Hochul's pioneering candidacy prevails among Democrats as she projects confidence

No female had ever attained such heights. Neither had any upstater in more than a century. No Buffalonian since Grover Cleveland in 1882.

And it was suggested to her that maybe she had surprised just about everybody.

"I hear that I did," she deadpanned, before launching into a litany of past political campaigns ranging from Hamburg Town Board to Erie County clerk to member of Congress to lieutenant governor.

Now she seems ready to launch her own effort in her own right for the state's top spot. Hochul could not seem more confident about what lies ahead.

"The Republicans are running scared in the State of New York," she said in an  interview with The Buffalo News and the Associated Press, "because they know we've been smart during the pandemic. We didn't shut down the economy of the state and there are tax cuts in our budget for the middle class and property taxpayers, and there is money for small business to help them and money for farms.

"Areas they thought they had dominance over are areas coming back to the Democratic Party," she added.

The gathering also officially nominated Sen. Charles E. Schumer for a fifth term, Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli for a fifth, Attorney General Letitia James for a second, and Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin for a full term following his appointment to Hochul's post when she succeeded Andrew M. Cuomo as governor last August.

But the daylong conclave at the Sheraton New York Times Square belonged to Hochul as her two Democratic  rivals – Rep. Thomas R. Suozzi of Nassau County and New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams – left without securing the necessary 25% of the convention vote to automatically qualify for the June primary ballot. Suozzi never submitted his name for the convention to consider after earlier in the day offering that he had not been treated with the fairness afforded other candidates in the past, while promising to alternatively pursue the 15,000 signatures on designating petitions.

Williams garnered only about half of the necessary 25%.

Indeed, Hochul seemed to triumph in every possible way as the approximately 500 people in attendance chanted "Kathy, Kathy, Kathy" during a brief demonstration by protesters. Her party worked hard to convey a "diversity" theme that seemed to piggyback on her historic candidacy.

Speakers from a variety  of ethnic backgrounds, occupations and sexual orientations praised the Democratic Party as welcoming in an apparent attempt to draw contrast with their Republican opponents (who are expected to back Rep. Lee Zeldin of Suffolk County at the end of this month).

"Democrats have made New York a better place to make and raise a family," the governor said during her speech. "We will not leave anyone behind because New Yok will not succeed unless we all succeed."

As if to underscore the historic nature of the Hochul candidacy, Democrats featured former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as keynote speaker in a passionate address that extolled her party's virtues while pillorying former President Donald Trump. In her first public speech in about two years, the former first lady, New York senator and presidential candidate called for Americans to reject "the big lie of the 2020 election" and excuses associated with the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

She said the more "trouble" the former president encounters the more "charges and conspiracy theories about me" seem to surface, adding "Fox News leads the charge."

"Let's offer an alternative vision that inspires and motivates," she said, "like what Kathy Hochul and Brian Benjamin are trying to do right here in New York."

Despite the warm and fuzzy accolades about party unity, James used her acceptance speech to highlight her own investigations of Trump and Cuomo, launching a blistering attack on the former governor. The attorney general said "evidence was clear and overwhelming" of bullying and sexual harassment by Cuomo against at least 11 women, leading to his resignation after she launched a series of investigations.

"These were serious allegations that needed to be investigated vigorously and independently and that's exactly what was done," she said, never referring to Cuomo by name but as "the former governor."

James' broadside  prompted a response from Rich Azzopardi, the former governor's spokesman.

“Tish James is a serial liar who continues to dodge answering a single substantive question about her sham report," he said. "The fact is she ignored clear evidence of blackmail, perjury, inconsistent testimony and witness tampering, misused her office as a springboard for her own botched bid for governor and falsely accused the former governor of violating the law only to have five separate district attorneys reject her claims."

James seemed to seize on the former governor's pushback by noting the tendency of some to "push others down in order to prop themselves up."

"I will not be bound, I will not be bullied by him or Donald Trump," James said to polite applause, while also noting her investigations of the former president's past financial activities in New York.

"The truth, my friends, is a blindfolded woman," she added, "and she will prevail."

 The convention ended late Thursday with the specter of a potentially divisive primary threatened against Hochul by Suozzi and Williams. The congressman noted Clinton called him this week urging him to drop out of the race (which Hochul said Thursday she did not request).

"'Let's unify the Democratic Party, and you're doing a great job in Congress,'" is how Suozzi summarized his conversation with Clinton. But even the plea of one of the Democratic Party's best-known names does not appear to have changed the congressman's decision to run.

"I feel strongly that this country is in a lot of trouble," he told reporters after he addressed a private breakfast of convention delegates. "People are moving out the state and are having problems with crime and taxes. And nobody is talking to the people about these issues.

"They're talking about these poll-tested issues that feed our base," he added, "but not about what people are worried about."

Indeed, Suozzi advanced his campaign a significant step further, by introducing newly named running mate Diana Reyna, a former New York City councilmember and former deputy borough president of Brooklyn. She immediately piggybacked on Suozzi's "common sense Democrat" theme and also had no problem criticizing the status quo of her party.

"People are tired of the lies, people are tired of being told things will get better," she said, "and nothing gets better."

Williams, meanwhile, continues his primary effort from the party's left wing. He criticized the state party's reported efforts to add several last-minute Hispanic speakers to the program and said the Democratic Party has over time failed to take on the status quo.

"It's sad that this is continuing," he said.