'I knew I had to set out and prove — they’re all wrong'
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul enters her first full-term facing an uncertain economy, elevated crime and a dire housing crunch. She said she wants to tackle all those things while also changing the culture in the state capital, which has long been known for rough-and-tumble politics and high-profile clashes that she and other leaders say stifled collaboration.
I recently interviewed the state’s 57th governor in her Capitol office for a profile in The Wall Street Journal. The governor will talk more about her agenda for the coming year in her State of the State address on Tuesday.
Even as she responded to new waves of Covid-19 and a damaging hurricane after taking office, Hochul said from the outset that she wanted to show that a collaborative approach could work in a state characterized by politicians with big ambitions and egos—almost all of whom were men. She reflected on her closer-than-expected election victory over GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin and said she would heed lessons from years of work on the local political stage, much of which was out of the spotlight in the suburbs of Buffalo.
Hochul was one of 12 women elected governor last year — a record. She said even some fellow Democrats expected her to fail and that she met voters who said they wouldn’t support her because “they weren’t sure a woman had the toughness that it takes to do this job.”
“I knew I had to set out and prove [that] they’re all wrong,” she said, wearing a necklace made of shattered glass in an office decorated with artifacts of the women’s suffrage movement.
“There’s an inner confidence that allows me to go into situations where I don’t have to be the loudest voice in the room,” the Democratic governor continued. “I can bring people together…and let them know I’m listening, but I also have strong opinions.”
A test of that is coming with the nomination of Justice Hector LaSalle to lead the New York State Court of Appeals. More than a dozen Democrats who control the state Senate have said they won’t vote for Justice LaSalle, citing concerns with the judge’s previous rulings on workers’ rights.
But Hochul said she is sticking by the nomination of the first Latino chief judge, and urged lawmakers to examine the totality of his record.
“I fully expect after Hector LaSalle gets a full and open-minded hearing — not the pre-judgment that is going on and the mischaracterizations and the character assassination that is going on,” the governor told the New York Post following a Manhattan appearance. “We’ll have the support we need.”
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins told Gotham Gazette editor Ben Max that the votes aren’t there.
“Because I’ve had 14 members come out publicly and say they were not going to confirm the nominee, and I’ve had a number tell me privately they’re not going to confirm the nominee, I do not see this ending in the way that the governor wished it would,” the Yonkers Democrat said in a podcast interview. “The realities are that in my conference the numbers are not there.”
THE QUESTION: Who was the first woman to serve as governor of a U.S. state?
Know the answer? Drop me a line at jimmy.vielkind@gmail.com. Or just write with thoughts, feedback or to say hi.
THE LAST ANSWER: “A Visit from Saint Nicholas” was first published in the Troy Sentinel in 1823.