate developer later caught in a bribery scandal. At one point, Wilson even said that Zeldin had asked him to join his gubernatorial ticket in January, a claim that Zeldin said was false, with Wilson then saying he has notes from the conversation.

As Astorino hammered Zeldin for voting for budgets largely designed by then-Governor Cuomo, the exasperated congressman noted that he had endorsed Astorino in his 2014 bid to unseat the governor then seeking a second term. Astorino retorted that Zeldin had not done much to help him win.

Giuliani, meanwhile, mostly stayed out of the fray, avoiding attacks on the others and receiving none in return, which has been the general tenor of the larger campaign as he has criss-crossed the state with his father.

Trump and January 6
As Congress holds public hearings on the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol in Washington D.C., nearly all Republicans have come to Trump’s defense over his role in the attempt to overturn the 2020 election results by force. At the debate, the story was much the same, as the candidates largely said the hearings were a distraction from the kitchen-table issues that matter more to Americans. 

“I think President Trump was a great president and honestly, I'm hopeful that he runs again,” said Giuliani. 

“President Trump told his supporters to go peacefully and patriotically to the Capitol and if President Trump wants to run, he should run and I believe that he will be the Republican nominee and he'll win,” said Zeldin, falsely characterizing how Trump whipped up the mob leading up to and on January 6, 2021, spreading lies about the election and siccing his faithful on Vice President Mike Pence and members of Congress.

Zeldin was among the Republicans in Congress who voted against certifying the 2020 election results on the night of January 6, 2021 once the Capitol had been returned to government control.

Wilson said Monday night that people who invaded the Capitol should be prosecuted, though he did not place any blame on Trump for encouraging it. 

Astorino seemed to be the only one to break from the party line. “I do think he bears some responsibility,” he said of Trump, though he added, “Look, we've got to move on though…These hearings right now are complete and utter political theater in Washington, D.C.”

Gun Control
The Supreme Court seems poised to overturn a state law that restricts the concealed carrying of firearms, but there’s an open question of whether it will allow the state to designate “sensitive places” where individuals cannot carry guns. None of the Republican candidates were in support of such controls, which they insisted would infringe on the Second Amendment rights of New Yorkers. Some decried “gun-free zones” as easy targets and none expressed support for limiting the sale of assault weapons.

The candidates also emphasized what they see as Democrats’ failure to tackle crime, citing policies such as reforms to the state bail laws made in recent years. 

“We’ve got to get back to actually what worked, Broken Windows policing; stop, question and frisk,” Astorino said, referring to controversial policing practices that have fallen out of favor among many Democrats. 

Wilson said the focus should not be on law-abiding gun owners but on “criminals, the mentally ill, and the purveyors of hate.” 

Zeldin went further, calling for a repeal of the state’s bail reform and the Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement (SAFE) Act, a broad gun control package approved in 2013 after the Sandy Hook school massacre. “We have the strictest gun control laws in the entire country. They've gone too far,” he said. 

Giuliani reiterated the push for more stop-and-frisk policing, a program put into effect by his father when he was mayor, and insisted on “empowering the police.” He also said that on day one as governor, he would call on the Legislature to fully repeal the state’s bail reform law and refuse to pass a state budget if it did not happen. 

A common target of attack for each of the candidates as they bemoaned gun violence was Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. The progressive prosecutor, and first Black person to hold his position, came under fire early in his tenure this year for being far too lenient and refusing to prosecute certain crimes, policies he partially altered amid blowback. But that hasn’t stopped Republicans from inaccurately blaming him for increases in crime and all four gubernatorial candidates said Monday that, if elected, they would use their executive authority to remove him from office. 

They also all supported the idea of an amendment to the state constitution that could allow voters to recall state officials, akin to the ouster of San Francisco D.A. Chesa Boudin last week.  

Pocketbook Issues
The candidates had varying solutions to offer for helping New Yorkers cope with the rising cost of living, as they called for cutting taxes and regulations, and reducing wasteful state spending. They seemed mostly focused on reducing the cost of energy as gas prices have skyrocketed. 

Giuliani said he would make New York “truly the best fracking state in the country,” pledging to reverse a fracking ban that was approved in 2014. He later vowed to cut spending by 10% across state government, except in law enforcement. 

Zeldin, similarly, said reversing the fracking ban would “allow us to create jobs and generate revenue and revitalize communities and to be able to drive down energy costs.” He also promised “the largest tax cut in the history of the State of New York.”

Astorino called for natural gas drilling and building out nuclear power. And he touted his experience in keeping spending and taxes low as a county executive. 

Wilson repeatedly said he would turn around the state as he has done with businesses throughout his career. He said he would cut income and property taxes by 20% and repeal regulations to put $3,000-$5,000 back in the pockets of middle-class New Yorkers. 

Abortion Rights
The U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority has indicated that it will overturn Roe v. Wade, which would repeal federal abortion rights — a decision in the case at hand is expected this month. New York is among the states that is already moving to strengthen abortion rights, with Governor Hochul having signed new protections into law on Monday, just hours before the debate, building off of the decision to codify Roe protections into state law in 2019.

Zeldin said he is pro-life and said the state should not allow “late-term, partial-birth abortion”, shouldn’t allow non-doctors to perform abortions and called for parental consent for abortions. “We need to be promoting family and I believe that right now New York's law is going too far when you start allowing late-term, partial-birth abortion,” he said, in reference to a practice that is virtually never used. 

“I'm pro-life and I'm not afraid to say it,” said Giuliani, proceeding to attempt to use the issue of bodily autonomy to attack vaccination mandates put in place during the pandemic. 

Wilson separated himself from the pack in saying he would not attempt to change state abortion law, but did say he was “uncomfortable” with partial-birth abortions and non-doctors performing the procedure. 

“I'm pro-life, I've always been,” said Astorino, though he indicated openness to a “reasonable discussion” about abortion restrictions.  

Rehiring Unvaccinated Workers
Giuliani has said that he would rehire state and city workers who were fired from their jobs for refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19. While the governor would have no authority to demand that of New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, who has already refused to do so, Giuliani insisted he would put fired city workers on the state payroll. 

Wilson said he would rehire state workers but said he wouldn’t “go beyond the purview of the governor's office.”

Astorino said he would demand that city workers be given back their jobs as part of any negotiations with the city regarding the state budget or legislation. 

“The state should offer the people who used to work for the city a job working for the state,” Zeldin said, insisting that he will end all covid mandates on day one as governor. 

Congestion Pricing
All the candidates were opposed to the implementation of congestion pricing, which is meant to limit car and truck traffic south of 61st street in Manhattan while raising much-needed revenue for the MTA. 

Zeldin said he would do “everything in my power” to stop congestion pricing, and emphasized the need for public safety to restore mass transit ridership, and therefore revenue, for the MTA. He also referenced long-standing calls he’s made to better run the MTA in order to lower costs.

Astorino called the policy “another backbreaker” while Giuliani called it a “tax” on hardworking New Yorkers. Neither offered ideas for how to make up for the planned revenue from congestion pricing that is supposed to help pay for the MTA capital plan.

Wilson stressed the need for a long-term capital plan for the MTA, “that means dealing with the cost overruns on construction…driven by overtime, bad contracts,” he said. 

Domestic Terrorism and Social Media
Following the racist mass shooting in Buffalo, Governor Hochul called on social media companies to crack down on the forms of hate speech that radicalized the shooter. But Republicans are among those who have been circumspect about restrictions on speech, citing the First Amendment. 

At the debate, Astorino blamed the state’s current policies for the inability to tackle domestic terror. “We need to get very tough on criminals. That always is the case but it's not happening in New York. Charges are being dropped. We’re coddling criminals. We’re turning the other way,” he said. He stressed the need to be careful about limits on the First Amendment and “who's going to define hate speech…That's not a rathole I think we should be going down.”

“I too worry about constraints of the First Amendment,” said Wilson. “I think the focus should be on people we know are problems: criminals, the mentally ill who have violent tendencies, and people who are purveyors of hate.”

Giuliani suggested a repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which shields website owners from liability for content posted by third parties.

“You have to protect First Amendment rights and you can't infringe upon that,” Zeldin said. “That has to be the gold standard.” 

LGBTQ History in Education
Asked by the moderators, given it is pride month, about whether LGBTQ history should be taught in schools, the candidates took things in different directions, talking about sex education and other matters.

“I do not believe that the classrooms in New York State should be used to advance an agenda that is not age appropriate. Let parents deal with this at home,” said Zeldin, who also jumped to attacking Critical Race Theory. “Parents have a fundamental right to control the upbringing of their child and they don't relinquish that right by sending their kids off to school,” he added.

Giuliani cited the recent Parental Rights in Education legislation passed in Florida and signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis. The bill prohibits classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation from kindergarten till third grade. Opponents of the legislation have dubbed it the “Don’t Say Gay” law.” As a father of a young daughter, I'm concerned with how we've brought sexualization into the classroom at such a young age,” Giuliani said. “I too believe that it's so important that parents take the lead in education and that includes sex education.” 

“How are we having a debate in this country, whether sex should be taught to five year olds,” Astorino said, though the question was about LGBTQ history. “It is completely inappropriate.” 

Wilson stood apart again. Education, he said, is “a hugely important issue, but respectfully, the issues you're focused on are not the most important issues.” Instead, he emphasized the need to “reinvigorate civics education” and a “curricular reboot” to help children recover from learning loss during the pandemic. Like the others, he did not answer the question about LGBTQ history.

***
by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

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Hochul, Suozzi, and Williams Face Off in Democratic Primary Debate


Jumaane Williams, Kathy Hochul, & Tom Suozzi


Governor Kathy Hochul squared off against her Democratic primary opponents, U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi of Long Island and New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, for the first time in a debate on Tuesday night. The debate, televised on CBS TV and radio, took place three weeks from primary day, June 28, and a few days after Hochul declined a debate last week where Williams and Suozzi faced each other on Spectrum News.

Hochul, who is running to be elected to the position for the first time, spent much of the debate touting what she has accomplished in the nine months since she took over from disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo and fending off attacks from the two challengers. The candidates sought to distinguish their track records, experience, and positions from the others on a raft of issues including gun violence and bail reform, ethics, congestion pricing, term limits, and more.

While there were a number of attacks on Hochul — who has had wide leads in polling and fundraising — and she rebutted many of them, the debate remained calm and cordial throughout the hour. The questions ranged from the serious to the trivial and a number of important topics were left off the table as the debate finished with a “lightning round” of personal questions. The three candidates are scheduled for one more debate, on June 16, just before the early voting period of June 18-26.

The leading issue at the debate was gun violence, in the wake of the recent racist mass shooting in Buffalo.

Williams has been an ardent proponent of investing in community-focused solutions to gun violence prevention, and he faulted both Hochul and her predecessor for stalling legislation and funding to prevent street-level crime. 

Hochul touted a package of ten gun control laws she signed just on Monday. “We got so much done that had been hampered and unfulfilled for a decade,” she said. She also said she was preparing the state for a potential adverse ruling from the Supreme Court that could weaken New York's restrictions on the concealed carry of firearms. “Within hours of that Supreme Court decision, we will have a response,” she promised, floating the possibility of convening a special session of the Legislature to address the issue. 

Suozzi pointed to his 15-point “crime intervention and prevention” plan, which includes changing the state’s bail reform law that was passed in 2019 and which has subsequently been watered down and modified twice, including in the April budget deal negotiated by Hochul. He and Williams both also criticized Hochul for her past record which earned her an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association and its donations for her campaigns. 

Hochul insisted that her positions have since “evolved” since she represented a conservative area of her native Western New York in Congress. “You know what we need? More people to evolve,” she said. “We have to change the hearts and minds of people all over this country so we can finally have common sense legislation from Washington.”

One of the main points of contention on bail reform this year was a push by moderates and conservatives to allow judges to use a “dangerousness standard” while setting bail for defendants. Hochul supported the change but was overruled by legislative leaders who noted that it could lead to disproportionate impacts on defendants of color, instead negotiating a compromise she touted for heading in that direction.

Asked why she did not use her political capital to push through the change, Hochul noted that the tweaks made this year did give judges more discretion. “I think what we gave the judges is better than this vague term that can be subjective and many times used against the individual because of the color of their skin,” she said. “We don't need to go backwards. We need to go forward in a thoughtful way but we're not compromising either justice or safety.”

Suozzi also supports instituting a dangerousness standard, which 49 other states already employ, while Williams has been opposed to it. The public advocate has repeatedly noted that there is little data to connect bail reform to the increase in gun violence over the last two years.

Suozzi was pressed by the moderators to explain a potential ethics probe by the House of Representatives into whether he failed to report stock transactions in a timely manner for years. “It's a paperwork error,” said Suozzi, who has a very large stock portfolio, insisting he regularly filed annual disclosures though he was required to report his transactions more regularly. “The reality is we've corrected it and we're moving forward with this on a going forward basis,” he said. Suozzi has repeatedly noted that he has no say in how his portfolio is handled by his financial manager.

But Suozzi also took the opportunity to pivot into an attack on Hochul for her appointment of Brian Benjamin, who had to resign as her lieutenant governor after being indicted on corruption charges from his time as a state senator, and for rushing through a last-minute deal in the budget to build a new Buffalo Bills stadium with $850 million in taxpayer subsidies. Hochul’s husband, William Hochul, is one of the top executives at Delaware North, the massive concessions company that currently has contracts with the Bills stadium. 

Hochul conceded that she was disappointed with Benjamin. “I promised the voters of New York and the people of the state that I would do everything I can to restore their faith in government and that was a setback,” she said.

She also would not say whether Delaware North should be precluded from bidding for contracts from the new stadium. “I worked hard to structure the best deal I could to the benefit of the taxpayers,” she said, insisting that her husband and the company had no involvement in the negotiations of the deal and that over many years both Hochul have had to be very careful on ethical lines, including during her time in Congress and his as a U.S. Attorney.

The debate also touched on a wide range of specific issues while a number of major challenges facing the state went fully or largely unaddressed, including affordable housing, child care, health care, and climate change.

Hochul and the Legislature recently accelerated the issuance of three casino licenses for downstate New York, and the candidates were asked if they would like to see one in Manhattan. 

“I’m not opposed to it but I do need to look more at it and I'm not sure that Manhattan would be a place to build,” Williams said, then stressing that he wants New York to be careful about how casinos often take money from those who can least afford to gamble it away. 

“I'm not opposed to it, but I'd rather have some public hearings, find out what the people have to say locally, as well as the state Legislature to have public hearings on the location,” said Suozzi, who had also criticized Hochul for not having any public hearings on the Bills stadium deal. 

“I'm not going to put my finger on the scale,” Hochul said about the potential site of a casino, touting the process that’s in place including a panel of decision-makers.

The plan to institute congestion pricing in New York City, specifically Manhattan below 61st Street, to limit traffic and bring in revenue for the MTA is still under environmental review by the federal government and isn’t expected to be approved until later this year. But the candidates differed on the timeline for implementation, though all three said they support congestion pricing overall.

Suozzi said the mechanism should be delayed by “at least a year,” arguing such a delay could be helpful to the state’s economic recovery. 

Hochul said the federal government has placed new hurdles in implementation. “So this is not going to happen over the next year under any circumstances, but now is not the right time,” she said, but added that it will happen.

“[We] should do it now,” said Williams, insisting that it is necessary for the environment as well as to raise much needed revenue for the MTA.  

With the Supreme Court leaning towards overturning Roe v. Wade, all three candidates have reriterated their support for safe, legal, and accessible abortions and expanding reproductive rights in the state. At the debate, Hochul defended her decision to create a $35 million abortion access fund, which will serve New Yorkers and those who travel from out of state to seek an abortion. 

Though Suozzi tried to put Hochul on the defensive for failing to usher through a constitutional amendment making abortion a constitutional right in the state. “She didn't put her weight behind it and it didn't pass through the legislature during the legislative session,” he said, noting that Hochul has TV ads touting her efforts to do so. 

But Hochul in turn critiqued Suozzi for refusing to support a repeal of the Hyde Amendment, which prevents federal funds from being used for abortion coverage – thereby precluding it from Medicaid, which covers the poorest Americans. “I don't think that the right to have an abortion should be reserved only for wealthy women,” Hochul said. Suozzi said he didn’t know what Hochul was talking about.

Under newly drawn congressional lines, there is a crowded Democratic race shaping up in New York’s new 10th congressional district, covering parts of downtown Manhattan and a large swathe of Brooklyn. One of the candidates is former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, and the candidates were for unclear reasons asked if they would endorse his run. None of them said they would. 

“I am probably going to weigh in with that race so I don't want to tip my hand,” Williams said. 

“I don't think he's the best person for the job,” Suozzi said. 

“I'm not getting involved in primaries,” Hochul said, insisting that she is more focused on helping Democrats win races in the general election to maintain their tenuous hold on the House of Representatives.

New York City passed a local law that, beginning in January 2023, will allow hundreds of thousands of noncitizens with green cards and certain types of work authorization to vote in municipal elections. The candidates were pressed on whether they would push for such a provision statewide. 

“Of course, in the state, we want to make sure that everyone is civically engaged,” Williams said, indicating support for doing so but not explicitly saying it. “And that includes some of our noncitizen residents who are dealing with the impacts of very bad policy.” 

Suozzi said “the right to vote should be reserved for citizens” but touted his past efforts to help immigrants.

“I respect the right of a locality to make that decision as they did in New York City,” Hochul said. “But I will not be proposing that it be extended to the entire state.”

On term limits for state elected officials, Suozzi was entirely opposed. Hochul has previously proposed term limits for statewide officials, but not for members of the Legislature, and she reiterated that stance. Williams, on the other hand, said there should be limits for all state elected officials, with legislators allowed to serve more terms than statewide officials. 

After the Legislature approved a two-year moratorium on certain types of energy-intensive cryptocurrency mining, Hochul indicated that she may not sign the bill into law. Her critics have pointed out that both she and her new lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado, have received major campaign donations from the cryptocurrency investors. 

At the debate, Hochul refuted that her reluctance to sign the bill was influenced by wealthy donors. “We have over 800 bills that were passed. And this bill came up at the very end of session,” she explained. “We didn't have a chance to have our legislative team engage with it to work out any problems or to say yes or no or any modifications that normally occurs in the process.”

Williams said he agreed with the moratorium and noted there are other methods of producing and verifying cryptocurrency than through the mining process. Suozzi said he agreed with a moratorium but that he would have liked it to be shorter than two years.

Williams was the only candidate to say that the state should pay compensation to the families of more than 15,000 New Yorkers who died of COVID-19 in nursing homes and long-term care facilities, in part because of the decisions of the Cuomo administration. “Of course they should,” he said. 

Suozzi critiqued Hochul for not having already convened hearings to examine the state’s covid response. “I don't know why the governor has not put together a committee to look at this so we could learn lessons from what we went through,” he said.  

The governor’s office previously confirmed to Gotham Gazette in April that such a review was underway, and Hochul has since talked more about it, again noting on the debate stage that she has a review underway. But Hochul would not say at the debate whether the families of the deceased deserved compensation. “I gave them an apology and I said I will look at this even further to determine what else we can do to help them,” she said.

***
by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

Ben Max contributed to this story.

Passed by Senate, NYC Board of Elections Reform Shelved by Assembly


Board of Elections reform on the table (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


A package of reforms to the way elections are run in New York State all but died last week when the Assembly adjourned without bringing the legislation to a floor vote after they passed the Senate. That includes a sweeping bill to restructure the membership and executive leadership of the New York City Board of Elections, which has been plagued by political patronage, nepotism, and mismanagement year after year.

While legislators passed a number of voting and election reforms, they did not make changes to the board of elections structure, institute measures to professionalize the New York City Board of Elections, or improve the election day experience.

"So many pieces of this package are truly just common sense national best practices for improving how our elections are administered," said Joanna Zdanys, senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, referring to proposals like training requirements for commissioners and staff.

"Going into the next session, we think there is every reason for voters to expect and demand that these measures become law," Zdanys said.

Few elections in New York, particularly in New York City, have been spared from controversy around mismanagement, accessibility, or public information – sometimes disenfranchising voters in the process. Last year, the city Board of Elections released incorrect preliminary vote tallies in the mayoral Democratic primary after mistakenly counting test ballots.

At least 12 bills that would change election administration in New York City and around the state, including by setting professional standards for commissioners, passed in the State Senate earlier this year. None of them made it out of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee and several had not even been introduced in the lower chamber.

The highest-profile piece of the package is an omnibus bill, sponsored by Senator. Liz Krueger and Assemblymember Nily Rozic to reform the New York City Board of Elections. It would impose minimum qualifications on the BOE executive director, reduce the number of commissioners from 10 to 2, and make them more accountable to the public by requiring public hearings before their confirmation. It would also require more stringent budget reporting and delineate some of the roles of commissioners and executives.

The bill won the support of some good-government groups when it was amended earlier this year to remove a provision of the state election law that has been interpreted by the city BOE as requiring bipartisan hiring at all levels of BOE staffing, down to the rank-and-file. Advocates said that interpretation created duplicative roles and enabled patronage and nepotism.

"The Senate did our job by passing my legislation to professionalize the New York City Board of Elections so that we can avoid the fiascos that we have witnessed in several recent cycles," said Senator Liz Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat, in a statement.

"It's disappointing that the Assembly failed to act - now all we can do is cross our fingers that the current BOE gets it right in June, August, and November," Krueger said. "I suppose it's possible - after all, a stopped clock is right twice a day."

The bill's Assembly sponsor, Rozic, Speaker Carl Heastie, and Assembly election committee chair Assemblymember Latrice Walker, all New York City Democrats, did not respond to requests for comment.

Assembly Member Robert Carroll, a Brooklyn Democrat and co-sponsor of the BOE reform bill, told Gotham Gazette he was disappointed it didn't pass.

"We definitely need to professionalize our board and insulate it from political influence. I wish we passed this bill," he said.

"We need to do something about that because it's a real issue," he said of the partisan influence over elections. Carroll gave the example of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, which hand-picks commissioners and has also been accused of forging petition signatures to knock candidates off the ballot.

The Krueger-Rozic bill maintains the current commissioner appointment structure – where county party bosses select commissioners to be confirmed, usually without opposition, by the City Council – with two caveats: the Council would have to hold a public confirmation hearing, which is currently optional and often forgone; and, because each party will have one commissioner on the board instead of five, the Council will have to exert more control over the final selections.

It does not touch the bipartisan make-up of the board, itself, which is enshrined in the state constitution.

"Unfortunately, reform and structural change is not nearly as evocative, sometimes, as some other things," Carroll said. "Especially BOE reform, with some of the transgressions that we're talking about, you have to be an insider to understand what's happening."

Since Democrats gained control of the Senate in 2019, and thus full control of state government, the Assembly has become a bottleneck for many pieces of voting legislation and other democracy and good-government reforms. In recent years, the Legislature has passed significant changes to elections – including early voting, synchronized primaries, and shorter party enrollment deadlines – with Assembly Democrats often trailing their Senate counterparts on the latest frontiers.

It is not fully clear why Assembly Democrats would stand in the way of reforming the dysfunctional Board of Elections. Speaker Heastie has close ties to the Bronx Democratic Party, which he led before becoming Speaker. Meanwhile, Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn is chair of the Brooklyn Democratic Party and Assemblymember Michael Cusick is chair of the Staten Island Democratic Party. Former Assemblymember Keith Wright is head of the Manhattan Democrats. (The Queens Democratic Party is led by U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks.)

The other unpassed bills would have applied to local boards of elections statewide, not just in New York City. They would set professional qualifications for commissioners, prevent them from holding elected office, establish a process for removal by state regulators, and require hearings before confirmations. Others would make the commissioner a full-time position, mandate training for commissioners, staff, and poll workers, and ban financial conflicts of interest for BOE employees.

The bills would also set minimum staffing levels for local boards (something already in place in New York City), allow half-day poll worker shifts, raise compensation for election inspectors, and ensure the added income for poll workers doesn't impact their ability to receive public benefits.

"Voters have demanded change in how we run our elections, and it's important we respond to them. But reforming a system that's largely been in place for over a century isn't easy, and we never expected it to happen in just one session," said Senator Zellnor Myrie, a Brooklyn Democrat and chair of the Senate elections committee. Myrie sponsored a number of the bills after producing a report on election reform last fall following a public hearing tour around the state.

"Our report included over 50 recommendations to improve election administration. I'm proud the Senate overwhelmingly passed many of these recommendations, and there's much more work to be done," Myrie said.

This year, lawmakers passed several measures championed by voting rights advocates, including the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act, a voter registration deadline extension, and a fix to the so-called "wrong church" problem. Three of the election administration reforms advanced out of the Assembly election law committee only to perish in the Ways and Means Committee, where bills often go when they might have fiscal implications.

While advocates, like good-government group Citizens Union, weren't surprised by the outcome, there was hope the bills that had passed the Assembly election committee would come to a floor vote.

"It was definitely a missed opportunity, and when the next election blunder happens, voters will wonder why nothing was done to fix this antiquated system," said Ben Weinberg, policy director at Citizens Union. "I’m sure senators will continue pushing for it next year and hope the Assembly will join. This package shouldn’t be such a hard sell; things like requiring training and setting qualifications are basic standards in any modern government body."

***
by Ethan Geringer-Sameth, reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

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Max Politics Podcast: Dick Gottfried on 52 Years in the State Assembly


Assemblymember Dick Gottfried (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Governor's Office)


June xx, 2022 - Max Politics Podcast: Dick Gottfried on 52 Years in the State Legislature

Assemblymember Dick Gottfried is retiring after 52 years in the Legislature. He joined the show to reflect on his tenure, including 35 years chairing the Assembly health committee, how state government has changed over time, his major accomplishments, the New York Health Act, and more.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter @TweetBenMax. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts at Max Politics.

Read more: Max Politics Podcast: Dick Gottfried on 52 Years in the State Assembly

Slate of Insurgent Candidates Focused on Climate Seizes on Failure of State Bill


Climate march (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


The Democrat-led state Legislature ended its session over the weekend without passing any additional major pieces of climate-related legislation that some legislators and activists had been pushing for months. The failure to act has provided renewed vigor to several candidates running in the primaries this year who had already been centering climate action in their campaigns, many of them challenging incumbent Democrats.

They say that the state must take immediate and extraordinary action as the adverse effects of climate change continue to worsen, especially to meet the green energy requirements in the state’s landmark 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). 

The candidates and activists they are aligned with say the most egregious failure at hand is the Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA), which picked up serious momentum as climate activists and elected officials rallied for it as the session was coming to a close.

The bill would allow the New York Power Authority (NYPA) to own and build new renewable energy projects, along with mandates for phasing out fossil fuel power plants by 2030, and being the sole provider of renewable energy to state-owned properties by 2030 and municipal properties by 2035. Its supporters say it is crucial to achieve the goals of the CLCPA, which they say is the last major climate legislation approved in New York, requiring the state to reduce economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030 and by 85% by 2050 from 1990 levels. 

The BPRA passed the State Senate but ultimately didn’t get a vote in the Assembly, despite activists insisting that they had corralled enough support for it. The backlash, particularly against Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, was swift and many of those activists say it will be felt at the ballot, where several progressive candidates are running with a focus on climate action in this year’s primaries — June for the Assembly, August for the Senate.

In a suprise statement on Monday, two days after the session ended, Heastie announced a hearing on the BPRA scheduled for July 28, a month after the Assembly primary. “We agree with the goals of the Build Public Renewables Act,” he said of the Democratic supermajority in his chamber. “The final version of the bill – amended two days prior to the scheduled close of our legislative session – had support in our conference, but not enough to move forward at this point.” 

He said the hearing would examine various aspects of the bill including, “capacity needed to meet goals, potential costs of needed infrastructure, impacts on consumers and taxpayers, acquisition costs, and siting and eminent domain criteria.”

“I think it was a real eye-opener for a lot of people,” said Aaron Eisenberg of the Public Power NY coalition, which was advocating for the BPRA. “I think, especially…recognizing that ‘vote harder’ or ‘vote blue only’ is not enough in this case, because seemingly with 105 Democrats out of 150-member body and 83 confirmed yeses, that was still not enough to bring substantive climate legislation to the floor for a vote.” 

He said the Assembly’s failure to vote on the bill was “a damning indictment of failed climate leadership and climate denial because it's saying that we don't need to do anything when every single alarm bell should be going off.” 

The New York Democratic Socialists of America is backing a slate of candidates this year who are running largely on the issue of combating climate change. They include Illapa Sairitupac, who is running for an open seat in Assembly District 65 in Manhattan; David Alexis, who is challenging State Senator Kevin Parker in District 21 in Brooklyn; Keron Alleyne, who is running against Assemblymember Nikki Lucas, who won Brooklyn’s District 60 seat in a special election in February; Sarahana Shrestha, who is challenging Hudson Valley Assemblymember Kevin Cahill in District 103; Vanessa Agudelo, who is running for an open seat in District 95 in northern Westchester and Putnam Counties; Samy Nemir Olivares, who is challenging Assemblymember Erik Dilan in Brooklyn’s District 54; and Kristen Gonzalez, who is running for an open newly carved State Senate seat in District 59 covering parts of Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan. U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and The New York Working Families Party have endorsed all of those candidates as well – the WFP endorsed Sairitupac on Thursday, June 9. (DSA has also endorsed all six incumbent legislators in its slate.)

“For us as organizers, we’re furious, we're upset, we’re disheartened,” said Sairitupac of the BPRA’s failure, “and it further bolsters our commitment to talk about primarying more Assembly people and to literally replace them with champions for the working class because they gave us no other recourse. This is class warfare…It further validates that we should be running more organizers to replace these dinosaurs who don't care about us.” 

The BPRA wasn’t the only climate bill that failed to make it across the finish line during the state session. Activists from the Climate Can’t Wait coalition had pushed for a series of bills that would have taken a multi-faceted approach to climate change including banning gas hookups in new construction, raising revenue to fund the implementation of the CLCPA, energy efficiency measures for utilities, repealing tax exemptions for the fossil fuel industry, divesting the state teachers pension fund from fossil fuel producers, banning new major electricity generating facilities powered by fossil fuels, and more.

There was one apparent victory, however, in the form of a two-year moratorium on certain kinds of energy-intensive cryptocurrency mining in the state, though it is unclear if Governor Kathy Hochul will sign the bill. The state is moving ahead with a series of renewable energy projects of various kinds including wind, hydro, and solar. This year’s $220 billion state budget included $500 million for offshore wind energy infrastructure, a $400 million Environmental Protection Fund, and the $4.2 billion Clean Water, Clean Air, Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act, which is headed to a ballot referendum in the November general election. 

David Alexis said his opponent, Senator Parker, who is lead sponsor of the BPRA, wasn’t fully committed to it as was evident from his absence from the Senate floor when the bill was debated. “This bill has always been about life or death for millions of people across this state suffering from climate change…For Parker, he only began to move on it when it meant the life or death of his job in politics,” Alexis said.  

Parker’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

“Because of this failure, climate activists are going to move. This is going to yield real momentum that I think will have impacts at the end of this month for the June primaries, but also for our primaries in August,” he added. 

“There should be a backlash at the ballot,” said Alleyne, who is running against Assemblymember Lucas, criticizing the Democratic supermajority for disappointing the people who put them in power. 

If Alleyne and his fellow insurgent candidates win their respective races, their voices will become harder to ignore, he said. “It’s going to make a huge difference because that drum is going to be beat well before we get into office,” he said. “The thing that changes immediately when we get to Albany is that this is not going to be put on the afterburner. Leadership is not going to be able to hide behind bills that don't make a difference truly in the lives of our neighbors.”

The BPRA may still be in play. Assemblymember Robert Carroll, the Assembly sponsor of the bill, said it is “the most important piece of climate legislation possibly in the country” and he’s hopeful that after the hearing in July, the Legislature will convene for a special session to approve the bill. 

“I think it's common sense,” he said. “Untying the hands of the New York Power Authority will only help produce more renewable projects and produce a more competitive market.”

According to estimates from Public Power NY, the BPRA would help scale up the New York Power Authority’s renewable energy capacity, generating between $48.6 and $93.5 billion in additional economic activity by 2030 and creating between 28,410 to 51,133 green jobs that pay a prevailing wage. 

“The inertia that is happening in Albany for a multitude of reasons, either political cowardice or or the donations of fossil fuel lobbyists, that inertia is just preventing us from taking the steps we need to fight climate change,” said State Senator Jabari Brisport of Brooklyn, a democratic socialist backed by the DSA and active in trying to help the slate of first-time candidates win this year.

“A composition change might be an order,” he added. “There need to be more people that prioritize climate in the Legislature or else we will be very sad in five to ten years when it is truly out of control.”

***
by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

Note - this article has been updated with the WFP's latest endorsement of Illapa Sairitupac and to note U.S. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez's endorsement of the DSA-backed candidates. 

Note- this article has been updated to mention Kristen Gonzalez, who is also on the DSA slate of candidates.  

Three Democratic Candidates for Governor Set to Debate as Primary Heads Into Final Weeks


Jumaane Williams, Kathy Hochul, & Tom Suozzi


With just three weeks till the June 28 primary, and only eleven days till early voting begins June 18, Governor Kathy Hochul is set to face off Tuesday for the first time on the debate stage against her two Democratic primary opponents, U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi of Long Island and New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.

The debate, set to air Tuesday at 7 p.m. on CBS television and Newsradio 880, comes a few days after Suozzi and Williams appeared for a debate on Spectrum News that Hochul declined to participate in.

Hochul, formerly lieutenant governor, is running for her first full-term as governor since taking over from Gov. Andrew Cuomo last year, when he resigned in disgrace after facing a series of sexual misconduct allegations, among other scandals. In the months since, Hochul has consolidated her position as the state’s top Democrat, courting wealthy donors that have bolstered her campaign coffers to a massive funding advantage over her opponents, and strengthening alliances with major labor unions and other special interest groups, and receiving the backing of many elected and party officials.

Hochul has sought to distance herself from Cuomo, and in some ways has followed through on promises of a different leadership style. While she has mostly proved to be more collaborative and respectful than her former running mate known for bullying and browbeating, Hochul raised hackles and to some extent soured relationships in the Legislature over the way she handled several major items in the state budget passed more than a week late in April.

Like Cuomo, Hochul is a moderate liberal. She has certainly moved leftward after her time as a county clerk and congressional representative in Western New York, where she opposed driver’s licenses for undocumented New Yorkers with threats of arrest and touted an “A” rating from the NRA. In the passage of this year’s state budget, her last-minute move to push through a large subsidy deal for the Buffalo Bills stadium project provoked more than a few comparisons to Cuomo.

Unlike Cuomo, Hochul has formed a friendly and productive working relationship with the New York City Mayor, who represents more than 43% of the state’s population in the city. While Hochul has worked well with Mayor Eric Adams, Cuomo spent years antagonizing and picking fights with Adams’ predecessor, Mayor Bill de Blasio, often to the detriment of New Yorkers.

Hochul is heading into the final weeks before primary day set to sign a number of bills bolstering abortion rights and gun control in New York, among many other pieces of legislation passed by the Legislature as it ended its 2022 session in recent days.

Though she has not been elected to the position, incumbency has given Hochul several advantages, including the ability to command headlines for those bill-signings and the allocation of budget dollars. Her time as lieutenant governor made her a ubiquitous presence around the state, giving her more name recognition than her opponents in many places. She has quickly built a massive campaign war chest and public polling has her well ahead of Suozzi and Williams.

Suozzi is running as a “common sense Democrat,” with many moderate policy positions that aren’t far removed from Hochul. He is running on the strength of his two decades of experience in executive and legislative positions, while touting his longtime record backing gun control, environment protections, and abortion rights. His campaign has largely been focused on rising violent crime, and he has criticized Hochul for failing to take tough measures to control it, aligning himself with his ally, Mayor Adams, in calling for far more judicial discretion to jail defendants pre-trial. Suozzi has called for cutting taxes and regulations to spur the economy.

Williams is challenging Hochul for the second time, after having failed to unseat her as lieutenant governor in 2018, though he came somewhat close. As a self-declared “activist elected official,” Williams is to the left of the other candidates. He has a long history as a progressive on many issues, especially housing and police reform coupled with community investment, and has been endorsed by the Working Families Party. Though he has also said that public safety is his top issue, he has insisted that the solution lies in funding the social determinants of crime rather than law enforcement. He has called for higher taxes on the wealthy to fund everything from education to affordable housing to climate action.

On Thursday night, Williams and Suozzi met at the first televised debate in the primary, which Hochul decided to skip. Though there are clear differences between the two, they did not battle it out at the debate, instead training their criticisms at the governor. It was a sneak peek into what is likely to happen on Tuesday as the candidates try to tarnish the incumbent and present their visions to voters.

“She's gonna get attacked from her left flank by Jumaane Williams and from her right flank by Tom Suozzi,” said Bruce Gyory, a veteran Democratic strategist with the firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, in a phone interview, previewing the debate. “The question is, what is the reaction of media, pundits, and most importantly the public? Is that attack going to be seen as tripping her up or is that attack going to make her seem like the obvious choice in the middle.”

The two challengers clearly have honed several lines of attack against the governor. They’ve both been critical of the deal to help build the Buffalo Bills stadium, at a cost of $1.4 billion that includes at least $850 million in state and local subsidies. Polls have shown that voters also overwhelmingly disapprove of the deal.

They also questioned the governor’s judgment in rushing through the vetting of Brian Benjamin to be her lieutenant governor, only for him to resign seven months later after being indicted on corruption charges from his time as a state senator. Hochul then chose U.S. Rep. Antonio Delgado to replace Benjamin after the Legislature rushed through a bill that allowed Benjamin to get off the primary ballot, a move that also invited criticism from her opponents.

“The perception coming out of the polling data that they're way behind may lead one or both of them to overreach in the attack,” Gyory said. “On the other hand, they may perfectly calibrate it and…it's not easy to be attacked by two people.”

He had specific advice for the two candidates as well. “If Jumaane can add practicality to his progressivism, I think he'll do well,” he said. “I think for Suozzi, it's a question of how does he calibrate his attacks on Hochul…and distinguish himself from Hochul without coming across as being churlish and caustic.”

On The Issues
Public polling has consistently shown that crime is a top concern for voters. An April 25 Siena College poll found that 24% of voters picked crime as the single most important issue in deciding who to support in the primary, with taxes a distant second at 9%. It was on crime and the economy that Hochul’s approval fell dramatically in that poll.

Suozzi has attacked Hochul repeatedly for failing to rein in violent crime. “This governor has not made it the priority it should be,” he said at the Thursday debate with Williams. Suozzi has taken particular aim at the state’s bail reforms that were approved in 2019 and which subsequently have been used by moderates and conservatives as a scapegoat for rising crime, with very limited direct evidence to support the assertion.

Those reforms had already been altered somewhat in 2020 and were again this year, but Suozzi and others have insisted that leaders did not go far enough. He has called for allowing judges to consider a “dangerousness standard” while deciding to set bail, a position that Hochul in fact shares, as does Mayor Adams.

Williams, on the other hand, is pushing for greater resources for crime prevention, with $1 billion going towards anti-gun violence programs and community investments. Including at Thursday’s debate, he has repeatedly pointed out that the push for that $1 billion was not met in the state budget.

The two challengers have also said that Hochul has not done enough to tackle gun violence specifically, a particularly poignant issue in the wake of the racist mass shooting in Buffalo followed soon by the massacre of school children in Uvalde, Texas. They have both pointed to Hochul's past endorsement by the National Rifle Association, which gave her an “A” rating when she was in Congress and donated to her past campaigns. Hochul, however, has easy rebuttals to offer, having quickly moved to strengthen gun control after the two mass shootings and having been a public champion for the initial passage of the state’s “red flag” law under Cuomo.

Inflation and cost of living have become a particularly pressing issue and while Hochul has taken measures to tackle them, it's likely a topic that each of the candidates will have to address at the debate. Both Hochul and Suozzi have talked about reducing taxes – Hochul has continued tax cuts for the middle class that were approved in previous years, and passed a property tax rebate and gas tax holiday in the new budget – while Williams wants to raise taxes on the wealthy to increase state revenue and fund several progressive priorities.

Another issue at the forefront this year is abortion rights, with indications that the U.S. Supreme Court is getting ready to overturn Roe v. Wade. Hochul stands on a strong foundation on the issue, having quickly announced a series of measures to strengthen reproductive rights, funds for abortion, executive action on contraceptive coverage, and more. Williams and Suozzi have both expressed full-throated support for abortion rights, though they may be slightly vulnerable on the issue because of past positions that were more conservative to varying degrees.

Ethics and integrity in government could be another contentious sticking point. Hochul promised a new era in Albany when she took office, distancing herself from the several scandals that engulfed Cuomo as well as the overall culture he perpetuated where pay-to-play politics, bullying, and a lack of transparency and ethics enforcement were all rampant.

But Suozzi and Williams have taken aim at her for being quietly acquiescent as Cuomo’s number two and then, as governor, for continuing to raise massive sums from those with state business interests, the Benjamin debacle, and the Buffalo Bills deal, which government reform groups have criticized for several reasons including the secretive process and the fact that the governor’s husband, William Hochul, is a top executive at Delaware North, the massive concessions company that serves the current stadium.

The Money Race
After becoming governor, Hochul quickly built up a donor network to rival her predecessor and raised more than $20 million in five months, a record-breaking fundraising pace. According to the latest campaign finance disclosures from May, she has raised a total of $33.8 million for her campaign and has spent about $16.6 million – she raised $10.3 million and spent $13.1 million since January alone. She had a whopping $18.6 million in cash on hand as of May 23, according to that filing.

Suozzi is in second place. He raised $6.7 million in total in contributions (and also transferred more than $2 million from his congressional campaign) and has spent about $6.5 million. He had about $2.7 million left over as of the filing.

Williams has barely any funding compared to the other two. He has only raised $471,000 in total and has spent about $311,000. He had just $130,000 in the bank as of the latest campaign finance disclosure.

Hochul Ahead in Polling
Public polling shows the governor holding a commanding lead over both her competitors. In a March 28 Siena College poll, Hochul had a 40-point lead over Williams and Suozzi in a three-way race – she received 52% of the vote compared to 12% for Williams and 11% for Suozzi. The poll showed that Hochul’s standing in the primary had only improved over time, following a January poll that showed her with a 30-point lead. 

The March poll also considered whether Cuomo might jump into the race, in which case Hochul got 38% of the vote compared to 30% for Cuomo, 10% for Suozzi, and 7% for Williams.

A May 26 poll from Unite NY/John Zogby Strategies found that Hochul had a 58% approval rating, with 38% disapproving. In the Democratic primary, she led with 49.4% of the vote compared to 14.1% for Williams and 10.3% for Suozzi. She also led all potential Republican challengers by double digits as the poll looked ahead to the general election.  

Hochul did suffer some setbacks in April after the criticism over the Buffalo Bills deal, the Benjamin scandal, and the chaotic state redistricting process that led to lawsuits, new districts being drawn, and the congressional and state primary eventually being moved to August. Hochul declined to act to consolidate the primaries in August, apparently interested in trying to cement her advantages and not give her competitors (and potentially Cuomo) more time to dent her lead.

In the April 25 Siena poll, Hochul’s job performance rating plunged. Only 36% of those polled said she was doing an “excellent” or “good” job as governor, down from 43% in March; about 57% said she was doing a “fair” or “poor” job compared to 53% who said the same in March. 

Her overall favorability among voters remained relatively unchanged – 44% gave her a favorable rating compared to 34% unfavorable, compared to 45-35% in March. 

Suozzi had a favorability of 21% to 18% unfavorable, with 61% saying they either did not know him or have an opinion of him. Williams came in at 24% favorable and 20% unfavorable. For both candidates, it was a clear indicator that they are far behind in name recognition compared to the incumbent.

Along with Tuesday’s debate, the second and final televised debate Hochul has agreed to with Suozzi and Williams will be on June 16.

***
by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

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Max Politics Podcast: Diane Savino Says Farewell to the State Senate


State Senator Diane Savino (photo: NY Senate)


June 6, 2022 - Max Politics Podcast: Diane Savino Says Farewell to the State Senate

State Senator Diane Savino, a Democrat representing parts of Staten Island and Southern Brooklyn, joined the show to reflect on her 18-year tenure in the Legislature as she moves on to the next phase of her career after deciding not to seek reelection this year.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter @TweetBenMax. You can listen to the show through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts at Max Politics.

Read more: Max Politics Podcast: Diane Savino Says Farewell to the State Senate



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