{"id":373294,"date":"2026-10-14T21:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T21:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/373294\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T21:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T21:40:08","slug":"fact-checking-hochul-blakeman-ny-gov-debate-ice-gas-wells-and-fired-corrections-officers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/373294\/","title":{"rendered":"Fact-checking Hochul-Blakeman NY gov debate: ICE, gas wells, and fired corrections officers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and GOP Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman traded fierce accusations and nuanced claims during Tuesday night\u2019s hour-long debate <\/a>hosted by Spectrum News NY1.<\/p>\n

The rivals sparred over immigration, sexual assault laws, taxes, crime, energy and New York\u2019s business climate.<\/p>\n

Below, The Post breaks down some of the most notable allegations by each candidate.<\/p>\n

Gov. Kathy Hochul and Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman face off in the only scheduled debate ahead of the November New York gubernatorial election in New York, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. Anna Connors\/Pool The New York Times via AP<\/p>\n

The claim: Agreements between municipalities and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) permit \u201crogue agents roaming the streets\u201d \u2014 Hochul<\/p>\n

This comment came while Hochul was attacking Blakeman<\/a> over Nassau County\u2019s so-called 287(g) agreement with the feds, referring to the relevant section of the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act.<\/p>\n

Our verdict: Mostly false. Nassau County\u2019s deal with ICE allowed county cops to operate as deputized federal agents to enforce immigration crimes before Hochul enacted sanctuary legislation earlier this year. Nearly a dozen other localities in the state have a working relationship with ICE, but their activities are strictly limited to allowing correctional facilities to run detainee names through a federal database.<\/p>\n

The claim: The 2,000 corrections officers fired<\/a> during last year\u2019s strike were conducting an illegal work stoppage \u2014 Hochul<\/p>\n

Responding to a question about her handling of a 2025 staffing crisis in the state prison system, Hochul said the 2,000 corrections officers she booted were violating the law by walking of the job \u2014 and that she\u2019d \u201csure as hell fire them\u201d if thousands did the same again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey walked out the door and shut it,\u201d said the governor, later adding: \u201cYou violated the law. Shame on you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democratic incumbent Governor Kathy Hochul speaks as she faces off against Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman, not pictured, in the only scheduled debate ahead of the November New York gubernatorial election, at the Spectrum News NY1 studios, in New York, US, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. via REUTERS<\/p>\n

Our verdict: Half-true. While public sector unions in New York are barred by the Taylor Law from striking while they have a contract in place, many of the corrections officers Hochul fired were never supposed to be dismissed and ultimately got their jobs back.<\/p>\n

Of the 2,000 guards shown the door, 848 had been rehired as of November 2025, a Department of Corrections and Community Supervision spokesperson told The Post at the time. Many of those have claimed they were on pre-approved medical leave and were swept up in Hochul\u2019s action.<\/p>\n

The claim: Utility bills will be slashed in half by permitting fracking \u2014 Blakeman<\/p>\n

Blakeman said he \u201cwould extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale,\u201d the massive rock formation covering large parts of upstate New York, in an attempt to drive down rapidly increasing energy prices.<\/p>\n

Our verdict: Highly unlikely. Then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order banning fracking in 2014, which the legislature codified in 2021. Even if Blakeman pulls off an upset Nov. 3, overcoming a likely Democratic majority to implement such a controversial policy would be a challenge.<\/p>\n

Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman speaks during a debate with Gov. Kathy Hochul in the only scheduled debate ahead of the November New York gubernatorial election in New York, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. Anna Connors\/Pool The New York Times via AP<\/p>\n

The claim: Hochul was previously endorsed by the National Rifle Association and opposed drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants \u2014 Blakeman<\/p>\n

In response to the governor attacking him over votes to raise property taxes while a county legislator in 1998 and 1999, Blakeman accused Hochul of changing her stances from her tenure representing part of Western New York in Congress between 2011 and 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou didn\u2019t want to give illegal migrants driver\u2019s licenses [back then], now you\u2019re giving it to them,\u201d Blakeman argued. \u201cProperty taxes? You\u2019re going to talk about something I did 28 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our verdict: True. Hochul received an \u201cA\u201d rating from the NRA during her unsuccessful 2012 congressional campaign, during which she also talked up her opposition to then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer\u2019s 2007 executive order undocumented immigrants to obtain driver\u2019s licenses without proving legal residency.<\/p>\n

The previous year, Hochul made a point of saying \u201cI led the fight against giving illegal immigrants drivers licenses\u201d in a campaign ad<\/a>. The future governor ultimately won an upset special election victory to replace former Rep. Chris Lee (R-NY), who had resigned after being caught sending salacious emails and a shirtless picture<\/a> to a potential hookup he met on Craigslist.<\/p>\n

The Claim: Hochul insists President Trump is blocking her energy projects<\/p>\n

Hochul was asked by moderators early in the debate about what she was doing to alleviate New Yorkers\u2019 energy costs \u2013 which are about the third highest across all US states \u2013 and she quickly blamed President Trump, accusing him of blocking initiatives to build new power plants and citing the war in Iran for high bills.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know what the real problem is? I\u2019ve got Donald Trump standing in the way of my energy projects,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Our verdict: Half true. President Trump has resisted wind farm development in New York and across the country, offering energy companies billions of dollars to buy back their contracts as part of a mission to keep fossil fuels at the center of US energy infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Hochul is not blameless for the energy costs, however. Some of her own clean-energy initiatives \u2014 like the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act \u2014 policies have arguably driven customer rates up by forcing providers to spend more money complying.<\/p>\n

That bill was passed in 2019 while Hochul was lieutenant governor and mandated the state\u2019s electricity generation be 70% zero-emissions by 2030 and 100% green by 2040.<\/p>\n

The claim: Blakeman wants \u201cdata centers everywhere\u201d across upstate New York.<\/p>\n

While trading barbs about data center policies \u2013 including Hochul\u2019s one-year statewide construction moratorium she signed in July \u2013 the governor accused Blakeman of wanting to blanket upstate in polluting industries, lumping in data centers during her diatribe.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feeds into your vision for upstate New York, because you also want oil rigs, and gas rigs all over New York,\u201d Hochul said. \u201cYou want to see data centers everywhere. You want smokestacks everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our verdict: Half true, but definitely half false. Blakeman has expressed enthusiasm about data centers \u2013 calling them the \u201cfastest growing industry in the world\u201d during the debate \u2013 but has been adamant local communities be the ones to choose whether they are built.<\/p>\n

He explained that three months ago in a WGRZ-TV interview, where he said upstate data centers could \u201ccreate prosperity, new jobs, and rebuild infrastructure in a lot of these communities, and repopulate some of these communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we make it so it\u2019s a win-win, then we can put these data centers in places where people actually want them,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are communities in this state, and I\u2019ve travelled to them, where people want them if there\u2019s an economic benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blakeman also supports bringing fracking to upstate \u2013 likely the Dickensian \u201csmokestacks\u201d Hochul described \u2013 but has also said they should be rolled out in similar community-forward approaches.<\/p>\n

The claim: Hochul cut tax rates for middle class New Yorkers to lowest levels in 70 years.<\/p>\n

During a sparring session about income taxes \u2013 where Blakeman repeated his banner campaign promise to cut them \u2013 Hochul insisted she\u2019d already done that during her term.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve cut middle class tax rates to the lowest level they\u2019ve been in 70 years,\u201d Hochul said, before Blakeman countered that income taxes had gone up by $8 billion under her \u00a0watch.<\/p>\n

Our verdict: Half-true, half false. Hochul did lower rates on middle income earners \u2013 5.30% for single-filers earning $13,900 to $80,650, and 5.80% for those earning $80,650 to $215,400 in 2026 \u2014 but that only tells half the story, as those cuts were covered by steep increases on the wealthy in a Robin Hood-esque switch.<\/p>\n

She helped raise income taxes on wealthy residents making more than $2 million when she was lieutenant governor under Gov. Andrew Cuomo April 2021. Billed as \u201ctemporary\u201d tax increases set to expire in 2027, rates were raised to 9.65% for those making more than $2 million, and 10.3% and 10.9% for people making $5 million and $25 million.<\/p>\n

Then when the 2027 expiration date neared, Hochul extended the rates through 2032.<\/p>\n

The Claim: New York has \u201cthe fastest growing economy in the United States of America<\/p>\n

Hochul rebuked Blakeman\u2019s citing of studies that placed New York as last in the nation for economic outlook by claiming New York in fact had the \u201cfasted growing economy\u201d in the country, saying \u201cwe are exploding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our verdict: Technically true, but only for a brief period and it masks broader structural challenges.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The US Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that New York State had the highest increase in gross domestic product between the 1st and 2nd Quarter of 2026, a 4% jump or nearly double the national GDP 2.2% increase.<\/p>\n

However, New York suffers from a stagnant population and has the highest tax burden of all states in the US. It also has the second highest government spending after oil-rich Alaska, per the Citizens Budget Commission, which Blakeman highlighted during the debate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and GOP Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman traded fierce accusations and nuanced claims during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1626,4762,2301,426,57,16016,9,24,55,54,56,13895,87,4719,7316,58],"class_list":["post-373294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-bruce-blakeman","tag-energy","tag-immigration","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-metro","tag-national-rifle-association","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-ny-governor-election-2026","tag-politics","tag-prisons","tag-us-house-of-representatives","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373294","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=373294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}