4 Reasons Why Elise Stefanik Can Eat Kathy Hochul for Lunch in ‘22’

New York Democrats could get massacred in next year’s midterms

by Kenneth L. Warner

I like Governor Kathy Hochul as much as the next person, but after a couple of weeks in office, some people are beginning to believe that her past … and now her present could have a serious effect on next year’s election.

First and foremost, every news outlet from the Politico to the Times Union noted that Governor Hochul’s first call to action in Albany contained a time bomb that could come back to haunt her.

Stuck down deep in the bowels of legislation passed in special session to extend the eviction moratorium in New York State is language that takes the “public” out of “public meetings”. Seems that somewhere in the fine print is a clause that suspends New York’s Open Meetings Law. That means that any government entity that broadcasts their meetings online can also ban the public — including protesters, lobbyists and the press — from physically attending the meetings. And, it applies to all levels of Government in New York State.

Secondly, her hometown paper, The Buffalo Evening News came out with a shocker on the evening of her swearing in when they reminded everyone about her husband’s day job.

He’s a top executive with a Buffalo-based concessions and gambling giant with countless dealings before various state commissions and government committees. Can you spell C-O-N-F-L-I-C-T of I-N-T-E-R-E-S-T? Frankly, she isn’t the first woman in politics to have a spouse with dubious connections, but this could spell trouble when she has to go before the voters.

Her third problem — and this is a big one — is that Gov. Hochul has a long history of being elected as a Democrat … but with the support of the notorious New York State Conservative Party. Consequently, when Ms. Hochul was appointed Erie County Clerk by then Governor Elliot Spitzer, it didn’t take her long for her to be forced to bite that hand that feeds her. Under pressure from Conservatives, she led a movement across the state targeting immigrants for arrest if they got a drivers license — an issue championed by Governor Spitzer, the guy who brought her to the dance. She not only fought him on it, but said she would have any applicant who turned up at her office arrested. She later reconsidered … but it left a sour taste in a lot of people’s mouths … particularly Progressives and Latinos.

And last but not least was her short single term in Congress in which she barely had time to find the key to the Congressional washroom. But, during her 2 year stint she did manage to cozy up with a lot of the wrong playmates. For one thing, she had always enjoyed a major love-affair with the National Rifle Association. In order to repay their support in winning her seat in Congress she embraced a whole list of NRA supported issues and got in bed with Republicans who wanted to cut Medicaid and strip out portions of the Affordable Care Act. She then joined with 17 other House Democrats to vote with Republicans to declare President Obama’s Attorney General in contempt of Congress for a trumped up charge — a move rewarded generously approved by her old pals at the NRA.

North Country Congressional Representative Elise Stefanik hasn’t said much about Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul’s ascension to the Governor’s Mansion.

Seems Ms. Stefanik has been busy lately working on children’s issues.

She celebrated the birth to her first child a a few weeks ago and is one of only 11 women to give birth while in office including two New Yorkers, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and U.S. Representative Susan Molinari. I have to admit that it is pretty cool that finally women, babies and public service are beginning to be a “norm” of sorts.

But there’s something else for Elise Stefanik to celebrate. Hochul’s move up the ladder is exactly what Ms. Stefanik needs to advance her own chances of moving into the Governor’s Mansion.

Don’t think for one minute that her campaign staff isn’t digging up every bit of dirt on the new Governor that they can find, starting with these four issues. Governor Hochul’s past may turn to bad baggage that can affect elections up and down the ballot and lead to a massacre of Democrats across the state.

Hochul’s going to need support of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party in New York if she plans on winning next year. Unless there are some serious changes in her drive to become the first woman actually elected as New York’s Governor, she’s is in danger of having progressive voter’s see that her political past pulls so far to the right that her car doesn’t even turn left.

And, it’s going to take more than kissing babies at the New York State Fair and attending pancake breakfasts in suburban Buffalo.

Even in solidly Blue New York there’s a lot of districts gerrymandered beyond redemption. She needs to fix her strategy before the honeymoon is over.