NEW YORK – The Politics Column has been covering governors of New York for longer than we care to remember these days, and a lack of confidence has never plagued any of them.
So it is no surprise that Gov. Kathy Hochul was more than optimistic late Thursday when she sat down with The Buffalo News and the Associated Press just minutes after her triumphant acceptance speech at the Democratic State Convention in Manhattan. Like her predecessors, Hochul was beaming with confidence. She’s exuded that same attitude since her days on the Hamburg Town Board.
But the overwhelming endorsement she had just received from Democrats across New York gave her every reason to feel good about what lies ahead, even as she ventures nowhere near overconfident territory.
“I’m a Buffalo Bills fan – run like an underdog,” she said. “Run like you’re down 50 points. That’s the only way to win.”
People are also reading…
But Hochul’s confidence in this year’s campaign for a full term as governor stems not just from her personality. Hochul hopes the future hinges on her past.
That’s because as Andrew Cuomo’s lieutenant governor, Hochul rose very early on many mornings for long car trips to far-flung points across the state – the towns Cuomo or any sitting governor didn’t have time for. Along the way, she helped her new friends, recalling races for town boards in places like the North Country.
Hochul made the best of those assignments by making friends. Now she plans to ask them for help.
“People didn’t see this because they did not know I had this statewide operation of people who are ready to step up for me,” she said. “I have people in all five boroughs supporting me, and no one could have seen that ever. That’s a shock to a lot of people.”
Shock, indeed. That’s because none of this was supposed to happen. New York’s political script long ago called for Cuomo to receive all the adulation at this week’s Democratic convention, go on to win the fourth term his father (the late Gov. Mario Cuomo) never achieved. And from there who knows?
But it didn’t work out that way. And for sure, the script never called for an upstate woman who had been shunted to the sidelines and away from the center of power during her days as lieutenant governor. An upstate governor? That had not happened since Nathan L. Miller of Syracuse in 1920 (we all remember Nate, right?). Someone from Buffalo? Not since Grover Cleveland in 1882 (though he did all right). A woman? (Well, that just had never happened).
The governor still faces tough days ahead. Rep. Tom Suozzi of Nassau County has long proven a statewide figure, also making friends everywhere as in helping Mayor Byron Brown’s troubled re-election effort last fall. But Brown ended up supporting Hochul.
New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams has also gained statewide status, winning a citywide post in New York and joining with his left-leaning allies across the state. He entered the Buffalo mayoral fray last year too with help for India Walton, the Democratic primary winner who eventually lost to Brown.
Williams, however, came no where near gaining the 25% of convention support he needed to qualify for the ballot.
And, oh yes, Republicans. They promise their own tough and well-financed campaign, and are ready to tell the world when they convene in Garden City on Long Island on Feb. 28.
But Hochul seems to recognize that the path she has already trod is also the path ahead. She will seek help from all those in Malone, or Owego, or Chestertown or Astoria or Montauk whom she has befriended.
Of course, she must still persuade statewide voters whom polls say still don’t know her that well. But she says she knows the voters.
“I know more than most how to speak to people in every corner of the state,” she told The News Thursday. “Every part of the state has been well represented by me and I understand them. That is the weapon against the Republicans they’ll never be able to counter.
“I don’t say it with arrogance,” she added. “I say it with the knowledge that no one will ever outwork me.”
