Political support for Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul is gaining momentum with calls for Governor Cuomo to step down on charges of sexual harassment.
In a reversal of poetic justice, Hochul would become the state’s first governor and 57th overall.
Hochul, 62, has remained largely out of the public eye since she was elected alongside Cuomo from her second term. In fact, it was not mentioned at all in its public programming last spring, during the height of the pandemic, and its book on the COVID-19 crisis did not include it.
But on Friday she took center stage by receiving the vaccine alongside the NAACP president in her hometown, Buffalo, in what could be seen as a counterattack to Cuomo’s appearance at the Javits Center on Monday, flanked by black clerics. Hochul posed for the cameras inside Catholic Health, flexing his biceps muscle à la Rosie, the Riveter.
Moving away from tradition – and a sign that it may already be distancing itself from Cuomo – the media was informed of the appearance through Hochul’s own press office. Usually, the governor’s office sends schedules to both.
The 59 lawmakers who issued a statement on Thursday calling for Cuomo to step down – after accusations that he reached into an aide’s blouse last year inside the governor’s mansion and palpated it – expressed support for Hochul.
“We have a deputy governor who can intervene and lead for the rest of the term, and that is what is best for New Yorkers at this critical time,” they wrote.
Brooklyn mayoral candidate and mayor Eric Adams echoed the sentiment in a statement: “I trust Lieutenant Governor Hochul to manage the budget process and our attorney general to conduct a thorough investigation.”
Fordham law professor Zephyr Teachout, who ran against Cuomo and Hochul in 2014, encouraged Hochul in a statement asking Cuomo to step down.
“Cuomo should resign and Kathy Hochul, against whom I campaigned and voted in the primaries … should be the governor”, she tweeted Friday afternoon. “He is not reliable. He lies, intimidates and drives away talent. He betrayed the trust of the people of New York. “
A spokesman for Blasio’s mayor – who publicly supported Hochul when she first competed with Cuomo in 2014 – also spoke about Hochul’s prospects of becoming the state’s leader.
“Andrew Cuomo has several allegations of sexual assault and sexual harassment … Kathy Hochul does not,” said Bill Neidhardt.
Hochul has said it supports an independent investigation de Cuomo by Attorney General Letitia James, but did not actually ask Cuomo to step aside.
The potential succession would be similar to that of the ex-Gov. Elliot Spitzer’s resignation in 2008 amid a prostitution scandal. So, Lieutenant. Governor David Paterson intervened for the remainder of his term – a job that was admittedly a big leap from being second in command.
He once joked that the vice governor’s job required him to “wake up very early and call the governor’s private phone. If he responds, go back to sleep, your job is done. “
Hochul was first elected in the 1980s as a member of Hamburg’s city council. She was elected deputy for the 26th District, covering Buffalo, in 2011.
Hochul met her husband, Bill, a former United States attorney for the Western District of New York, working as an intern at the Assembly while attending college at Syracuse University.
Hochul defended women’s issues – she leads the state’s “Enough is Enough” campaign against sexual assault on college campuses – and spoke about her familiarity with navigating testosterone-filled political waters.
“I know what it’s like to be the only woman in a room. And having these people talking about you and thinking that you don’t matter. That was most of my career as an elected official for more than 25 years, ”Hochul told NY1 in November.
“So it makes you more resilient, but it also makes you want to reach out to the next generation of young women and involve them so that they also want to participate.”