Rep. Lee Zeldin (photo: @Congressman Lee Zeldin)

Republican leaders in nearly every county in New York have endorsed Long Island Congressional Rep. Lee Zeldin for governor in this year’s election, making him the perceived frontrunner for the party’s nomination. Zeldin, now in his fourth term in Congress representing New York’s 1st District, is forgoing a bid for reelection to the House of Representatives in order to attempt breaking the four-term Democratic hold on the governor’s office.

But, in order to have a shot at the governor’s office, Zeldin must first win a competitive primary against two other formidable candidates: former Westchester County Executive and 2014 Republican gubernatorial nominee Rob Astorino and Andrew Giuliani, previously a White House aide to then-President Donald Trump and the son of former New York City Mayor Rudolph Guiliani.

At the official opening of his campaign headquarters in Midtown Manhattan on October 4, Zeldin expressed optimism, which he had in large supply even before Republican gains in New York and beyond were evident through the 2021 elections.

“The stakes have never been higher,” Zeldin told supporters. “Everything is on the line right now.”

Zeldin spoke about issues raised by New Yorkers during his campaign trips across the state — he has been aggressively traveling beyond his native Suffolk County on Long Island to hold events, meet voters, court local leaders, and raise money, all helping lead to his many endorsements from Republican and Conservative officials. He said New Yorkers are concerned about crime, education, and the cost of living; that people feel unsafe, that they are losing control over what their children are learning in school, and that the state’s taxes are making life in New York more and more unaffordable.

Throughout his campaign, Zeldin has railed against Democratic COVID-19 policies, especially arguing against any vaccine or mask mandates, warning against further requirements like those to protect children from the virus via inoculation in order to attend school and promising to roll them back if he becomes governor. Indeed, much of Zeldin’s early campaign platform appears focused on rolling back Democratic policies, such as reforms to the state’s bail laws, income tax increases on the wealthy, and more.

Zeldin highlighted his early start on the trail in the 2022 race, which will be decided through the June primaries and the fall general election. He said that since his campaign began so early, he has been able to have conversations with voters that would not have happened if he started later, and that he has already been able to visit each of the state’s 62 counties.

Zeldin’s early blitz in campaign travel, fundraising, and endorsements is also giving him an air of inevitability as the GOP nominee for governor. But while his attempt to box out his two major primary opponents is certainly showing significant dividends thus far, early polling in the race has not shown Zeldin with an advantage, but instead that Giuliani has it, likely in large part due to name recognition as the former mayor’s son, and the pair’s ties to Trump, who remains popular among New York Republicans.

As for the status of the race, Giuliani’s recent polling has given him optimism going forward despite Zeldin’s popularity among party leadership and significant fundraising advantage.

“Hey, you know, those nearly 3 million Republicans deserve a say in the nominating process,” Giuliani said in an interview. “And since we came out with our own poll in June that had us up eight points. And then Siena came out with polls in September, I think October, December and January. They had us up double digits in all four of those public polls, and this last one had us up 12 or 13 points.”

Giuliani, just 36 years old, is leaning heavily on his ties to Trump and White House experience, which included working as Associate Director of the Office of the Public Liaison and Special Assistant to the President.

As the GOP nominee for governor in 2014, Astorino won 40% of the vote to Andrew Cuomo’s 54%, the closest of Cuomo’s three gubernatorial victories. He went on to lose his reelection bid as county executive in 2017, then lost a State Senate bid in 2020.

Zeldin’s favorability among party leaders “doesn’t mean anything” to Astorino, who said in an interview with Gotham Gazette that “the actual nomination, from whoever wins the primary in June, which will be voted upon by the actual registered Republicans in New York, that's all that matters.”

Astorino touted his wins in Democratic-leaning Westchester County as a sort-of secret weapon he holds over Giuliani and Zeldin.

“It's harder to win in Westchester than it is to win statewide as a Republican,” Astornio said. “It's tougher, and yet, you know, I was able to do it…We're not going to kid ourselves. We're not going to win New York City, but I'm going to be able to get above 30% [there], which is the magic number to win statewide.”

Zeldin has been successfully locking up support among party officials, including New York State Republican Party Chair Nick Langworthy, who dubbed Zeldin the “presumed nominee” as early as June, a full year before the primary. But even with these types of endorsements, there is a recent precedent for early and establishment favorites losing the primary when the results come in. Incendiary conservative Carl Paladino won 62% of the vote in the 2010 Republican primary despite Rick Lazio’s significant lead in both party endorsements and early polls. Paladino went on to lose to Cuomo in a landslide.

As Astorino said, “just because some of the party leaders go with somebody else does not mean that it's game over. It's just the start of the game.”

The looming election is unfolding on an uncertain playing field given Trump’s hold on the Republican Party, GOP gains in the 2021 elections, expectations for a Republican surge in the 2022 midterms, the fact that this is the first statewide election cycle since 1998 where Andrew Cuomo’s name is not expected to be on the ballot, and other factors. Both Zeldin and Giuliani are outspoken Trump loyalists who have supported Trump’s lies about the 2020 election.

On the other side of the aisle, Democrats appear on the verge of having their most competitive gubernatorial primary in decades as Governor Kathy Hochul seeks election to the position she holds due to Cuomo’s resignation amid scandal, while Congressional Rep. Tom Suozzi of Long Island, representing New York’s 3rd District that also includes parts of Queens, and New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams are also in the running.

Republicans have not won a statewide race in New York since Governor George Pataki won a third term in 2002, and given voter enrollment disadvantages and whether the party of Trump can appeal to the moderates, conservative Democrats, and independents needed to win statewide, there are major questions about whether a Republican can pull it off in 2022. But, the state GOP has been almost solely focused on winning this race, and have some reason for their optimism given the political climate and the potential relative weakness of whoever the Democratic nominee for governor will be.

Facing uncharted waters, many Republican leaders are looking to Zeldin, a candidate they believe can bridge the Trump-supporting base of the party that Zeldin is firmly part of with moderate Republicans, independents, and conservative Democrats.

An Army veteran, Zeldin has made a name for himself on the national stage as an ardent defender of Israel, law enforcement, and Trump — he voted against certifying the results of the 2020 election and voted twice against impeachment. National political players have taken notice; Blackstone CEO and major Trump donor Stephen Schwarzman joined pro-Israel political action committees (PACs) in giving generously to Zeldin’s 2020 congressional campaign. Former Secretary of State and Congressional Rep. Mike Pompeo endorsed Zeldin on May 18, with former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich following suit on November 4.

In the race for governor, Zeldin is looking to pull off something of a balancing act of building on his reputation as a loyal Trump ally while zeroing in on state issues and preparing for the inevitable move toward the middle in the general election, if he wins the primary.

Long Island-Albany Roots
After graduating from Albany Law School at age 23, Zeldin served in the Army for four years as a military intelligence officer as well as a prosecutor and military magistrate. He was deployed to Iraq in 2006 as a paratrooper in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division.

In 2008, Zeldin challenged then three-term incumbent Democrat Tim Bishop for his seat representing New York’s 1st Congressional district on Long Island and lost by nearly 17 points. Zeldin pivoted to practicing law on Long Island and gearing up for a successful run for the New York State Senate in 2010, winning with 57% of the vote to represent a district including Brookhaven, Patchogue, and Ronkonkoma. He was then re-elected to a second two-year term in 2012 with 55.8% of the vote.

During his time in Albany, Zeldin chaired the committee on consumer protection and served on a variety of other committees during what was a turbulent time in state government and the beginning of Andrew Cuomo’s governorship.

Early on in his tenure as a state senator, Zeldin quickly established himself as socially conservative. Less than a year into his first State Senate term, Zeldin voted against New York’s Marriage Equality Act.

“It is my belief that marriage should be defined as between a man and a woman,” Zeldin said in a statement he released after the bill passed on June 24, 2011. “As of tonight, in New York, that definition has changed. This legislation will have a profound impact on the lives of all New Yorkers.”

Zeldin was a pro-business conservative fed up with the state’s high taxes. He responded to Cuomo’s 2013 State of the State address with critiques now part of his gubernatorial platform.

“We must unburden hardworking New Yorkers from the crushing taxes that affect their family budgets and quality of life,” Zeldin said. “We must make government work better and cost less, and we must develop better strategies that support our small businesses and create jobs on Long Island and throughout the state.”

Into the House
In 2014, Zeldin defeated then six-term incumbent Tim Bishop with 54.4% of the vote and has represented New York’s 1st Congressional District in Congress since 2015. There, Zeldin’s party was in the majority from 2015 until 2019, ceding control to Democrats after the 2018 midterm elections. In the House, he has served on two committees: Financial Services and Foreign Affairs.

His website touts among his biggest accomplishments many local issues, among others, including saving Plum Island, securing funding for an Electron Ion Collider to be constructed in Brookhaven, and the $1 billion coastal storm risk management project stretching from Fire Island to Montauk. Zeldin has also worked on issues close to him as a military veteran; his website mentions his involvement in a new veterans health clinic and the Adult Day Health Care Act, which helps elderly and disabled vets more easily gain access to healthcare and other resources. He also boasts aid for first responders, noting his support for the permanent reauthorization of the Zadroga Act — a law that provides healthcare to first responders, volunteers, and survivors of the September 11, 2001 attacks — and the 9/11 Victim Compensation fund.

In 2015, his first year in Congress, Zeldin proposed an amendment to a bill revisiting No Child Left Behind that would permit states to opt out of adopting Common Core educational standards without losing federal funding. The amendment passed 373-57 in the House and became part of the Every Student Succeeds Act, which President Obama signed into law on December 10, 2015.

Heritage Action for America — a sister organization to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank — gave Zeldin a 59% rating during the 2015-2016 session of congress, meaning he adhered to their program, and presumably against President Obama’s, 59% of the time.

Then came the Trump years.

The Trump Alignment
On May 3, 2016, Texas Senator Ted Cruz suspended his campaign following Trump’s victory in the Indiana primary, rendering Trump the presumptive nominee. The next day, two months before the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Zeldin and fellow Long Island Congressman Peter King endorsed Donald Trump for President.

Zeldin was quoted in Newsday saying “even though I don’t agree with Donald Trump on everything, and I think there may be certain things or statements of his that I may disagree with, he is a better candidate by far than Hillary Clinton.” The article also mentioned that Trump had donated $2,000 to Zeldin’s 2014 Congressional campaign. 

According to Newsday, once Donald Trump was the presumptive Republican nominee for President, Zeldin began to boast a long-standing intergenerational relationship. The May 2016 article mentioned that Trump called Zeldin after his 2014 victory to note that he and Zeldin’s father shared ties to the New York Military Academy; Zeldin and his wife, Diane, met with Donald and Melania Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida in March 2015.

A USA Today article published during the 2016 GOP convention noted that Zeldin was one of 11 incumbent House Republicans whose re-election was dubbed a toss-up by the Cook Political Report. According to the article, Zeldin was the only one of the 11 endangered Republicans who chose to travel to Cleveland in lieu of “sidestepping any controversy” associated with Trump.

Politico reported that Trump won 72.5% of Suffolk County’s vote in New York’s 2016 Republican primary — held on April 19 with only Trump, Cruz, and then-Ohio Governor John Kasich on the ballot  —  and 52.5% of the county’s vote in the general election later that year against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and others on the ballot.

Four years later, Trump’s tally decreased to 49.4% in Suffolk County, defeating Joe Biden there by only 232 votes, according to the New York Times, while in Nassau County, Biden bested Trump by 69,788 votes, winning 54.2% of the vote in the other Long Island county.

The New York Times reported in June 2016 that Zeldin defended Trump’s attack on a judge in a lawsuit relating to Trump University. Trump, who had launched his campaign with xenophobic comments about Mexicans, alleged the U.S.-born judge was biased against Trump because of the judge’s Mexican ancestry. The article also noted that Zeldin suggested then-President Obama could be deemed racist on account of his policies and statements.

In a piece in The Hill on Zeldin’s comments on CNN, Zeldin was quoted saying “my purpose here isn't to just go through the list and call everyone a racist. I'm saying that we all can up our game with rhetoric and policy because America, we are a nation of immigrants, we are a melting pot.” The article added that Zeldin said Democrats were guilty of political “microtargeting.”

The Trump Presidency
During Zeldin’s second term in Washington, and under a Republican president and Congress, he supported a slew of early Trump-era deregulatory measures. In January 2017, Zeldin voted in favor of a budget resolution nicknamed Trumpcare in hopes of at least partially repealing the Affordable Care Act — the bill passed the House but failed in the Senate.

He voted to repeal many environmental and labor regulations in the administration’s first months and continued to support Trump’s legislative agenda 88.8% of the time throughout Trump’s tenure, according to FiveThirtyEight, a political analysis site.

In addition to the former President’s legislative goals, Zeldin was broadly supportive of the Executive Branch’s approach to foreign policy, counter-terrorism, and the southern border wall. 

On August 21, 2017, during Trump’s first year in office, Zeldin released a statement in response to a Trump speech laying out his strategy for the war in Afghanistan. Zeldin lauded Trump for intending to shift the administration’s focus to “conditions on the ground, not arbitrary deadlines,” and policy that would “improve the integration of diplomatic, economic and military options to support our interests in the country.” He also said Trump’s plan would hold Pakistan to account for harboring terrorists. 

Zeldin added that the U.S. strategy should include “a more stable political environment in Afghanistan,” the Afghan government exercising control over more of its territory, countering Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, and securing the country’s border. 

“For years, we have been trying not to lose in Afghanistan,” Zeldin wrote in the statement. “Now is the time to win and end this never ending war altogether."

Republican control of the White House and Congress lasted two years, and Democrats took the House after the 2018 midterm elections — Zeldin won re-election with 51.5% of the vote. He remained supportive of Trump’s objectives at home and abroad throughout his third term in office. 

On January 18, 2020, early in Trump’s fourth year as president and with the campaign heating up, Zeldin tweeted a list of Trump talking points:

“US markets => record highs, Soleimani & al-Baghdadi => dead, ISIS caliphate => destroyed, USMCA => passed, China trade deal Ph 1 => signed, MS-13 members => arrested, Border wall => being built, US produced energy => now net exporter, Unemployment => 50 yr low, Keep it going!!”

The Associated Press reported on February 6, 2020 that an Al-Qaeda leader who had killed three Americans at Naval Air Station Pensacola was killed in a counter-terrorism strike in Yemen. That day, Zeldin tweeted: “this is a really bad time to be a terrorist targeting the US. Sleeping with one eye open just isn’t good enough for these terrorists to stay alive. We have the strongest military in the history of the world & the Trump admin is exceptionally taking out these targets left & right!”

In addition to supporting the former President’s policy objectives at home and abroad, Zeldin frequently voted with Trump while in the minority in the House. But there was also something of a mixed picture on several major policies.

Some key Zeldin votes in the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives, 116th Congress, in 2019-2020:

• Voted against opposing a ban on openly transgender people serving in the military in March 2019
• Voted against restoring net neutrality in April 2019
• Voted against creating a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children in June 2019
• Voted against requiring background checks for all firearm sales in February 2019
• Voted against both charges of Trump’s first impeachment: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress on December 17, 2019
• Voted for the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, directing federal aid for coronavirus impact in March 2020
• Voted against the Heroes Act in May 2015, which would have entailed $3 trillion in federal spending in COVID relief
• Voted against the Emergency Housing Protections and Relief Act in June 2020

FiveThirtyEight determined that Zelin voted with Trump’s agenda 86.5% of the time in the 115th Congress, 90.9% of the time in the 116th Congress, and, in the very short start of the 117th (and current) Congress before President Joe Biden’s inauguration, 100% of the time.

Zeldin did deviate from the president’s legislative agenda on occasion. He dissented on votes related to statecraft, taxes, and the budget. Some of the votes that did not align with Trump, covering 2017-2020:

• Voted against a 2017 repeal of an FCC rule prohibiting internet providers from sharing data on users’ activities 
• Voted in 2017 against increasing the debt limit/extending funding related to Hurricane Harvey relief 
• Voted against the fiscal year 2018 budget resolution
• Voted in late 2017 against overhauling the tax code (the major Trump tax overhaul, which Zeldin opposed because it put in place a cap on state and local tax deductions from one’s federal taxes)
• Voted in early 2018 against a two-year budget bill
• Voted against the 2018 fiscal appropriations bill
• Voted in June 2018 against the Republican “compromise” immigration bill
• Voted against making 2017 individual tax reductions permanent
• Voted in early 2019 in favor of disapproving the Trump administration’s lifting sanctions on three Russian companies
• Voted against the two year budget bill in July 2019
• Voted in September 2019 in favor of banning drilling off of the Pacific and Atlantic coasts
• Voted to oppose Trump’s withdrawal of troops from Syria in October 2019
• Voted in favor of requiring healthcare and social service employers to have plans for workplace violence in November 2019
• Voted in January 2020 in favor of requiring the EPA to issue regulations regarding certain chemicals

As for Trump’s many incendiary public comments, Zeldin rarely if ever spoke out. During a June 29, 2017 CNN appearance, Zeldin said that Trump’s disparaging tweets about MSNBC hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough were “ugly” and that he holds the president “to a higher standard.”

All told, Zeldin offered nearly unwavering support for a president well-known for prizing loyalty, and to a degree that Trump tolerated virtually no criticism before waging a personal war. This, while Trump brought criticism upon himself for constantly lying, engaging in one feud after another, often in very personal terms, making false allegations of election fraud, cozying up to dictators, and more — criticism that very often included independents and some Republicans.

In perhaps the ultimate test of Trump loyalty, Zeldin voted against certifying the results of the 2020 election when it came down to the wire on January 6, 2021, even after a violent pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol seeking to obstruct that certification.

January 6, 2021
Zeldin was one of four in New York’s congressional delegation to vote against certifying the 2020 election results in Congress on the night of January 6, 2021.

He defended what he said were his doubts of the election’s integrity by pointing to election officials’ actions leading up to Election Day, November 3, 2020.

There was and remains no evidence that the 2020 election was compromised, including the presidential election or any congressional results where votes were tallied at the same time.

While rioters coming from the Trump-led “Stop the Steal” rally stormed the Capitol seeking to stop the certification and, in some cases, do harm to Vice President Mike Pence and members of Congress involved in the process, Zeldin released a statement:

“This should never be the scene at the US Capitol. This is not the America we all love. We can debate and we can disagree, even on a January 6th following a Presidential election. We can all passionately love our country, but in our republic we elect people to represent us to voice our objections in the House and Senate on this day. Additionally, there must be ZERO tolerance for violence in any form! It is very important now for everyone to please cooperate with Capitol Police who need to gain control of this situation immediately."

After members of Congress reconvened that evening following the assault on the Capitol, Zeldin addressed the House floor challenging the validity of the election.

"This debate is necessary, because rogue election officials circumvented state election laws,” he said. “They made massive changes to how their state’s election would be run. These acts, among other issues, were unlawful and unconstitutional."

Zeldin proceeded to vote against certifying the results of the election in Arizona and Pennsylvania.

High-profile GOP leaders who voted against certifying the results of the election  — Reps. Kevin McCarthy, the minority leader, and rising conservative star Elise Stefanik of New York, among others — followed a similar trajectory to Zeldin’s. They voted not to certify the election though they could not provide any proof of faulty results, condemned the rioters, voted not to impeach President Trump, voted not to form an independent commission to investigate the January 6 attack on the Capitol, and maintain a largely avoidant stance on all of the above.

Zeldin was quoted in a May 2021 Newsday article saying “​the duties of the proposed commission are already being carried out, but Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi wants to politicize this issue and distract from her party’s disastrous policies that are depressing the workforce and slowing economic growth.”

As the 2022 New York elections unfold amid the national backdrop of Trump’s continued lies about the 2020 election and potential 2024 candidacy, it is an open question how much Zeldin’s close ties to the former president will help and hurt him — and the answers could be very different in the Republican primary versus the general election, which would also be true for either of the other GOP candidates, particularly Giuliani. The answers will also be informed by how much the 2022 election centers around the debates over criminal justice, school, tax, covid, and other policies controlled at the state level.

The most recent Republican governor of New York, George Pataki, has distanced himself from the direction the GOP has taken in the Trump era, especially when it comes to the Capitol attack. Even before the riot, Pataki called efforts to subvert the results of the election “a grave threat to our freedom.”

Zeldin did not mention January 6 at his Manhattan headquarters opening, opting to dismiss questions about his record on the issue. “What's important is that we focus on the issues that voters want us to be focused on,” Zeldin said when asked.

As for how his votes against election certification on January 6 may affect his candidacy for governor, Zeldin said voters are “talking to [him] about their cost of living, they're talking about their desire to support law enforcement more, not less. They are expressing their concerns about their son or daughter's education.”

Flipping New York
Hillary Clinton won New York by 22.5 percentage points in 2016 and Joe Biden won by 23 points in 2020. Andrew Cuomo won a third term by just over 23 points in 2018.

While Zeldin or another GOP nominee for governor would surely face difficult odds in the 2022 general election, Democrats will not be fielding a nominee with the electoral strengths of Clinton, Biden, or Cuomo.

Governor Kathy Hochul was little-known to New Yorkers before her ascent to the state’s top office in August of last year. Rep. Suozzi and Public Advocate Williams would both likely be weaker than Cuomo going into his 2018 reelection for a third term. Hochul, the first woman to ever be Governor of New York, has shown significant strength in early polling and brought in massive fundraising hauls. 

When Zeldin launched his campaign, he was centering it around defeating “King Cuomo,” who was eyeing a fourth term. Since Cuomo’s resignation amid several major scandals, Zeldin wasted no time in shifting his critiques of Cuomo toward Hochul, whom he has dubbed “Complicit Kathy” for her role as Cuomo’s relatively muted lieutenant governor.

In some ways, Zeldin is still campaigning against Cuomo as a metonym for Democratic rule in New York. On December 4, Zeldin tweeted a petition to change the name of the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, writing that “a whole lot of reminders are flying in why we need to restore the Tappan Zee Bridge back to its original name and end this Cuomo show for good.”

Many of Zeldin’s talking points hinge on “one party rule” in Albany, where he argues Democrats have run amok with progressive policies out of touch with the majority of New Yorkers, driving people out of the state, and hurting those who remain.

Numbers suggest that Democrats’ advantage in statewide elections is only growing. Since the 2018 gubernatorial election, the New York City share of the statewide vote has increased, pushing the state electorate bluer.

In its November data roundup, the State Board of Elections reported 7,791,315 registered voters outside the city and 5,598,883 voters in New York City, meaning 42% of the potential state electorate comes from the city compared to 40% in November 2018. As always, much will come down to turnout, and while New York City turnout often lags other parts of the state, any Republican nominee would need a suppressed city turnout coupled with an energized upstate vote, which leans strongly Republican, plus a solid red swing in the suburbs, including Zeldin’s Long Island. Still, a Republican would very likely need a better-than-recent-cycles performance in the five boroughs to win.

Zeldin touts himself as a candidate uniquely capable of flipping districts. 

“We know how to win tough races in districts where they say we're not supposed to win,” Zeldin said at his headquarters opening. “In 2010, we took out an incumbent [state] senator who between him and his father were there for 30 years. In 2014, we took out an incumbent congressman who was in office there for 12 years. And we've had targets on our backs.”

GOP victories this past fall, notably in the Virginia governor’s race and various local Long Island races like for Nassau County Executive and District Attorney, indicate momentum for Zeldin or whomever the Republican gubernatorial nominee will be this year. On November 3, Zeldin released a statement forecasting an inbound “Red Tsunami.” 

“Whether it’s county-wide races on Long Island in Suffolk and Nassau Counties, New York City Council seats in Queens and Brooklyn, local races in places like Colonie or Hornell, and so many other elections throughout the state, it’s clear that New Yorkers are fed up with the failed one-party leadership that has run the state we love into the ground,” Zeldin said.

As for delivering on that “red tsunami,” Conservative Party leadership is confident that Zeldin is their candidate.

At Zeldin’s HQ opening, New York Conservative Party Chair Gerard Kassar said that Zeldin received the party’s nomination in record time, “but that shouldn’t surprise a single person in this room.” He chalked this up to Zeldin’s record on issues like taxes, Israel, crime, and the “horrendous policies” implemented by Democrats in New York. 

“This is a special campaign because we have a real need, the greatest need that we’ve had in decades, to bring about change in this state,” Kassar said at the Manhattan HQ opening event. “Fortunately, we have a vehicle for change.”

When Zeldin spoke, he discussed the advantages of getting an early start on his campaign for governor. 

“Too often these campaigns are started in an election year, and the meetings that we’re having now around this state, that wouldn’t happen until just before an election,” Zeldin said.

He also said that the conversations he has had across the state have informed his campaign’s sense of urgency.

“We can all share stories of how we know people in our lives who either have left, or are thinking about leaving,” Zeldin said. “Many cite the cost to live here. They talk about the inability to walk outside of their own street and around the block because they’re concerned about crime and public safety. They speak of the troubles of their son or daughter and the quality of their education being impacted with policies seeking not to provide the highest quality to them, but instead, seeking to indoctrinate or brainwash and try to keep parents out of being as active as possible in this process.”

As to whether he can sway moderate voters who largely agree with his platform but will not support him because of his record on the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot, Zeldin said in an interview with Gotham Gazette that “what’s important is we focus on the issues that voters want us to be focused on.” 

The Platform
Based on social media posts, speeches, press releases, and other materials, Zeldin’s campaign seems to focus on the issues he discussed at his HQ opening: crime, education, covid mandates, and cost of living. 

Zeldin is a vehement “Back the Blue” supporter, stressing the importance of support for law enforcement and pushing back against calls for police reform or divestment. He spoke at a Back the Blue rally on Long Island in July 2020, a moment when the national conversation on law enforcement was red hot in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer two months prior.

On May 28, 2020, Zeldin’s office issued a press release condemning Derek Chauvin — the officer who killed Floyd who has since been convicted of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter — and stating that Zeldin comes from a law enforcement family and he unequivocally supports police. “[I]t makes me that much more disturbed by the actions of this thug officer and the inaction of the other officers present,” Zeldin said in the statement.

Early in October, a 16-year-old girl was shot in the head in a Brooklyn park. In response, Zeldin tweeted that “when politicians eagerly defund the police, enact cashless bail, empty out prisons like Rikers, undermine the NYPD’s ability to do its job, & more, the communities that need law enforcement most suffer the greatest.”

Zeldin is often eager to pounce on news headlines related to certain crimes and events involving law enforcement; offering a conservative position that has a lot of traction in some parts of the state, including his home constituency on Long Island, where gang violence has been surging in recent years, particularly around the MS-13 gang.

Early this month, Zeldin announced his “Secure our Streets” plan — the most concrete element of his platform to date — promising to put “communities before criminals.” Partitioned into “public safety, correctional facilities, and victims,” the plan concretizes much of Zeldin’s campaign rhetoric and elaborates on how exactly he hopes to get tough on crime if elected. Within the public safety section, the plan lists repealing “cashless bail,” allowing judges to set bail based on dangerousness assessments of the accused, making changes to “Raise the Age,” a 2018 law that increased the age of criminal responsibility to 18, and ousting “District Attorneys who don’t enforce the law” — Zeldin has been targeting new Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg since Bragg took office and began implementing his reform-minded policies that includes declining to prosecute certain crimes and more use of diversion programs.

The plan also calls for repeal of the HALT Solitary Confinement Act, a 2021 law limiting solitary confinement in prisons and jails to a maximum of 15 days, commissioning a study on violence in the state’s prisons, and repurposing defunct correctional facilities. The plan also targets the parole process, aiming to require unanimous decisions from the parole board, replacing board members “who have expressed poor judgment,” and establishing an appeal process for victims and their families.

Throughout the platform, Zeldin emphasizes a need for the state to hire more correctional and police officers, provide economic assistance to communities where correctional facilities have closed, enact a “Law Enforcement Bill of Rights,” and, in essence, “back the blue.” The platform states explicitly that Zeldin intends to “oppose any effort to Defund the Police.” Instead, he wants to expand the law enforcement footprint and amplify the punitive powers of the state’s criminal legal systems.

On November 1, Zeldin tweeted that New York’s police officers and firefighters should be “treated as heroes” and that then-Mayor Bill de Blasio was unfairly “targeting their livelihoods” with covid vaccine mandates. This dovetails two key issues in Zeldin’s platform: virtually unequivocal support for law enforcement and opposing government mask and covid vaccine mandates.

While there is little evidence of Zeldin encouraging New Yorkers to get vaccinated against COVID-19, which has killed more than 65,000 people in the state, he constantly expresses opposition to any vaccine mandates and promises to repeal them if he becomes governor.

Zeldin’s candidacy is clearly rooted in contemporary culture wars: covid mandates, school closures and curriculum, racial and ethnic resentment politics. Zeldin no doubt took notice of Republican Glenn Youngkin’s victory in the Virginia governor’s race, which revolved in large part around backlash against covid policies, especially school closures, and larger cultural debates, like around the teaching of Critical Race Theory, which was largely cultivated on the right and not based in reality.

In a Politico opinion piece on the results of the Virginia gubernatorial race, political analyst Jeff Greenfield concluded that the culture wars worked in winning elections in 2021. With Youngkin winning handily in a state that went 10 points in favor of Joe Biden the year before, this no doubt informs Zeldin’s campaign in a state Biden also won by 10 points.

Zeldin derided Hochul’s “boneheaded” decision to terminate her director of Italian-American affairs in a Nov. 14 tweet that he later deleted. In the tweet, he assured his followers that as governor, “Italian-American NYers will be once again treated with love, respect & admiration. They will be PROUDLY & strongly represented across my admin when we restore NY to glory!” The New York Post reported that a Hochul spokesperson said the administration was looking for a new appointee to fill the position.

Later that month, when Hochul tweeted that her husband had selected the “holiday tree,” Zeldin responded: “It’s called a Christmas Tree, Kathy, and that’s coming from the Jewish candidate for NY Governor. Just call it for what it is! Merry Christmas!”

On education, Zeldin mentioned at his headquarters opening that New Yorkers he spoke with are concerned about their role in their children’s schooling. It may have been a nod to critical race theory -- an academic theory rarely taught K-12 but that has become a buzz phrase used on the right to mean almost any teaching about systemic racism and as a wedge in  the culture wars across the country.

Zeldin wrote an opinion piece for Fox News alleging that “critical race theory in education teaches children that America’s law, institutions, values, traditions and language are systemically racist and must be torn down. It requires that everything be viewed through the lens of race. It focuses on identity group politics and ignores that we are all unique individuals with different goals, skills and limitations. Further, it suggests that those who support equal opportunity for all, meritocracy and Western liberalism are helping to perpetuate racism. Therefore, according to the proponents of critical race theory, such as Ibram Kendi and Robin Di’Angelo, it is necessary for "anti-racist" activists to name and shame people with those beliefs into either silence or submission.”

Citing critical race theory in an apparent attempt to trigger white parents, Zeldin argues that parents deserve a more active role in what gets taught in public schools. In New York, he has vehemently opposed then-Mayor de Blasio’s announcement that New York City public schools would replace its small gifted and talented program with a more universal enrichment model. 

“Terrible move! Why punish students reading at a higher reading level & doing math at a higher math level? Challenge ALL students to perform their very best,” Zeldin tweeted. Mayor Eric Adams has promised to expand the current gifted and talented system, not follow through on de Blasio’s planned reforms, which were announced just a short time before he was due to leave office.

Another key issue for Zeldin on the campaign trail is cost of living, an ongoing focus for New York Republicans who want to reduce the state’s high taxes. And he’s been connecting Democratic leadership of the federal government and of state government in New York.

At his campaign headquarters opening, Zeldin said inflation and taxation are further jeopardizing New Yorkers’ ability to afford to live in the state. New York has been a leading state in out-migration for years, part of a trend of population movement to southern states that has been chalked up to a combination of tax policy, cost of living, lifestyle, economic opportunity, and weather.

On October 1, Zeldin tweeted: “Inflation is on the rise & your hard earned $$ won't go as far when purchasing everyday goods. Those in control of DC & NY are instead focused on spending massive sums of $$ we don't have, hitting manufacturing hard & hiking the cost to do business. 1-party rule is devastating!” He followed up ten days later, writing: “Every time NYers fill up their gas tanks, they get a punch to the gut reading the latest price at the pump. The craziest part? Albany wants to INCREASE the gas tax another $.55 PER GALLON. 1-party rule in DC/Albany is attacking wallets hard right now & this pain must be reversed.”

Note: this article has been updated to correctly reflect the margins of victory in several races, which were originally depicted as smaller due to a math error.

Rockland Psychiatric Center (photo: @Acroterion via Wikimedia Commons)

The winter COVID-19 surge in state-run psychiatric centers has continued, killing two patients in January and with roughly 200 patients still infected as of February 2.

The facilities, 24 in all, are home to New Yorkers deemed to have severe mental illnesses that require segregation from the community and/or on-site treatment. There are currently 4,400 people living in close quarters in state-run psychiatric institutions, some with underlying medical conditions, making the facilities more vulnerable to the virus than other congregate settings. Most of those patients are in state custody involuntarily and for indefinite terms, whether or not they entered willingly, under the strictures of the state Mental Hygiene Law.

Since the pandemic began, 55 state psychiatric patients are confirmed to have died of COVID-19, with more suspected casualties. Thousands of infections have been detected. But lawmakers in the Legislature's mental health committees have not conducted any public oversight of conditions in state psychiatric centers since the pandemic began.

“OMH mourns the loss of all who have succumbed to the COVID virus over the last two years," wrote James Plastiras, a spokesperson for the state's Office of Mental Health (OMH), in an email. "Although the winter surge and more contagious Omicron variant have increased infection rates across the nation, as well as in some OMH-operated Psychiatric Centers, the infection control measures we implemented and our ongoing attention to encouraging vaccinations have helped us to keep infections, serious illness, and deaths to a minimum among the 11,589 vulnerable patients served in our in our facilities since the pandemic began.” (The figure refers to the combined number of people in in-patient and residential programs.) 

The two January deaths occurred from separate facilities, Rockland Psychiatric Center and Buffalo Psychiatric Center – two large hospitals that both saw small outbreaks in the first three weeks of January, according to state data. They are the first confirmed covid-related state psychiatric patient deaths since the fall.

A vast majority of COVID-19 deaths in OMH's in-patient facilities occurred in the first year of the pandemic when state regulators struggled to keep up with the myriad challenges posed by the airborne disease. The biggest single leap was in April of 2020, when the virus killed 20 people under state psychiatric care in the span of a week. Since then, OMH has seen a steady trickle of fatalities.

The winter surge in state psychiatric centers peaked at over 300 positive cases in mid-January. While the numbers in many facilities have fallen in recent weeks, 19 centers still have confirmed cases in their wards and five have over a dozen. Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens, the largest in the system, had 41 covid-positive patients out of 471 total patients, down from 71 positive patients last week.

This winter, OMH activated many of the same precautions it has taken on and off throughout the pandemic – limiting visitation, distributing personal protective equipment, disinfection, screening for symptoms, and postponing nonessential training, according to Plastiras.

The state requires employees to be vaccinated. Visitors must show proof of vaccination or a negative test in counties with a seven-day test positive rate above 3%, which included all but Rockland County as of February 3.

Facilities encourage social distancing "when possible," but that can be difficult in the few available shared spaces and dining halls. During the surge, patients in some facilities would eat in their living quarters when the virus was detected in their unit.

Psychiatric facilities are also testing patients and staff "regularly," Plastiras said. Since December 2020, the agency has administered over 313,000 rapid tests. But at Rockland Psychiatric Center, where one patient died last month, only two units a day on average were being tested in January, according to one employee who spoke anonymously. With 13 units, that means a unit could go an entire week without being tested. Staff who, at the beginning of January, had daily access to testing at work are now encouraged to be tested no more than twice per week.

"Testing is very very important," Assembly Member Aileen Gunther, chair of her chamber's mental health committee, told Gotham Gazette. "Do you do it on a daily basis, every other day– how often? That's really for an Ann Sullivan to make that call on how frequent the testing is," she said, referring to the head of OMH.

"The most important thing that you can do is infection control precautions. You have to really have due diligence," she added. "Unfortunately a lot of these places have a staffing shortage on top of it all."

Asked whether the Legislature has held any oversight hearings on COVID-19 in psychiatric centers, where Commissioner Ann Marie Sullivan or other OMH officials would have to testify, Gunther couldn't say.

"I haven't been involved in any. I don't really think that we have had that but it's actually a good suggestion," said the Sullivan County Democrat. "I think that sometimes what happens is that we do it afterward [but] it seems that this is not going away," she said of the virus. "It's actually a great idea and I will bring that up to the commissioner."

In a statement to Gotham Gazette, State Senator Samra Brouk, a Rochester Democrat and the Senate's mental health chair, wrote: "As Omicron and other highly contagious strains of COVID-19 spread across the state, we must take care to protect at-risk, vulnerable populations, including those living in in-patient psychiatric centers. My office is actively looking into the conditions at such facilities because needing the care provided by an in-patient mental health facility should not mean putting yourself at risk to disease."

When asked about holding oversight hearings on conditions in psychiatric centers, a spokesperson for Brouk, Frank Sainato, wrote by email: "There has not been a hearing on this specific issue, though our office has been in regular contact with OMH and our legislative colleagues throughout the pandemic. We are concerned about the spread of COVID-19 among those in congregate settings and are committed to ensuring patients receiving care in any state-run facility are kept safe from COVID-19 and other communicable diseases. Senator Brouk is looking into this."

A Ward of the State
Rockland Psychiatric is one of the largest state centers with roughly 470 patients. It had a relatively small covid outbreak of just over a dozen cases at the beginning of January, which has shrunk since then. But by the third week in January, one patient had died of the virus.

In the same span of time, Buffalo Psychiatric Center, a 230-patient facility, saw at least nine patients contract the virus and another die from it.

Both facilities house people who came into state custody through the criminal legal system, including people who may have pleaded not guilty or were found unfit to stand trial because of mental incompetence. Carceral settings like prisons and jails have become the focus of activists seeking the swifter release of detainees, in part because of the dangers of COVID-19 in cramped congregate sites.

Patients in psychiatric centers run by OMH are ten times more likely to be killed by COVID-19 than people held in state prisons, available data shows. They tend to be older and have more medical conditions than prison populations, and their movement is less restricted making it easier to spread the virus, according to Plastiras, who called it a "false comparison." While criminal justice advocates have decried a "humanitarian crisis" unfolding in prisons and jails, like Rikers Island, little attention has been paid to conditions in psychiatric centers.

“So many of those impacted are being held in these facilities involuntarily, pending civil commitment determinations, many of them linked to unresolved criminal charges,” said Marc Fliedner, director of the mental illness program at Disability Rights New York, a federal-mandated legal advocate for people with disabilities.

“These individuals are languishing in what amounts to a carceral existence, disproportionately exposed to risk of serious illness or death from COVID-19 on a daily basis," wrote Fliedner, a former prosecutor and candidate for Brooklyn then Manhattan District Attorney, in an email. "They would be far safer if they were living in the community, but development and sustainment of safe community alternatives has simply not been prioritized in New York State.”

For all OMH in-patients, whether civilly or criminally committed, discharge is decided by a judge relying heavily on the recommendations of facility doctors. In those proceedings, patients are represented by a lawyer appointed from the state's Mental Hygiene Legal Services and independent doctors are rarely called in to testify – a practice that has raised alarms among civil rights attorneys. The average length of stay for people discharged in 2020 was 14 months, around 60 days longer than the year prior, according to data shared by OMH. Many patients are committed for years.

The current surge among patients and staff in many facilities has followed an uptick in the general population. But in one OMH center housing patients of a unique "quasi-criminal" profile – the Secure Treatment and Rehabilitation Center (STARC) outside of Utica – the numbers of infected patients began to grow, not shrink, in the last days of January into February.

STARC contains people who have been "civilly confined" under a 2007 law enacted under Governor Eliot Spitzer to prolong the custody of sex offenders after they've completed their criminal sentence. The law empowers the State Attorney General to seek confinement (or a form of "strict and intensive" parole-like supervision) for post-sentence convicts who are alleged to have a "mental abnormality" that predisposes them to commit sex crimes. The decision is made by a judge or jury and revisited by a judge at what are supposed to be annual hearings.

The burden of proof for civil confinement is typically lower than criminal confinement and Mental Hygiene Legal Services lawyers tend to have less access to these individuals once they enter STARC, according to one attorney who has represented defendants in these cases. Release from civil confinement under this law is infrequent and for many it can be a life sentence. There are 366 currently detained in STARC.

"There just aren't the resources for people to get full-on bench trials every year," the attorney said, speaking anonymously because they were not authorized by their employer to speak with press. "I don't think in reality people can really get the experts to have full due process every year."

"It's indefinite in the sense that, only until another judge finds otherwise, they stay under the civil management system," the attorney said, referring to STARC. "Once it gets set in motion nobody wants to undo it, but how reliable are these [mental abnormality] assessments?"

Six people detained in STARC have died since the pandemic began. 

In the last two weeks, the OMH in-patient census has increased by 41 patients statewide. The influx mirrors the first wave of the pandemic in the Spring of 2020: OMH centers filled up as medical hospitals cleared psychiatric wards to make room for the flood of covid-positive patients in intensive care. At the time, facilities were forced to accept covid-positive patients from overwhelmed hospitals.

STARC saw 3 new patients last month, though data shows infection among patients was already rising before they were reported in the census.

Andrew Giuliani (photo: Instagram)

Andrew Giuliani, Trump administration alum and son of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, is outperforming his rival GOP candidates in the polls early in this year’s race for governor.

Statewide, Republican leadership has dubbed Long Island Congressional Rep. Lee Zeldin the presumptive nominee, and Zeldin’s campaign has far out-fundraised the other candidates. But Giuliani is confident in his chances, and early polling is bolstering his case.

Just 36 years old, Giuliani is a first-time candidate for office and running on reducing crime, increasing school choice, rolling back business regulations and covid mandates. An ardent ally of former President Trump, Giuliani expresses doubts about the validity of the 2020 election and equivocates over whether Joe Biden is a legitimately elected president, despite the facts.

Gotham Gazette recently spoke with Andrew Giuliani about his campaign for governor. Below is that interview, slightly edited for clarity.

Gotham Gazette (GG): What qualifies you to be Governor?

Andrew Giuliani: During the last year I have not worked in the White House, but [I spent] the previous four years working under President Trump in the Office of the Public Liaison. I worked on issues including the Paycheck Protection Program, making sure MTA had funding through the CARES Act, the 9/11 Health Bill, and also making sure that the 9/11 first responders were able to have the full pool of money that was due to them.

There was a mix up between the Treasury Department and [Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services] where about $4 million was missing. And this was something that had happened not just during the Trump administration. It actually started under Bush in 2007, continuing under Obama, and continued under our administration, and basically it was a clerical error. But by the time you know, 14, 13 years had wound up, you're talking about $4 million that was missing. So we were able to correct that.

And on top of that, I ended up working on regulatory issues. I've played a small role in this. But the promise that President Trump made during his campaign in 2016, which is for every regulation he signed into law, he would cut two, and that number was over eight to one by the time he left office. I think that's one of the reasons why we saw economic success certainly until the pandemic hit during the administration.

GG: One of the themes of the Republican primary in any state, but perhaps especially in New York, is a candidate’s ties to Trump. Lee Zeldin has often touted himself as somebody who has been a longtime ally of the former president. You also have a personal relationship with the former president. So how do you feel that your ties to the former president will maybe help you in the primary and possibly hurt you in the general election? Do you think that this is something that New York voters are passionate about?

Andrew Giuliani: Well, I think that there's no doubt that President Trump is the head of the Republican Party. That's going to be the case in 2022 and it's going to be the case in 2024. Whether President Trump chooses to run or whether he's not, he's going to obviously play a massive role in deciding who the Republican nominee is. And he's going to play a massive role in getting him elected … For me, I let other people handicap whether or not being close with President Trump or having the last name Giuliani helps or hurts. The only thing that I could do is be genuine with voters. And what I've told voters before is, I'm not going to back away from the fact that I worked four years in the Trump administration. I've known the former president for 25 years, and we still have a good relationship. Some people may say that helps, some people may say that hurts, but I think more [importantly], it's important to be genuine to voters and to New Yorkers, and that's where I stand on it. I still consider him a friend and mentor. And I'll let everybody else determine whether or not that hurts or helps.

GG: How do you feel about what President Trump has said about the 2020 election? Would you say that you agree with the former president that the election was stolen? Do you believe that Joe Biden is a legitimate president?

Andrew Giuliani: So I'll say this, I ended up volunteering in campaign headquarters after November 3. And I read through over 200 of the over 1000 affidavits that came in signed under penalty of perjury talking about different election issues that they saw and some that I would claim would be fraud. I think to me, the thing that's very sad about all of this is, you had a judiciary that [just did not] want to touch it because it was too political. And so I have concerns about the 2020 election. I have concerns moving forward for our election in 2022 [and] 2024. When you see a Democratic Party that wants to push outlawing voter identification, when literally 80% of Americans agree with us, that's a Monmouth poll that came out last year. That's not you know, my number. That's a Monmouth poll. I think it shows that you're trying to skirt election integrity. So I certainly have my concerns with the 2020 election.

GG: But do you believe that Joe Biden is a legitimate president?

Andrew Giuliani: I believe that we will never know who legitimately won the 2020 election to be perfectly honest, and that is a big concern. And then if you look back at 2016, at the 2016 election, I think if you were to talk to a lot of Democrats, they would have said they don't know who the legitimate president [is]. So you're talking about probably over 85% of Americans who question over the last two elections, who the legitimate president was, who legitimately is elected. That's a problem we need to fix. And I think that's got to be bipartisan. And that's not going to be fixed by a completely partisan January 6th committee. I mean, you can tell me that there are two Republicans on there, but they may hate Trump more than most Democrats do. So you know, once Kevin McCarthy was denied representation on there for the minority, it became a political hack job and it didn't become an actual discovery into what happened on January 6th, and certainly did not become a discovery on what happened in the weeks and months leading up to the election and after the election.

*NOTE: There is no evidence to suggest that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent or stolen, or that Joe Biden was elected illegitimately.*

GG: Another thing that's going to be unique about this election is that this is the first time since 1998 that Andrew Cuomo will not be on a statewide ballot in New York.

Andrew Giuliani: By the way, we have until March 30 until the filing deadline, so who knows, don’t hold your breath there, you know, you never know.

GG: So, we're assuming that Andrew Cuomo is not going to be in the race. These are obviously uncharted waters, right? Because he's had a hold on the Democratic Party in New York for a very long time. What is going to be different about this race, seeing as Cuomo isn't going to be there?

Andrew Giuliani: Well, you know, look, obviously, as you pointed out, he's had a hold on the Democratic Party in the state of New York for a long time. But I look at it and say, let's look at the last 15 years, not just Andrew Cuomo's ten-and-a-half years as governor, look at Spitzer and Patterson and Cuomo and now Hochul and unfortunately, we're just seeing more and more of the same. I would actually argue that Kathy Hochul has shifted further left faster than Andrew Cuomo. Andrew Cuomo, in some ways, would resist the radicals in his party, for the wrong reasons, mind you, it was for power, not for the right reasons, but he would. Unfortunately, I think what I've seen with Kathy Hochul over the past few months is she has gone as far to the left as fast as possible in order to secure the Democratic nomination.

So my concerns didn't start with Andrew Cuomo and they don't end with Andrew Cuomo. It's Democratic leadership in New York. And unfortunately, it's why we've led the country in out-migration over the last year, right. I mean, we lost 1.7% of our population, over 300,000 New Yorkers, and it's why you hear countless people and businesses that are looking and saying “you know what, I'm heading to Florida or Texas or Tennessee.” I'd rather, from an economic standpoint, compete with the likes of Florida than I would California.

GG: This is an issue that Lee Zeldin talks about all the time as well: out-migration on account of New York’s cost of living. It has definitely informed a lot of what he's talking about. So I'm curious, if you could distill your platform, what is Andrew Giuliani for?

Andrew Giuliani: So what I'm for is reducing crime in New York. That's first and foremost. I think in the light of officer Rivera and officer Mora, who were 22 and 27 years old, [who] made the ultimate sacrifice for New York. I think first and foremost, we need to make sure from the state level we repeal bail reform on day one. I was very, very concerned listening to Kathy Hochul's State of the State speech…that she never mentioned bail reform or cashless bail.

Traveling around the state, this is not just talking to Republicans, this is also talking to independents and some Democrats, the number one issue is crime around our state. Look, it's why Eric Adams became the Democratic nominee out of that massive Democratic primary because he was the first candidate, really, the only candidate, to acknowledge that crime is a problem. It's why I've called on Hochul to remove [Manhattan District Attorney] Alvin Bragg because I believe he is violating his oath of office. When you look and you read the New York State Constitution, Article 8 Section 13B, she can remove him, and I would remove him or any other prosecutor that looks at resisting arrest and armed robbery as non-dangerous crimes and doesn't want to prosecute them as felonies. So crime is certainly number one.

Education, I want more parents, I want more children, to have more choice…over their children's education. That's introducing a tax voucher program in New York. That's making sure that we up the charter schools cap from 460 statewide to over 1,000 in my first term, which I've pledged to make happen. And look, those tax vouchers, going back to that…New York is one of the highest states in the country in property taxes. Certainly when you look at each county, like a county like Westchester County, I think they might be the highest county in the country in property taxes. Those parents, if they don't ultimately like a school or the fact that school is not back in, or if they don't necessarily agree with the curriculum, they should have the option to take their tax dollars and use it toward a parochial school or homeschool. So I'm a big believer in the free market. And that's one way to introduce the free market into education.

And transitioning on into the economy, I mentioned regulatory reform. That's certainly something in New York we need to look at, to reduce the regulation, one of the most overly-regulated states, and we need to make sure we take the approach that President Trump took in the country and reduce regulation in New York, but also we need to cut taxes. We cannot be the highest taxed in the country or [continue] to compete with California, as I had said, for who's going to be the highest taxed state in the country.

I would ask for a quick comparison. Florida has a million more people than New York. Florida's budget is $97 billion. At least that was last year's budget, I'm not certain what the new number is. $97 billion. New York's budget is now $216 billion, over two times what Florida's is with a million less people. Who's doing it better and where are people deciding to go for more economic opportunity?

And then I would also add, too, I am anti-mandate [for COVID vaccination]. I believe that this should be a decision that parents, people, their families, and their doctor make. This is not something that the government should impose on any New Yorker. And I'm very happy with what I'm seeing not just in the Supreme Court, but also in New York State court here. I think that we're going to continue to see that these mandates are unconstitutional. And I would roll them back. Look, I'm very proud of President Trump and Warp Speed, and I think it gave Americans an option, but that's what it was, an option, not a mandate.

GG: If you were to be elected, what would you do if you're looking at what is most likely going to be Democratic supermajorities in the State Legislature? How do you think you're going to be able to get these things done?

Andrew Giuliani: Well, what I would say is this: Yes, we have Democratic supermajorities, obviously, in the Assembly and the State Senate now. I do think, with a strong top of the ticket, we are going to eliminate both of those supermajorities in the State Senate and the Assembly. Now, it'll be very difficult to win back the Assembly. The State Senate, we might have a shot at winning back, but that's going to be also tough to do.

So I would certainly concede that it's likely that we would at least have to work with Democratic majorities in the Senate and Assembly. Look, for us, I am a big believer in giving each Senator, each Assembly member, the opportunity to pitch their case to the governor and have a working relationship. But if I feel at some point that they want to play politics, rather than actually put their constituents first, what I will do is I will take the message and the bully pulpit on the road, and I will make sure that we talk to every single New Yorker who I believe is being misrepresented by their member of the Assembly and member of the State Senate. So I think you'll see in 2023, you'll see certainly Andrew Giuliani on the road all across the state talking to as many New Yorkers as possible at what I believe is going to be the path to truly make New York one of the safest and most prosperous states in the country again.

GG: How are you being received as you travel around the state campaigning? The most recent data from the Board of Elections say that the downstate share of the vote has increased, the downstate share of the vote being of course most likely predominantly Democrats. Rob Astorino, who is also in the race, has said that he's uniquely capable of not necessarily winning New York City, but, having served as Westchester County Executive as a Republican, is something that is indicative of his ability to flip districts. Do you think that you have a shot at winning the downstate share of the vote? 

Andrew Giuliani: So first off, Rob is a good guy and a good friend. And, you know, I think it's a math equation on this, right? You've got to win at least 30% of New York City, and mattering on turnout, up to 33% of New York City. It's all depending on turnout, obviously. You highlighted the fact that the downstate share has increased, it has. But what I would also point to you is the successes in Nassau County, in Suffolk County, in Erie County, for Republicans, not just specifically Buffalo with the Byron Brown/[India] Walton issue, but you know, in Erie County outside of Buffalo, I would say really everywhere. But let's say Monroe County, Rochester County, Republicans had a very, very positive night on November 2. I think what it did was it showed us that there is a real path.

You know, one of the men who has endorsed me is Curtis Sliwa, who ran for mayor of New York. As you know, he ended up getting about 29% of New York City. And I think running against probably the toughest candidate he could have ran against, right? I mean, he ran against somebody who was a former Republican, who was acknowledging the crime was an issue, and was telling New Yorkers what they wanted to hear, what they needed to hear. So I think that path, getting 30-plus percent in New York City, is right there. And what I would point to you as one of the differences between myself, the congressman from Long Island [Zeldin], and Rob Astorino, is if you look at the most recent Siena polls, at least the last couple, I don't know where the ones in September, in October stood, certainly in December and January; I ask you to look at Democrats when they asked about favorability, what you'll see with the other Republican candidates is nobody really cracks 15 percent. In the last two polls among Democrats, 25 and 26 percent of Democrats statewide find my candidacy favorable. That is the key to being able to win in New York State, and that is why we have the best path to victory when we are the nominee on June 29. And it's why we get the best chance on November 8.

GG: A big part of getting there is the money. Lee Zeldin, even while in Congress, has solicited donations from some big players. Stephen Schwarzman has given him money, other people of national political prominence have bought into his candidacy, and he's done pretty well on the finance front. What does your strategy look like in terms of beating him financially?

Andrew Giuliani: [Zeldin has] outraised us, and our grassroots campaign has been really focused on the people. That's really what it's been focused on, trying to shake as many hands, talk to as many New Yorkers as possible. So we continue to focus on it. But you know, I would look, even just at the last two presidential elections, right? In 2016, Donald Trump was outraised and he won. In 2020, Biden was outraised and he was sworn in on January 20. So you know, money is not the only thing in this. It's about connecting with voters. And that's what I implore you to look at.

Gov. Hochul with state employees (photo: Mike Groll/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)

Despite recruitment and retention challenges, state agencies will be able to achieve Governor Kathy Hochul’s plan to return staffing to pre-pandemic levels, officials testified Monday at a legislative budget hearing.

"I believe that all agencies will be able to attain that goal," said Acting Commissioner of the Department of Civil Service Rebecca Corso, referring to the governor’s vision for next fiscal year, which begins April 1, as outlined in her recently-released Executive Budget. The state's plan is "to incentivize, it's to recruit. It's to go out and try to encourage individuals to come into the state workforce," Corso told legislators from both houses at Monday’s hearing, one in a series being held jointly by the two houses.

That will be a formidable task, according to lawmakers at the budget hearing focused on workforce development, who grilled Hochul administration officials about aspects of the governor's $216 billion budget proposal. The legislators noted changing labor needs, ongoing pandemic-related fatigue, an aging government workforce, and the steep competition agencies are facing from private employers, particularly in growing sectors like healthcare.

Hochul wants to raise the portion of the state workforce in the executive branch to 118,700 full-time employees, up from 107,500 in August, one of the lowest levels in decades. The plan entails shrinking some departments while building up others, and the administration is relying on the ability to attract job candidates from other states and the private sector, and keep most of the employees it has. Across all 59 executive agencies, as well as SUNY, CUNY, and the offices of the state attorney general and comptroller, Hochul's proposed budget would bring the state workforce to 184,000. (That doesn't include the over 100,000 employees at public authorities like the MTA.)

The pandemic has created new needs for New Yorkers and forced agencies to shift programming to meet them. Hochul's executive budget includes billions in new spending to respond to the ongoing public health and economic crises, including hiring more agency staff.

"My understanding is that in all areas across state agencies they are increasing their workforce to meet these critical needs," said Corso.

In September, Hochul lifted a hiring freeze on state agencies through the end of the current fiscal year, which allows agencies to bring on staff without a waiver from the state Division of Budget. Attrition since the freeze was enacted by Governor Andrew Cuomo in March 2020 as the pandemic took hold has dragged the state employee headcount down.

"As we continue to combat the pandemic, we must keep New York moving forward and that includes building our workforce to ensure we can support New Yorkers at the highest level," Hochul said at the time. Hochul was able to make the move in large part because the state’s fiscal position is quite strong thanks to higher-than-expected tax revenues and massive amounts of federal aid.

"I'm very very thankful that Governor Hochul, one of the first things she did when she came in is she lifted the hiring freeze, so we have been hiring at a pretty rapid clip and it's impactful across the agency," said Department of Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon at the hearing Monday. Reardon’s agency is receiving seven times as many unemployment-related calls as it did pre-pandemic, she said.

Hochul's executive budget includes multiple measures aimed specifically at retaining and expanding the state workforce. The proposal contains measures to make the civil service exam more accessible and equitable, expand tech roles in government, and increase state hiring for people with disabilities. It also involves particular support for the state's healthcare workforce, like worker retention bonuses, part of a larger $10 billion plan to expand the sector by 20% over the next five years. And it includes $106 million to hire 880 full-time faculty at SUNY and CUNY.

At the hearing, Corso said a key effort to retain staff was ensuring employees had the opportunity for advancement, something made easier by lifting the hiring moratorium. Another was making the state workforce more diverse.

The executive budget includes $1.6 million in proposed funding to expand the Department of Civil Service's Office of Diversity and Inclusive Management. The office helps agencies "with the development of their strategic plans around diversity, inclusion, and equity" and provides training. That includes implicit bias training for 21,000 state employees since that training program was launched in late 2020, Corso said.

"We do recruitment and outreach across the state to identify and to find talent to come into the state workforce,” she said.

The state is also working to make the civil service exam, a tool to promote merit-based hiring in government, more accessible. That means new testing centers on SUNY campuses, legislation to speed up civil service hiring, and $2.2 million in funding to create a "test evaluation and validation unit" to ensure the exam is fair and unbiased.

"We think we should be doing this for all of our titles because it allows us to make sure that we are updating our data, updating our exam questions, and that we are making sure we're not unfairly discriminating against or making it more difficult for any populations to get into the state workforce," Corso said of her department’s review of civil service exams for certain positions.

State Senator Jessica Ramos, a Queens Democrat and chair of the Senate labor committee, said the state needs to do more to accommodate remote work or safety needs of pregnant employees in high covid-exposure roles.

"The truth is you have no policy for pregnant people," she told Corso. "That's something I want you to be very concerned with."

When asked by lawmakers what incentives the state had for healthcare workers to compete with private employers or who may be contemplating leaving the state to avoid the covid vaccine mandate, Corso cited $3,000 one-time worker retention bonuses. According to Hochul's executive budget, the program will cost an estimated $1.2 billion, including $120 million for state employees. When the bonuses run out, Corso pointed to a "robust" benefit package available to all state employees.

"New York State as an employer is a great employer to work for," she said. "We have a retirement plan that's available to them to the extent that they want to stay in the state workforce until they retire."

State Senator Robert Jackson, a Manhattan Democrat and chair of the civil service and pension committee, lambasted the state's pension program. "You must have heard from people even in your office that Tier 6 is terrible and about nurses being underpaid, and that's just giving you a couple of examples," he told Corso. "Because, I'm telling you, I'm hearing it."

"I want to know what's being done to address that so people can be able to live in New York and work in New York State and be able to afford to pay rent, pay for their home, educate their children, so forth and so on," he said.

Even if the state does achieve pre-pandemic workforce levels, that would still pale in comparison to the size of the workforce historically. In 2010, the employee headcount under the control of the governor was 131,000, about 25% smaller than it was two decades earlier.

"I heard you say that the governor has committed to repopulate the agencies back to pre-pandemic levels," said State Senator Diane Savino, a Democrat representing parts of Staten Island and Brooklyn, "but to quote my colleague, Senator Jackson, 'that sucks,' because we are at the lowest point we've been in more than 30 years."

State Senator Jessica Ramos (photo: NY Senate)

New York should more aggressively tax the state’s billionaires and large businesses to support workers, provide child care, and boost a just economic recovery from the pandemic, according to State Senator Jessica Ramos.

Speaking on a recent episode of the Max Politics podcast from Gotham Gazette, Ramos, a Queens Democrat and chair of the Senate's labor committee, outlined her 2022 goals. At the top of the list is vastly expanding affordable child care across the state through legislation Ramos is sponsoring. Also on her agenda is replenishing, with $3 billion at that, the Excluded Workers Fund, passing legislation to tie increases in the state’s minimum wage to inflation, establishing a wage board for workers in the nail salon industry, and more.

“I’ve always said I’m interested in helping more New Yorkers become millionaires,” Ramos told podcast host Ben Max. “We need to pump more money into our smaller communities, and really invest in entrepreneurship, which is why I also fight so hard for street venders and for small business owners, especially restaurant owners. We have to stop letting billionaires pay fewer taxes than us, because they’re hoarding the money. They’re keeping all of their assets and it doesn’t get pumped back into our streets.”

Ramos is focused first and foremost on negotiating the passage of a version of her recently-introduced Early Learning Child Care Act. It would provide universal access to child care across the state by subsidizing child care for 93% of New York's working families. Under current policies, New York is able to subsidize daycare and early childhood education for families making up to 200% of the poverty line, but Ramos’ bill would double that threshold to 400% of the poverty line. The bill would also set a minimum wage for daycare workers, $45,000 a year, and support the small businesses that often run the programs through increased government funding.

“I feel like our society has been treating our daycare providers as some sort of babysitters when actually, they're educators and they are helping us raise our children and play a great, great, role,” said Ramos. “That's why we want their wages to be comparable to teachers and why we want to take the money out of the equation, so that the daycare professionals can focus on the task at hand.”

To pay for the bill, Ramos proposes a tax increase for New York’s top 5% of big businesses. Ramos believes that by providing support for early childcare, these businesses will eventually benefit from a better educated workforce.

“A lot of these kids are really only 20-25 years away from working for some of the biggest companies here in New York State,” said Ramos. “We believe this is a smart investment for them to make for their current workforce and their future workforce.”

Ramos said she is happy that Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, has made child care a focus and she wants to negotiate increases to what the governor is proposing to expand offerings. When asked, Ramos also explained to Max that she is supportive of her colleague, Brooklyn Senator Jabari Brisport, who has introduced his own version of a universal child care bill. Ramos explained that she believes her bill is more practical, but that she is a co-sponsor of Brisport’s bill and supports its operating principle of the state simply offering free, universal child care for all. Brisport, a member of the Democratic Socialist of New York City, is chair of the Senate’s committee on children and families. Both Ramos and Brisport went on separate child care tours of the state and introduced separate bills, but Ramos said there is no rivalry at play.

Eyeing the April 1 deadline for the state’s next budget (fiscal year 2023), Ramos also wants to pass a renewed Excluded Workers Fund. Approved right before the budget’s deadline last year, the $2.1 billion Excluded Workers Fund provided one-time pandemic era grants of up to $15,600 to New Yorkers, primarily undocumented immigrant workers, who were not able to recieve Federal covid relief or unemployment insurance and bore the brunt of the pandemic’s economic burden. However, Ramos sees this fund as only an initial step towards covering the state’s excluded workers.

“With that first version of the Excluded Workers Fund that we passed and implemented last year, we had created two tiers and yet 99% of those who were approved, were approved for tier one.” said Ramos. “That means that they had paid taxes in 2019, 2020, and 2021, and yet they didn't qualify for any [prior] benefits. I mean, I don't know about you, but to me, that's wild, right? Because that means that that system is completely out of whack with how the actual workforce is maneuvering in our economy.”

With a second round of funding, Ramos wants to create a more permanent and sustainable fund that will be more “fair” for the state’s taxpayers. “I’m coming back for $3 billion more,” she said.

Another priority for Ramos in 2022 is to pass her bill that would raise the minimum wage to keep up with inflation, and ensure it continues to do so, instead of the state government having to pass additional increases. Making the minimum wages “pegged” to inflation would help New Yorkers keep up with increasing costs of living, she said. 

On the podcast, Ramos touched on an array of other topics from addressing mental illness to bail reform to unfair labor practices “sector-by-sector” or industry-by-industry. Ramos wants to wield the power of her office and role chairing the Senate labor committee to mediate labor disputes in the nail-salon industry and ensure Uber and Lyft pay into unemployment insurance via what she says is hundreds of millions of dollars owed. Ramos has recently introduced legislation that would create regulations around "sectoral bargaining" in the nail salon industry, something of a follow-up to her work on farm-workers passed in 2019.

Ramos stressed her support for the Good Cause Eviction bill that would “prohibit the eviction of residential tenants or the non-renewal of residential leases without good cause.”

She said there are conversations happening in the Legislature about revisiting bail reform, but defended changes to the bail law that have been made in recent years, and spoke of her bill to expand and support treatment servics for individuals arrested with serious mental illness, drug misuse issues, and more.

In the podcast’s final minutes, Ramos spoke about this year’s elections, including the gubernatorial primary, and whether she has any concerns about how far left she is pushing the Legislature, which includes a number of Democratic colleagues who represent more moderate districts. Ramos endorsed Attorney General Letitia James in her run for governor, but James then announced in December not to run against Hochul and instead to seek reelection. Ramos declined to say whether she was looking at backing Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, a Brooklyn progressive, in the race and said she is always hoping to have a good working relationship with the governor.

“Petitioning is starting in February, but really I’m hunkered down trying to figure out my own operation, Ben, to be honest with you,” said Ramos. “But as we know, the cookie crumbles very fast in politics, so we might have to check in again in a few weeks.”

[Listen to the full conversation: Max Politics Podcast: Senator Jessica Ramos on Expanding Child Care, Replenishing the Excluded Workers Fund, & More]

NYSERDA CEO Doreen Harris, left, with DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos (photo: @Doreen_M_Harris)

January 28, 2022 - Max Politics Podcast: New York's Clean Energy Vision

photo: Rex Linga Jr.

Doreen Harris, President & CEO of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, joined the show to discuss the state's clean energy goals, mandates, and implementation strategies. She discussed the opportunities, challenges, and more with host Ben Max.

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 wherever you get your podcasts at "Max Politics."

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams (photo: office of Public Advocate Jumaane Williams)

With more than 23,000 members across the state, Make the Road is New York’s largest member group of immigrant advocates and its political arm is putting its heft behind Jumaane Williams’ bid for governor this year.

The endorsement from Make the Road Action is the latest in a recent series of progressive support announced for Williams, along with other groups and elected officials such as New York Communities for Change, New York Progressive Action Network, and City Council Members Alexa Avilés, Tiffany Cabán, Jennifer Gutiérrez, Lincoln Restler, Julie Won, and Sandy Nurse.

Williams, the New York City Public Advocate and a Brooklyn Democrat, is running in the June gubernatorial primary against Governor Kathy Hochul and U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi, who represents much of Nassau County and part of Queens. Two other Democrats, Attorney General Letitia James and former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, had both explored bids but have since dropped out or decided not to run, leaving Williams as the progressive candidate in the race against his two more centrist opponents.

With his history of activism and progressive bonafides, Williams was the unanimous choice for Make the Road Action, which previously endorsed Williams’ bid for reelection last year and his unsuccessful campaign for lieutenant governor in 2018. In that latter campaign, Williams lost to Hochul as she sought reelection alongside then-Governor Andrew Cuomo. The endorsement process, which involved an issue questionnaire and interviews with the candidates, came down to Williams and Suozzi; Hochul did not participate.

“We need a Governor who is going to stand up to ensure tenant protections and keep community members in their homes, fully and permanently fund excluded workers, and make sure all New Yorkers have access to healthcare,” said Theo Oshiro, co-executive director of Make the Road Action, in a statement accompanying the endorsement. “Jumaane Williams is deeply committed to all of these issues, and he has the track record as Public Advocate, Council Member, and community organizer to prove it.”

Williams has been aligned with Make the Road Action’s priorities for years, and has pushed with it and other allies for a variety of progressive policies, many of which have come to fruition in recent years with Democrats in full control of the New York City and State governments. Those have included police reform, making New York City a “sanctuary city,” driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants, the New York Dream Act, the $2.1 billion Excluded Workers Fund enacted last year, and more.

Currently, Make the Road Action is pushing for a slate of bills and budgetary measures, all of which Williams supports, at the state level that will aid immigrant New Yorkers and working people of color. “I’m proud to once again have the support of Make the Road Action, an organization I've long worked with to bring justice and equity to our city and state for immigrants, working families and tenants alike,” Williams said in a statement. “As we work to rebuild and renew New York from the ongoing pandemic, we can't go back to normal because normal didn't work for most folks. As Governor, I'll look forward to continuing to partner with Make the Road Action's broad based coalition to bring transformational change to our state."

One of Make the Road Action’s top priorities is getting a $3 billion infusion for the state’s Excluded Workers Fund, which was created during the pandemic to provide aid those who didn’t qualify for federal relief, mostly undocumented immigrants. The $2.1 billion fund has been depleted and Governor Hochul has not proposed additional funds for it in her executive budget for the next fiscal year that starts April 1.

“Immigrant workers were on the frontlines of the pandemic and won a historic victory to fund excluded workers. But the Excluded Workers Fund was supposed to reach all excluded workers, and now it’s run out,” said Olga Vásque, a Make the Road Action member from Westchester, in a statement. “Jumaane Williams understands that excluded workers need an additional $3 billion in funding and a permanent solution. He also knows that too many of us remain at risk of being displaced from our homes and excluded from health coverage because of our immigration status, and stands with us for Good Cause and Coverage for All. He understands what life is like in our communities, and I’m thrilled to encourage my neighbors to vote for him.”

The passage of the “good cause” eviction legislation is a top priority for Williams and Make the Road Action, among other progressives, and has been gaining momentum in the state Legislature. It would give tenants the right to automatic lease renewals, among other things. Proponents of the bill say it has become particularly urgent since the state’s eviction moratorium expired on January 15 and after the state’s $2.2 billion pandemic-era Emergency Rent Assistance Program ran out of funds. Hochul has not included any additional funds for the ERAP in her budget either but has set aside $2 billion for pandemic relief that could be used in part for that purpose upon negotiations with the Legislature. She has also repeatedly asked the federal government for significantly more in rent relief funding, including a request issued Wednesday for $1.6 billion for 174,000 unfunded applications from tenants.

Among the other measures Make the Road Action wants to see approved are the Coverage for All bill, which would give undocumented immigrants access to health insurance through the state's low-income public option (groups like MRA Action also have pushed for years to pass the New York Health Act, which would create a single-payer health insurance system in the state); passage of the Solutions Not Suspensions Act, which would limit the use of school suspensions, which tend to disproportionately harm children of color; the creation of a $1 billion Housing Access Voucher Program for people at risk of homelessness and those living in homelessness; passage of the Stop Violence in the Sex Trades Act, which would decriminalize sex work, among other measures; expanded access to child care; and other proposals.

For Williams, the endorsement is among several he received this week, and others in past weeks and months, such as from New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, both fellow Brooklyn progressives, as well as former Buffalo mayoral candidate India Walton.

“Jumaane Williams is a rare public official, one who's dedicated his time in office to empowering all New Yorkers,” Council Member Nurse of Brooklyn said in a Tuesday statement endorsing Williams. “We need progressive leadership in Albany that will empower and be accountable to working class communities across this state, and that's exactly what Jumaane would provide.”

For her part, Hochul has been out-fundraising the field by many millions and also racking up endorsements, including from many Democratic county party chairs and members of the State Legislature, among others.

On Thursday, New York Communities for Change, an advocacy group focused on housing, economic justice, and climate change and claiming more than 20,000 members, also endorsed Williams. “Make no mistake: Jumaane knows us, and we know Jumaane. He is up against a very well-funded corporate Democrat, which is why we urge other grassroots groups around the state with large bases of voters to get off the sidelines,” said Marie Pierre, NYCC board chair, in a statement. “From Brooklyn to Buffalo, it’s time for progressives to unite around Jumaane and jump into this Democratic primary with full and energetic support for his campaign. Our state needs a robust Democratic primary in which Hochul is held accountable for her failure to deliver for tenants and communities hit hardest by COVID. Jumaane is ready to deliver that accountability, present a better alternative to Hochul, and campaign to win.”

State Senator Zellnor Myrie of Brooklyn (photo: NY Senate)

With the failure of federal voting rights legislation this month in the U.S. Senate, advocates in New York are redoubling a push to pass a sweeping state bill that would shore up voting protections for historically disenfranchised groups.

Legislators introduced the John R. Lewis New York State Voting Rights Act in 2020 to fill at the state level some of the holes left in the federal Voting Rights Act after successive defangings by the U.S. Supreme Court in the past decade. The bill would enshrine a range of protections against voter dilution, require language access, and give the State Attorney General preclearance authority over potentially-discriminatory voting policy changes. But it has not yet advanced in either house of the Legislature.

Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, supported the concept in her State of the State agenda earlier this month but did not include it in her Executive Budget last week, setting the stage for negotiations over the next several months and tempering optimism about the bill's prospects for passage in the current legislative session, which runs until June. That same month, New Yorkers will vote in state and federal primaries.

In a statement last week, State Senator Zellnor Myrie, who chairs his chamber’s elections committee and sponsors the bill, called the failure in Washington "an insult to all Americans, especially to Black and Brown voters who are most often targeted by discriminatory and racist state laws."

"States must now urgently move to protect and expand voting rights, and New York can lead the way," Myrie said in a statement. "My bill, the John R. Lewis New York State Voting Rights Act, would enact the strongest voter protections in the country."

"This legislation is exactly what is needed for this time," said Lurie Daniel Favors, executive director of the Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn. "[It] really does set a model for how we have to return to the states in order to secure protections that the federal government is unable to provide."

U.S. Senate Democrats this past week fell short in an effort to move toward advancing major voting legislation – the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act -- that would set ballot access standards, restore parts of the federal Voting Rights Act, and scale back Republican-led voting restrictions in many states. Before and after the (anticipated) defeat in Washington, New York lawmakers positioned themselves to take up the voting rights mantle locally, part of a three-year wave of progressive changes to the state election law since Democrats took control of both houses of the Legislature in 2019.

The New York bill would make it easier to sue the state and local governments for violating the voting rights of racial, ethnic, and language minority groups. It also contains language access requirements, protections against voter intimidation and deception, and would require the state to create a database of voting and election information to help the public track potential rights violations. Among its most significant measures, the bill would give the State Attorney General "preclearance" authority over elections changes in areas with a history of discrimination – an instrument that covered the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan before it was stripped out of the federal VRA by the Supreme Court in 2013.

That could include anything from the drawing of district maps to the placement of poll sites to what interpretation assistance is offered. California and Washington also have state-level voting rights acts, but New York's would be the first with a preclearance provision.

"Having preclearance on the state level and putting this in the New York State Attorney General's office puts the burden on the local government, the state government, and the board of elections to show that the changes they are making will not have a significant impact on marginalized groups," said L. Joy Williams, president of the Brooklyn NAACP.

At a Martin Luther King Day event hosted by National Action Network in Manhattan, Hochul called voter suppression an "insidious virus." In her State of the State policy book, the governor promised to advance "a state-level voting rights act" that roughly aligned with the provisions of the New York State Voting Rights Act, carried by Myrie and Assembly Member Latrice Walker, who like Myrie is a Brooklyn Democrat and elections committee chair.

"Practices that suppress voter turnout can still be found in our elections, and the legacy of voter suppression can be seen in the persistent gap between white and non-white New York voter participation," reads Hochul's State of the State policy book.

In the 2020 general election in New York, 63% of Black citizens of voting age voted, well below the 69% of white eligible voters, according to Census data cited by the governor. The turnout rate among eligible Latino voters was 55% and 52% among eligible Asians voters. Civil rights advocates and reformers say the problems can be even worse in local elections, like for school boards, water and sewer districts, and village elections.

"What we have seen unfortunately in some of those elections is that minority voters rarely get to elect representatives that look like them," Myrie told Gotham Gazette. "Those [New York] districts can sometimes mirror the worst gerrymandering problems that we see on the national level."

Upsetting local power structures could also pose one of the biggest challenges to getting his bill passed. "There will be implications on local races and local political dynamics that I think have to be fleshed out," he said.

In the last 25 years, there have been 14 documented cases of federal voting rights violations in New York, according to a report for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. These include instances of Black and Latino voter dilution in at-large school district and town board elections, and minority fracturing in the drawing of district lines, among others. Had the federal voting legislation passed, New York would be one infringement short of falling, statewide, under its preclearance provision, the report states. Suffolk, Westchester, Albany, Orange, and Bronx Counties have some of the most documented violations.

When Hochul released her Executive Budget, advocates who had applauded her State of the State nod to voting rights were surprised to see the Voting Rights Act left out, despite the sizable funding it would require and the fact that she wrote many other policy priorities into bill language for the budget documents. The governor's office would not say whether Hochul supports the current bill or if there are potential concerns about it.

"It's unclear to me why it was dropped from the Executive Budget but I don't take it to signal the governor's lack of support or that there is some other nefarious reason," Myrie said. "I think there's a whole universe of reasons why that may have happened. We'll continue to talk with the governor's office to ascertain what that was."

"There is absolutely no reasonable explanation for why it wouldn't be [in the Executive Budget]," said Daniel Favors. "We have a legacy of unfunded mandates in this state that make voter protection extraordinarily difficult."

The fiscal implications of the Myrie-Walker bill are significant. Under the bill the state would be responsible for the cost of building a comprehensive election database and attorney's fees in successful voting rights cases. The additional staffing in the Attorney General's Office could be significant by itself. Between 1998 and 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice employed between 31 and 45 attorneys in its voting section working on preclearance submissions.

"The bill will require resources, there's no doubt about that. The Attorney General's Office has never done this before," said Sean Morales-Doyle, a voting rights expert at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School. "A preclearance process is not helpful if there is no one there to do the preclearing."

The governor and legislative majorities will be negotiating Hochul's $216-billion Executive Budget ahead of the April 1 start of the fiscal year. Budget agreements often include a great deal of policy, especially when those policies have fiscal implications. Either or both houses of the Legislature could decide to pass the bill before, or after, April 1.

The bill has 31 sponsors in the 63-seat State Senate and Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Westchester Democrat, has said voting rights are a priority. But it appears to have a longer road in the Assembly, where only 18 sponsors have signed on.

"We're definitely looking at getting more voting reforms done this year. And both of these bills are highly likely to be part of that package," said Michael Murphy, a spokesperson for Stewart-Cousins, referring to the Voting Rights Act and another bill that would change the structure and management of the New York City Board of Elections.

"I think it's incumbent on us to kind of lead the way and show what can get done if Democrats work together," he added.

"We review all issues with our members," wrote Michael Whyland, a spokesperson for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a Bronx Democrat, in an email.

Assembly Member Walker is optimistic. “A number of colleagues recently signed onto the bill and others continue to do so, indicating a wave of support for the New York Voting Rights Act," she said Monday through a spokesperson. "There is the political will to get this done in New York, especially in the wake of last week’s derailed efforts of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.”

Asked about Hochul’s approach to the bill thus far, Walker said, “As we work in the Legislature to protect voting rights in New York, we will continue to call on Gov. Hochul and other elected officials across the country to enact meaningful laws that make it easier to vote. The laws must include a preclearance provision to stop discrimination before it starts and provide penalties for voter suppression, intimidation and the intentional dilution of minority voter strength.”

Especially if federal efforts continue to come up short, a state-level voting rights act would be a particularly notable achievement to top a stack of major voting and election reforms in New York in recent years. The slew, beginning in 2019, includes early voting, consolidated state and federal elections, automatic voter registration, expanded pre-registration, and others. That momentum came to halt this past November when voters rejected state constitutional amendments to enact no-excuse absentee voting and same-day registration.

Lawmakers have vowed to reintroduce those amendments this year. So far the Senate passed an initial 2022 package of voting rights bills, including related to counting affidavit and absentee ballots, requiring poll sites on college campuses, and reducing the voter registration deadline to the constitutional minimum of ten days before an election, among others. And both houses of the Legislature quickly passed a temporary extension of universal absentee voting – which has been allowed during the COVID-19 pandemic – while several other bills, including the state Voting Rights Act, remain on the table.

Voting in NYC (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

State lawmakers are amending a bill that could change the make-up and management structure of the New York City Board of Elections in an attempt to make the troubled agency more effective and accountable.

"We've been working with both the State Board of Election for guidance, many election lawyers, many people familiar with the problems that the city has had forever with their elections. And I think that we've come up with a good model," said the bill's State Senate sponsor, Senator Liz Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat, in a Wednesday interview on Gotham Gazette’s Max Politics podcast.

Krueger said that she and Assembly sponsor Nily Rozic, a Queens Democrat, plan to introduce the new version of their Board of Elections reform legislation in the coming weeks and expressed cautious optimism about passing it this legislative session.

The New York City Board of Elections has been criticized for years for recurring calamities that have plagued New York City elections cycle after cycle – poor interpretation services, long lines at the ballot box, misprinted absentee ballots, an illegal voter purge; the list goes on. In many cases, a tradition of political patronage and nepotism has led to incompetence, enabled by the Board's explicitly partisan structure, lack of professionalization, and weak oversight from city and state officials.

The Krueger-Rozic legislation would give the New York City Council more leverage in appointing commissioners and give city officials greater insight into budgetary matters. It would also set qualification standards for Board members, and outline some of their duties in more clear terms.

New York City has ten elections commissioners who are selected by the Democratic and Republican party leaders from each borough and confirmed perfunctorily by the New York City Council. The Krueger-Rozic legislation would reduce that number to two commissioners, voted on by the City Council from nominations by each of the county parties. The change would streamline and clarify leadership roles and give lawmakers a greater voice in who ultimately runs local elections, but the Council would still have to pick one Democrat and one Republican because of a bipartisan requirement in the state constitution.

The bill also replaces the current executive director with Democrat and Republican co-executive directors hired by the mayor with approval of either the City Council Speaker or Public Advocate from lists of candidates provided by the Board.

Justin Flagg, a spokesperson for Krueger, said amendments to the bill had not been finalized but could give the Council more input in the appointment of commissioners. The office is considering "refining the number of commissioners," requiring public hearings on board nominations, and giving the Council the authority to remove commissioners – a power currently held only by the governor, and rarely used. Krueger's office is also looking into a requirement that a nationwide search be held for the board's co-executive directors, something good government groups had pushed for.

"We will likely introduce amendments in the next few weeks, though any more action will most likely be after the budget," Flagg said, referring to the upcoming hearings and negotiations around the state budget, which is due by the April 1 start of the new fiscal year. Krueger, the chair of the Senate finance committee, co-chairs budget hearings and helps negotiation the budget.

"Those ideas for improving the bill sound encouraging, and align with some of the best practices and recommendations we've identified in our research into election administration across the country," said Chisun Lee, an elections expert at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School, in an interview with Gotham Gazette. "They're a good starting point for transforming our elections agencies in a way that New York's voters really need."

The bill focuses only on the New York City Board of Elections, by far the largest and most complicated local elections board in the state, covering 5.6 million registered voters. A recent report from State Senator Zellnor Myrie, a Brooklyn Democrat who chairs the Senate elections committee, recommended a number of election reforms but avoided calling for sweeping changes to the make-up of boards of elections statewide. It followed a series of hearings he held in which a number of voters, administrators, and experts testified to the success of some upstate elections boards.

"There are counties that have more cattle than voters and do not have a parallel storyline to New York City's," said Krueger, who represents some of the country’s densest neighborhoods on Manhattan’s East Side. She said she has been working on the bill "in coordination with Senator Myrie, who is in support of our trying to accomplish this for the city of New York, which so desperately needs reform and modernization of how we run our elections."

"When we announced these hearings last year, we committed to look at every aspect of election administration in New York and we are having conversations with the entire conference about the universe of ideas for reform," said Matt Baer, a spokesperson for Myrie, without saying whether Myrie specifically supports the Krueger-Rozic bill.

The legislation has the support of Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and is expected to pass after working its way through the Democratic conference. "We're definitely looking at getting more voting reforms done this year. And both of these bills are highly likely to be part of that package," said Mike Murphy, a spokesperson for Stewart-Cousins, referring to the Krueger-Rozic bill and the John Lewis New York State Voting Rights Act sponsored by Myrie, which would require election-change preclearance, language assistance, and other protections.

But reforming the City BOE may face an uphill battle in the Assembly, where it has few co-sponsors and where leadership is closely tied to the Democratic Party apparatus. A spokesperson for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, Michael Whyland, did not say whether the bill was expected to move in his chamber. "We review all issues with our members," he wrote in an email. Heastie, the former head of the Bronx Democratic Party, and his majority conference have been far cooler toward government reform than the State Senate Democrats led by Stewart-Cousins.

A spokesperson for Rozic did not return a request for comment.

"Governor Hochul is committed to restoring faith in government and elections, which is why she expressed her support for election reforms in her State of the State, and she will review the legislation if it passes," wrote Avi Small, a spokesperson for Governor Kathy Hochul, in an email.

"I don't know how successful we will be with this because there are many political issues tied in to, obviously, who controls the Board of Elections," Krueger cautioned Wednesday.

State Senator Liz Krueger (photo: NY Senate)

January 19, 2022 - Max Politics Podcast: Senator Liz Krueger on Assessing the Governor's Budget and Other 2022 Priorities

State Senator Liz Krueger, chair of the Senate's finance committee, joined the show to discuss Governor Kathy Hochul's Executive Budget and the hearings Krueger will soon hold on it, as well as other priorities for the Manhattan Democrat including ethics and elections reforms, implementation of the state's marijuana legalization, 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.