BUFFALO – While Governor Andrew M. Cuomo faces the biggest political crisis of his career, amid multiple accusations of sexual harassment and growing demands for his resignation, New Yorkers are becoming more curious about Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul, who would replace if he was no longer in charge.
Cuomo has vehemently denied that he behaved inappropriately and repeatedly ignored calls to resign, but he is losing support from more leaders in his party each day, and state lawmakers have opened an impeachment inquiry. If Cuomo resigned or was removed from office, Hochul would become the first woman in history to serve as New York’s governor.
Mrs. Hochul, from the Buffalo area, is a trained attorney and served briefly as a member of Congress. Mr. Cuomo chose her as his running mate in 2014, and she won two state elections for that position. She thrives on retail campaigns and has spent much of her time as a vice governor away from Albany, traveling the state.
If she took over the government soon, she would face a series of urgent legislative deliberations and responsibilities, including negotiating budgets, driving New York through her vaccination program and managing her economic recovery.
Controversies over Cuomo have so far left Democrats deeply divided, and Hochul, 62, would also be called upon to help the state heal.
Here’s what you need to know about Ms. Hochul.
She is no stranger to politics …
Mrs. Hochul, who grew up in an Irish Catholic family in western New York who was struggling economically, graduated from Syracuse University and graduated in law from The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC After a stint at an office in In law, Ms. Hochul turned to the government, serving as an adviser to then-deputy John J. LaFalce and then-senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
“I realized, especially at that time, the great political skills she had when she traveled with me,” recalls LaFalce. “She is a sociable person.”
When she returned to New York after her time on Capitol Hill, she rose in a number of local positions, including a position on the Hamburg city council, an enclave in western New York, and later to the role of county secretary for New York. Erie.
In 2011, Ms. Hochul won a special congressional election in a relatively conservative district that spanned Buffalo to Rochester, making the race a referendum on Republican plans to reform Medicare at the time and demonstrating her ability as an activist. But after the redistricting made that land even more republican, she lost her candidacy for re-election in 2012.
Ms. Hochul started to serve as vice president of government relations at M&T Bank Corporation and, in 2014, Mr. Cuomo chose her as his running mate during his first reelection campaign. She replaced Robert J. Duffy, who served as Cuomo’s deputy governor during his first term.
Ms. Hochul was re-elected to that post in 2018, defeating Jumaane D. Williams, now a public defender in New York City, by less than seven percentage points. New Yorkers vote for governor and vice-governor separately, rather than as part of a ticket, and Hochul won more counties across the state than Cuomo, although he won his primaries by about 30 percentage points.
… But she is hardly an Albany fixation.
If vice presidents have historically complained about being marginalized in Washington, vice governors tend to get worse.
And Mr. Cuomo, who once declared, “I am the government,” does not appear to have a particularly close personal or work relationship with Ms. Hochul.
The vice governor spent much of her time on the road, highlighting the government’s agenda and participating in broad local politics.
“She spent all her time in the vice governor’s chair a kind of campaign opportunity across the state,” said state senator Liz Krueger, a Democrat from Manhattan.
Through this process and her efforts to promote women running for public office in particular, Ms. Hochul has built something like her own statewide network that was important in her re-election campaign and will be vital in any future tenders for positions. If she becomes the current governor, people close to her say, she will seek re-election next year.
It has its roots as a moderate politician.
Ms. Hochul embraced the agenda of the Cuomo government, which has moved further to the left in recent years, and emphasized a number of political priorities, including economic development and gender equality issues.
But as an employee in Erie County, Hochul made her name in part by vigorously opposing efforts to offer driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants. She later changed her mind, but it is one of several previous positions that illustrate her roots as a very conservative Democrat.
She undeniably ran as a moderate Democrat in her special election.
“She was a center-right candidate in a center-right district,” said former deputy Steve Israel of New York, who at the time chaired the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
“She presented herself as an independent, not wanting to follow the party line, but she also had a way of connecting with progressive voters on fundamental issues like choice and the environment,” said Israel. “She was able to weave the two together in a district that looks a lot like America today.”
On a personal level, Ms. Hochul appears to be liked by lawmakers across the ideological spectrum, and she made a point of building a wide range of relationships. But she would probably face skepticism from the left both if she became governor and if she decided to run again.
She is a product of western New York, and her rise would make history.
Mrs. Hochul grew up in the Buffalo area, former President Barack Obama appointed her husband to serve as a US attorney for the Western District of New York, and her friendly and approachable demeanor and Buffalo accent evoke a style that is more of a kind -west than Manhattan. When Mr. Cuomo appointed her to the ticket, it was seen as a measure of geographic and gender diversity.
On the ground in his hometown, there is significant respect for Mrs. Hochul, at least among those who are familiar with her work.
“She works a lot – I think she’s one of the most hard-working elected officials in New York State,” said Sean Mulligan, 47, a local government official who was outside a restaurant near the water with his daughter on Thursday- market. “It would be a good option to take the role. And having a governor? We are late for this. “
Many states have never had a governor – and while Hochul could rise to that role in uncomfortable circumstances, a chief executive of one of the country’s largest states would likely be significant to many New Yorkers.
What happens next?
At a press conference on Friday, Cuomo indicated that he had no intention of resigning, even though he faced increasing pressure to do so from a Congressional delegation that previously remained largely silent. The Assembly approved the initiation of an impeachment investigation, although many steps would need to be taken even if Mr. Cuomo was impeached, including a trial in the State Senate and a vote to convict, before his removal.
If Cuomo is removed or resigned, Hochul will become the governor. She would also serve as an interim governor during an impeachment trial.
Ms. Hochul, meanwhile, said little about the allegations against Cuomo, except that she supported the ongoing independent investigation into allegations of sexual harassment.
Instead, she spent Friday out of public view, with one exception: she broadcast live his vaccination against Covid-19.