It seems hard these days to figure out when politics stops and government begins, but the recent state budget showed Gov. Kathy Hochul’s backbone in standing up to left-leaning legislators trying to push her beyond what voters want and the state needs.
The governor stood strong in blocking legislators from including costly, so-called progressive programs in a state budget already facing uncertainties from expected federal cutbacks in the budget Republicans are hashing out in Washington.
She deserves particular credit for supporting district attorneys’ call for rationalizing what had been onerous discovery rules, which forced the dismissal of criminal cases before juries or judges ever got to hear them. That is a first step in reversing recent so-called bail reforms that handcuffed judges from using discretion to consider public safety in making decisions on arrests and indictments.
Those reforms – pushed by leftwing forces and reviled by the public at large – led to a widespread perception of increasing crime, and contributed to Republican gains in the state in 2022 when Democrats swept much of the rest of the country.
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Now Hochul begins to prepare for next year’s budget when she will be facing re-election in a state where Republicans made strong inroads for President Trump – including on Long Island. Several Republicans are said to be considering challenging Hochul, including moderate pragmatists like Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and Hudson Valley U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler. The more conservative upstate U.S. Representative Elise Stefanik has also been raised as a possible candidate.
Both Blakeman and Lawler have demonstrated a degree of independence from a national Republican party that has been taken over by right-wing ideologues comparable to the left-wing ideologues pushing Democrats farther to the left.
Stefanik and Lawler face the prospect of not having support from President Trump because he needs them to remain in the House of Representatives where the Republican majority margin is so slim. The President needs control of both houses of Congress to implement his agenda.
Both parties would do well to let New Yorkers decide our own future, instead of continuing the trend of nationalizing politics at the expense of local concerns.
Howard Fensterman is the Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Abrams Fensterman LLP, based in Lake Success.
