Gov. Kathy Hochul took center stage on Tuesday night, finally facing her Democratic challengers in a debate that went largely as expected.
Her rivals, Long Island Representative Thomas R. Suozzi and New York City public advocate Jumaane Williams, attacked the governor at every opportunity, but failed to land an immediately memorable moment that could rattle the race.
Mr Williams, a standard-bearer of the party’s left wing, waved his populist message as he set himself up as the candidate who felt the pain of New Yorkers, occasionally trying to associate Ms Hochul with her predecessor, Andrew M. Cuomo.
Mr. Suozzi, a vocal centrist, reminded viewers of his years of experience in local government, repeatedly seeking opportunities to blame Ms. Hochul for failing to tackle the crime, which he said was the most troubling issue for New Yorkers.
And Ms. Hochul strove to project the equanimity of a leader: cool under fire and already at work addressing the state’s many pressing problems.
Ms. Hochul, who has a commanding lead in public polls and fundraising, did not try to score points against her opponents, she mostly tried to leave the arena unharmed. In this she came out largely successful, with expected hits on her past support for gun rights and handling the Buffalo Bills stadium deal, but held her own under intense fire from left and right.
The moderators surveyed candidates on a myriad of topics, from congestion prices and second-hand marijuana smoke to whether they believed in ghosts (in a rare moment of consensus, they all vouched for some form of life after death).
Here are some takeaways from the evening’s debate:
Candidates test their messages for public safety
Ms. Hochul came into the debate ready for her opponents to attack her on crime, and the preparation paid off. She rattled her projects—from the interstate weapons task force, to violence-disruption programs, to the 10 gun laws she signed earlier this week—that demonstrated the power of the establishment. And she took responsibility for the amendments to the state bail laws she had pushed for, detailing how changes would give judges the freedom to consider a defendant’s dangerousness, using a specific set of criteria.
“I think what we gave the judges is better than this vague term that can be subjective and often used against the individual because of the color of their skin,” Ms Hochul said.
Her response helped soften Mr. Suozzi’s line of attack, who has placed crime at the center of his platform. He still insisted that the governor had “done nothing to reinstate the bail reform”. He later stressed the need for a comprehensive mental health plan and argued that police and social workers should be able to remove mentally ill people from the streets in order to receive humane care and treatment.
Mr Williams agreed there was a need for mental health support, but said police need not respond to mental health crises. In a personal moment, he described being nearly taken off a train because of his Tourette syndrome, saying his experiences would position him best to tackle public safety and mental illness with humanity.
“These things are not theoretical to me,” he said. “It’s not just things I read in the newspaper or see on TV. These are things I’ve dealt with, with my family, with my constituents.”
Investigating the Buffalo Bills Stadium Deal
There was one glaring topic that Mr. Suozzi and Mr. Williams brought up repeatedly during the debate: the deal Ms. Hochul made with the Buffalo Bills in late March to subsidize the construction of a new NFL stadium by $850. million in state and local funds.
Ms Hochul’s rivals tried the deal — which some recent polls show might not be popular with voters — as a waste of taxpayers’ money at a time when the state has other pressing needs.
The deal made for a palatable topic of conversation that Ms. Hochul’s enemies used to criticize her — not only for its hefty price tag, but also for the secretive nature of the negotiations that led to the deal.
Suozzi turned relentlessly to his lines of attack on the Buffalo Bills, forcibly inserting the topic even when asked a question about abortion rights or the prospect of a Manhattan casino.
“When it came to Buffalo Bills stadium, she got something done that no one thought she could,” said Suozzi. “It was the most lucrative deal in NFL history”
Mr. Williams accused Ms. Hochul of prioritizing wealthy owners of the Buffalo Bills over investment in programs to prevent violence or reduce inequality, saying that “people are suffering” in Buffalo.
Ms Hochul repeatedly defended the deal, which aimed to ensure that the football team would not abandon the state. She mentioned the construction jobs it would create, saying it was “the best we could do for New York taxpayers.”
“Every part of the state has regional priorities,” she said. “The Buffalo Bills are the identity of Western New York as Broadway is to New York City. It’s part of who they are. I have made sure that they will stay there for the next 30 years.”
Hochul’s Ten Years NRA . Courtship
In 2012, Ms. Hochul won the support of the National Rifle Association, an endorsement she was once very proud of, but has since regretted.
Yet neither the moderators nor her detractors were able to persuade Ms Hochul to go beyond the position she has taken in the past – namely that it was in the past and that she was previously a very conservative House neighborhood in West West. New York represented.
“Where’s the principle in that?” Mr Suozzi said about Ms Hochul’s reference to political necessity. “I do not understand that.”
“We are 10 years behind because people in Congress were following the orders of the NRA,” Mr Williams said.
Ms Hochul says she has evolved and hopes voters will judge her by her recent actions — such as the gun laws she signed into law — rather than past actions.
But if voters wanted to impose a purity test on guns, Mr. Suozzi suggested that Ms. Hochul would fail.
“We support all three gun laws that have been passed. It is awesome. It’s fantastic. It’s fantastic,” Mr Suozzi said at one point. “Only one of us standing here has ever been approved by the NRA”
Hochul remained noncommittal on several issues
Since taking office, Ms. Hochul has been adept at avoiding stance on some of the most divisive policy issues in Albany, whether she wants to create a political maelstrom, alienate voters or disrupt her negotiations with legislative leaders.
She continued to thread that needle Tuesday evening and remained noncommittal on a number of topics du jour.
She said she was still considering signing a recently passed bill that would impose a two-year moratorium on cryptocurrency mining at fossil fuel factories, insisting that donations and support from the cryptocurrency industry support her decision. would not affect.
When asked whether the state should reimburse families whose loved ones died in nursing homes during the pandemic, Ms Hochul said this was something she was looking into but would put together a blue ribbon committee to address the pandemic response. investigating nursing homes. (Mr. Suozzi did not directly answer the question, while Mr. Williams said he supported compensation.)
In other cases, she leaned on a governance philosophy that she has previously emphasized: her desire to strengthen and respect the autonomy of local governments.
For example, she said she respected New York City’s decision to allow people with green cards to vote in local elections, but would leave any expansion to the municipalities. Mr Suozzi said voting should be reserved for citizens, while Mr Williams said non-citizens “should be civicly involved”.
When asked whether a casino should be built in Manhattan, Ms. Hochul, a resident of Buffalo, said she would not put her “finger on the scale” and would be “open-minded” to various locations for a new casino in the downstate region, where they were not previously authorized.
Mr Williams, who is from Brooklyn, said he wasn’t sure if Manhattan would be the best place for a casino, while Mr Suozzi said he wasn’t against it but stressed that public hearings on such a decision would be needed. .
Measuring the damage done by Brian Benjamin’s arrest
When Ms. Hochul’s former lieutenant governor, Brian A. Benjamin, was arrested in April on charges of federal bribery and fraud, many political analysts predicted that his arrest could jeopardize the governor’s campaign and her comfortable lead in public polls. bring.
Ms. Hochul had selected Mr. Benjamin, a former Harlem state senator, as her lieutenant governor and running mate last year. But Mr. Benjamin’s flawed vetting process was overlooked by her team, and undetected, ethical red flags that ultimately led to his arrest.
Ms. Hochul, however, trudged on: She recently appointed Antonio Delgado, a former Congressman from the Hudson Valley, as her new lieutenant governor, successfully removing Mr. Benjamin’s name from the ballot.
On Tuesday night, Mr Benjamin’s name and the corruption scandal that led to his death were barely registered, even as Mr Suozzi sporadically attempted to link his arrest to what he described as Ms Hochul’s failure to fully clean up the corruption in Albany. clearing.
Ms Hochul described Mr Benjamin’s arrest and subsequent dismissal as a disappointment.
“I promised the voters of New York and the people of the state that I would do everything I could to restore their trust in the government,” she said. “That was a setback.”