Five months after becoming governor of New York, Kathy Hochul was reflecting a few days ago on how she approaches her new job – practically and symbolically.
Her decision to return the State of the State speech to the Assembly Chamber, for example, was no mere whim. It marked a clear break from the razzle-dazzle of The Andrew Cuomo Show in the Empire State Plaza Convention Center – and from most things “Cuomo-esque.”
“I’m not someone who is overconfident and arrogant about anything I do because I have to work through a process,” Hochul said. “The Legislature, from what I hear, is delighted with my new approach to state government – which is to treat them like real partners.”
Hochul is emerging as a different kind of executive than her predecessor, who was often accused of strong-arming his way through the Albany labyrinth. Hochul has no problem embracing a new way.
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“In my first budget, everybody will be pressure testing me,” she said last week in a video meeting with editors and reporters of The Buffalo News. “I think people who are used to me know that I’m pretty successful in getting the results I need without being combative or bullying. I know how to get things done.”
The early approach appears to be working, since polls show the new governor not only surviving, but thriving. According to the Siena College Research Institute, 69% of Democrats in New York view her favorably, compared to 19% unfavorably. She also substantially leads Rep. Tom Suozzi of Nassau County and New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams in a Democratic primary contest.
It all leads Siena pollsters to place her in the “catbird seat” for the nomination.
Nevertheless, the shape of this year’s election is beginning to form, as the new governor is already attracting her share of “pressure testing.” Republicans label her as “same old, same old” when it comes to state spending. Souzzi, meanwhile, lambastes her daily about rising crime – especially in New York City.
Last week, the leading Republican candidate for the gubernatorial nomination, Rep. Lee Zeldin of Suffolk County, amplified an ever-louder attack.
“Instead of pledging to take action to fix our state’s disastrous cashless bail law or provide judges with the discretion they need to do their jobs and keep our communities safe or fire District Attorneys who refuse to enforce the law like Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, Kathy Hochul doubles down on her obsessive pandering to her far-left base,” Zeldin said.
Zeldin appears ready to shift the argument into high gear after that approach produced some GOP gains in the 2020 legislative races.
Suozzi turns the same idea on a fellow Democrat. Last week, he stood in front of the NYPD’s 32nd Precinct in Harlem, not far from where two officers were murdered a few days ago, to make his point.
“It is Governor Hochul’s responsibility to persuade Democrats in the State legislature to fix bail reform,” he said. “She must lead. That’s what an executive does, and it’s high time she comes out of hiding to tell New Yorkers where she stands on the critical public safety issues facing our residents.”
For the new governor, her main task lies in gaining passage of a proposed $216 billion budget, no small feat in New York, even with an all-Democratic Legislature. But this budget looms as more than a spending plan for the rookie governor. As the first upstater in over a century to hold the job, and as the first woman, much is at stake.
“I have to prove an upstater can do this job. I also have to prove a woman can do this job,” she said, especially “in a rough and tumble place like New York.”
It will be all part of the deal as she seeks to become the first female ever elected to the post. She thinks her Buffalo roots have suited her for the challenge.
“That core toughness I cultivated in Western New York serves me well,” she said. “I have to put it to good use ... so no one questions if a woman can do the job.
“It’s an honor and a privilege that I never, ever take for granted.”
