WASHINGTON – Virtual schmoozing isn't really a thing, but you'd never really know it by the pace Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul kept during this week's virtual Democratic National Convention.
On Monday, Hochul – who chairs the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association – took part in an online panel with colleagues from Illinois and Nevada. The next morning, she made statewide headlines – and drew a rebuke from Fox News host Sean Hannity's website – with a tweet demanding that President Trump rescind his pardon of Susan B. Anthony. Hours later, she appeared on the convention's national broadcast, standing on the Brooklyn waterfront with Manhattan's nighttime skyline behind her as part of the New York contingent in the roll call of states that nominated Joe Biden for President.
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On Wednesday she spoke at a Women's Leadership Breakfast sponsored by the State Democratic Committee, and on Thursday she spoke for the second day in a row at the state party's delegation breakfast.
"You were so great yesterday, Kathy, that we wanted you back," said New York State Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs.
Part of this, of course, is just Hochul being Hochul, a natural politician who loves working the room, be it in a convention hotel or on Zoom. But Hochul's relentless pace also seemed to deliver an unspoken message: She plans to remain a leading player in New York politics for years to come, a sentiment she confirmed in an interview Thursday afternoon.
"Clearly we're dealing with a pandemic, we're not focused on the politics in our own state or our own position, but I have every intention of running for re-election," she said. "This state needs people who have been through trial by fire. I've been through that fire, and this is not the time to even entertain other individuals, in my opinion. And the governor will need to make sure that he continues to serve the way he has. His leadership through this pandemic is absolutely extraordinary. There's no other way to describe it."
Hochul, a former Erie County clerk and congresswoman from Western New York, plans to run for a third term as lieutenant governor, even though she had to fight for her second. Rumors circulated that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo might replace her before he finally announced his support for her to rejoin him on the ticket, and then she had to fend off a primary challenge from then- New York City Council Member Jumaane Williams.
Hochul beat Williams by 6.6 percentage points, and now it seems clear she plans to be ready in case anyone might want to run against her in 2022. She ramped up her fundraising, pulling in $470,000 between July 2019 and January – a sizable sum for a race that's still two years away. And this week's convention proved that she's ramping up her friend-making activity, too.
For example, on Thursday she volunteered to have a virtual cup of coffee (or, in Hochul's case, tea) with delegates to the convention who are interested in running for office themselves.
"I'd love to talk to you about your desire to run for office," she said to one delegate. "I'm gonna have the biggest bench in the country by the time we're done. I want everybody to see themselves as a candidate; you'll have to tell me why you're not a candidate by the time we're done. I want us to have a lot of talent to choose from."
To hear Jacobs tell it, that's characteristic of Hochul.
"Whenever there's an election, whenever there's an event, you can count on Kathy Hochul being there and standing right next to you, working hard," Jacobs said at the party breakfast on Wednesday. "There is no harder working lieutenant governor than our lieutenant governor."
Hochul's political activity is a lot like her full-time job. As lieutenant governor, she's frequently crisscrossing the state, cutting ribbons and chatting up the local pols while coordinating the state's economic development efforts. On Wednesday, for example, she had to do the groundbreaking on a Lake Ontario flood resiliency project near Rochester.
"I'm actually being very productive in my government role at the same time because it's not an all-consuming convention like it would be in person," Hochul said.
The convention may not be all-consuming, but Hochul's certainly been in the middle of a lot of it. The longest-serving female lieutenant governor in the nation, she spent plenty of time this week working with her colleagues from around the country. On Thursday afternoon, for example, she had a virtual press gaggle with the lieutenant governor of California.
She said one highlight of the week was the roll call that nominated Biden, which felt like something of a nationwide road trip. Hochul's part was small – she stood silent and to the left, while Scheena Iyande Tannis, a nurse from New York City, called the state's delegate count for Biden. But the moment meant a great deal to Hochul.
"To be able to represent nearly 19 million New Yorkers in putting forth the roll call to nominate Joe Biden was one of the powerful moments in my life," she said.
Hochul could, of course, experience many more powerful moments someday. There's always the possibility – albeit, to Albany insiders, a remote one – that Cuomo might resign to join a Biden administration. That would mean Hochul would become governor.
But she would also become an instant target for a primary challenge in 2022. New York Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf said State Attorney General Letitia James and Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli might be among the prominent downstate-based Democrats who couldn't resist the chance to try to oust a governor from the less populated western corner of the state.
"Even if Kathy were to become governor for a couple of years, it would be a dogfight," Sheinkopf said of a possible primary.
For her part, and for now, Hochul stresses that she's enjoying serving as the state's second-ranking official – and that she plans to keep doing it.
Contrasting Cuomo's performance during the Covid-19 – and her own – with that of red-state governors where the coronavirus has spread relentlessly this summer, she said: "Personally I feel strongly committed to making sure that I can continue to serve the public."
