The latest polling shows Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., 42 points ahead of her opposition in the Democratic primary and handily beating her Republican rivals.
For the state’s first woman governor, one would think she’d have the confidence to lead a state bludgeoned by scandal, crime and fiscal chaos in a new direction.
Hochul, also the first governor from upstate in a century, has willfully abandoned the people and principles that a moderate Democrat could have championed.
Nearly six months into her improbable term, what New Yorkers have been left with is not the cold political calculation of a Cuomo, but someone so desperately weak in the face of New York City’s Left-wing she’s become a symbol of America’s larger crisis of leadership.
That’s bad news for New Yorkers desperately looking for change.
Hochul’s weakness could doom suburban quality of life.
Her Executive Budget supports forcing localities to accept high-density housing by mandating accessory apartments in their zoning codes.
Sure, this Albany power grab may get negotiated out by nervous swing district Democrats in the Senate, but the fact remains Hochul bowed to pressure from the far-Left to include it in the first place.
Hochul’s weakness has also put New York’s farms from Suffolk County to Western New York on a death watch. She has failed to instruct her labor commissioner to reject the State Wage Board’s new adjusted overtime requirements from 60 hours down to 40.
The move will dramatically increase payroll costs for our agricultural community, undoubtedly killing family farms, vineyards and orchards across the state.
Hochul, who infamously traded the cross around her neck for a gold chain that says "Vaxxed" could have unmasked our kids, but last week again chose not to do it.
A new convert to the far-Left’s religion of public health, she recently ignored the science by comparing kids wearing masks in school to wearing sneakers.
She’s now relentlessly pushing vaccination for children who are not at risk as a benchmark for reducing mask mandates in schools.
With restaurant reservations down more than 50% due to vaccine mandates, the governor could have looked at the data and urged a change in direction to help get the economy churning. Instead, it’s looking like she’ll be one of the last governors in America to lift COVID-19 restrictions.
Hochul’s inability to look beyond the public health cabal in Albany and Washington has also created a shortage of healthcare workers in the middle of what she insists is an ongoing public health emergency.
By eliminating religious exemptions to vaccination for healthcare workers, particularly upstate and local community hospitals are struggling to maintain services.
Then there’s crime. Hochul has watched the carnage, the police shootings and the anxiety over spikes in crime skyrocket without offering solutions that buck the far-left’s criminal justice reforms.
January saw a 38% jump in crime in New York City. Recidivism is up over 40% since bail reform she’s showing no indication she’ll rewrite the state’s revolving door Supervised Release program.
Hochul has announced the closure of six upstate prisons, which in addition to the negative economic impact, signals she won’t back off the Left’s efforts to slash incarcerations.
Her statement during President Biden’s recent visit was tepid if not nonsensical.
Channeling Vice President Kamala Harris, she said, "We have to figure out the root causes here," then proceeded to tout the money she wants to throw at community policing and de-escalation programs to stop violence. She knows why crime is up but is simply too afraid to say it.
After three administrations in Albany marked by corruption that made New York’s government a national laughing stock, we can only hope voters haven’t lowered the bar for leadership so far that they are merely satisfied with having little drama out of Albany.
Like President Biden, Governor Hochul’s apparent inability to craft and control her own agenda means she’s surrendered leadership to an array of far-Left interests content to simply manage decline.
Tom Basile is an author and columnist. He is the host of "America Right Now" on Newsmax TV, Saturdays beginning at 11:00am Eastern. Read Tom Basile's Reports — More Here.
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