In 99 days, voters will be heading to the polls in New York to decide who will be governor for the next four years.<\/p>\n
While both Gov. Kathy Hochul and Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman are projecting confidence in their campaigns, the incumbent Democratic governor is leading her Republican challenger both in the polls and in fundraising.<\/p>\n
But experts say the November election is going to have a lot to do with a third figure: President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlakeman, you know, can point to her incumbency, and she can point to Donald Trump\u2019s incumbency, and so we\u2019re going to hear a lot about that,\u201d Lee Miringoff, the director of the Marist University Poll, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a grumpy electorate where people are not satisfied with things about the economy and housing and lots of other issues,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
New York\u2019s major party chairs say the political winds are blowing their way.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have the high ground with respect to fiscally responsible budgets. We have the high ground with respect to immigration. We have the high ground with respect to energy,\u201d Ed Cox, the chair of the state Republican Party, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the Democratic Party\u2019s mission is really very clear. It always has been, is now, and should always be to ensure that the American dream works for every citizen in this country,\u201d Jay Jacobs, the state Democratic Party chairman, said in a separate interview.<\/p>\n
Hochul leads Blakeman in the polls.<\/p>\n
Her favorability and approval ratings have ticked up in recent months, and in a head-to-head race, Hochul leads Blakeman by 20 points.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, she\u2019s getting independents, and she\u2019s clearly getting the Democratic base, now are there certain things going on in New York where she has not succeeded, where she\u2019s coming up short. If you look at the legislative agenda, clearly Blakeman can point to those things,\u201d Miringoff said.<\/p>\n
Hochul made affordability her mission this year: childcare subsidies, promises to cut car insurance rates, and rolling back strict green energy deadlines she said would be too costly.<\/p>\n
Blakeman criticizes her for steep increases in state spending and criminal justice policy.<\/p>\n
A spotlight remains on Trump, who endorsed Blakeman.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe loves New York. He will not be able to resist coming here. He\u2019ll come here and will be very helpful to us in the process,\u201d Cox said of the president, hinting that he may come to the Empire State to campaign for his candidate of choice before Nov. 3.<\/p>\n
But New York Democrats also have an enrollment advantage.<\/p>\n
\u201cGas prices are up, food prices are soaring. Everything that Donald Trump promised in the last election that enticed some people to vote for him has proven to be wrong,\u201d Jacobs said.<\/p>\n
Federal healthcare funding cuts and immigration policy drove the conversation in the Albany statehouse this year.<\/p>\n
Two local law enforcement offices in Blakeman\u2019s Nassau hold what\u2019s known as 287g agreements to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.<\/p>\n
They could run afoul of state law if they are still live in August.<\/p>\n
\u201cHuge mistake,\u201d Cox said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to cooperate with ICE, whether they have an agreement or not,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Democrats may also be facing an identity crisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn New York state, the Democratic Party in this county. Yes, we do have a wing that is far more progressive. You do have the [Democratic Socialists of America] folks, and I disagree with many of the things that they want to do,\u201d Jacobs said. \u201cI don\u2019t have any argument as to where their heart is, what they want to see for people.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the Democratic Socialists of America knocked out two incumbents in Congress and picked up an open seat in the primaries, plus making double-digit statehouse gains.<\/p>\n
Hochul could also face pressure regarding her relationship with Mayor Zohran Mamdani.<\/p>\n
Jacobs says that it\u2019s up to the \u201cestablishment\u201d Democratic Party \u201cto come up with, you know, I think, better policies, bolder policies, something more exciting to appeal to younger people who are struggling and they\u2019re disenchanted.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot to destroy or end capitalism as socialism wants to do, but to replace it with a fair capitalism, a progressive capitalism that works for everybody,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
Hochul also has a fundraising advantage over Blakeman with over $21 million in total cash on hand.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s also held high dollar fundraisers in conjunction with the state Democratic Party, including one at the June 16 FIFA World Cup Match \u2014 raking in in-kind donations to the tune of $100,415 from head of the NYNJ Host Committee, Alex Lasry, and $288,969 from Airbnb, according to the campaign and Board of Elections filings.<\/p>\n
Blakeman has raised over $6 million and opted to take public campaign matching dollars after he was kicked out of the system and then let back in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 99 days, voters will be heading to the polls in New York to decide who will be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[109,116,25,8889,4275,9,24,11,10,49,51,50,12,112,108,87,27,200],"class_list":["post-307206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-app-ny-state-of-politics","tag-app-top-stories","tag-bernadette-hogan","tag-local-politics","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-news","tag-ny-state-of-politics","tag-ny-state-of-politics-blog","tag-politics","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}