DAILY NEWS ENDORSES GOVERNOR HOCHUL: We Like Kathy!

NY DAILY NEWS: Kathy Hochul, who Andrew Cuomo didn’t give the time of day when she was his understudy, stepped into the governorship in the midst of a pandemic, a sputtering economy and rising crime. Despite some notable stumbles, from which she must learn, she has been a competent executive under difficult circumstances, which is why the Daily News endorses her as the Democratic nominee.

Hochul has surrounded herself with smart, tough-nosed staffers, refreshingly, most of who are women; resisted the temptation to go off the deep end with the far left on the state budget, stashing billions in reserves and accelerating a middle-class tax cut, while still making major investments in building a fairer state; heard and responded to legitimate complaints on bail and discovery reform by adjusting both of those laws in intelligent ways, to give cops and prosecutors more tools to reduce violence; and made tough calls on COVID control at key moments, implementing vaccine and mask mandates when the data said that was necessary and dialing back heavy-handed controls when it was time.

On the better-luck-next-year side, she fought to give New York City’s mayor the authority over the schools he deserves, only to be stymied by the Legislature. Likewise, she made an admirable but unsuccessful attempt to increase housing density both in the city and across the state, one of the smartest ways to drive down the punishing cost of living here. Her unrealized proposed replacement for the 421-a housing production tax break would’ve generated more affordable units while helping developers stomach the onerous economic climate for development, including sky-high property taxes. Her welcome early promises of expanding the Freedom of Information Law faded.

Also among her successes was signing the Less is More Act, finally reforming an overly punitive parole system whereby technical tripwires sent thousands of ex-offenders back to prison. She’s begun to roll out intelligent regulations for the legal buying and selling of cannabis. Her approval of two major new transmission lines bringing low-emissions energy to New York State will help the state meet ambitious climate goals while electrifying everything under the sun.

She also deserves credit for acting swiftly and surely to shore up the state’s gun laws after the racist massacre in Buffalo. It might’ve been politically low-hanging fruit to do that, but Hochul passed a 10-bill package of reforms including requiring microstamping of guns. Ditto her bolstering of state abortion law as the Supreme Court prepares to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Nor is it lost on us that Hochul is the first female chief executive of a state in which only men have ever been in charge of both the state government and the biggest city. The power of example means something.

Hochul has made her share of mistakes — and, like Fiorella LaGuardia’s, they’ve been beauts. The biggest was the first: naming Brian Benjamin her lieutenant governor despite a series of campaign fundraising red flags that were waving in these pages and elsewhere and ended up with him in FBI handcuffs. Hochul both claims to take responsibility and blames a rushed, out-of-her-control vetting process.

She also flubbed in pouring far too much government money into a new suburban stadium for her hometown Buffalo Bills. It would’ve been a hefty blow to Western New York’s psyche for the team to leave, but it was a bigger blow to taxpayers to agree to a billion in public dollars for a glittering new facility. In that negotiation, she seemingly lost leverage with the team and simultaneously with the Legislature, which, seeing this as a Hochul budget must-have, was better positioned to get its way in other areas.

Hochul also signed into law gerrymandered district lines drawn by her legislative pals that ran roughshod over the constitutionally prescribed redistricting process. Fortunately, courts forced congressional and Senate maps to be trashed and redrafted, but then Hochul wrongly refused to consolidate the primaries, hurting the voters.

Stylistically, Hochul conducts too much business behind closed doors. Though that’s a good-faith attempt to allow for productive negotiations, we believe she’d be far more effective if she raised important priorities directly with the people, challenging the Albany interests more often. Going along and getting along may well lead to reelection, but it will not profit a woman to have gained a full term in the governorship and have lost sight of her priorities.

This isn’t a ranked-choice election, but our strong second choice is Rep. Tom Suozzi, who’s proven his smarts and mettle and common sense over many years as a mayor and county executive and congressman and wise anti-Albany crusader. We respect Suozzi’s track record and agree with him in broad strokes on many matters, including crime. He hasn’t gotten sufficient traction in this election, though, perhaps in part because, when banging the drum on the need to reform the state’s bail reform law by giving judges the right to order pretrial detention based on perceived dangerousness, he’s cast aside important nuance. Though we share many of his criticisms of the statute, we’ve been candid that most of the increase in crime is not the result of that law. Suozzi’s been less careful with his language, and on this issue, the details matter mightily.

Relatedly, in calling for Hochul to remove an elected district attorney, Manhattan’s Alvin Bragg, Suozzi let frustration with rising crime get the better of his wisdom. The governor’s power to yank a DA should only be used in cases of corruption, fraud or outright abdication — not as a trump card to override prosecutorial discretion. Besides, gun prosecutions in Manhattan are up substantially under Bragg; shootings and homicides are down. We have had many problems with him in his brief tenure, but it should be for the voters to render their judgment, not another elected official.

Suozzi also lets fearmongering override better instincts when opposing a COVID vaccine mandate for the state’s school kids. It makes no sense to require students getting their shots for dormant plagues like measles, but not to help protect them and the rest of us from a disease that’s killed tens of thousands of New Yorkers and sickened countless more. Hochul favors such a requirement.

The third contender for the nomination, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, would place few limits on already rising state spending at a time when New York needs to make some tough choices lest it continue to lose families and businesses. We rule him out largely on those grounds.

Should Hochul win the primary and win reelection, her biggest challenge will be to reset her relationship with the Democratic supermajorities in the Senate and Assembly in order to advance her own priorities, from producing more housing to improving the state’s business climate, while pushing back more effectively on the excesses of her ostensible political allies. Bobbing along as the current carries her will lead nowhere good.

The governor has solid policy instincts and political skills to convert an uneven start into a truly important governorship. Make her the candidate for the Democrats.