Gubernatorial primaries

Governor Kathy Hochul is trying to make history as the first female governor elected in the state with just 10 months in office under her belt. She is facing Representative Tom Suozzi and New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.

Hochul has positioned herself as the frontrunner in the three-way primary field, in part through a relentless campaign fundraising strategy that saw her amass more than $30 million — far outpacing any of her opponents.

The governor’s campaign has blanketed the state’s airwaves touting her record during her short time in office, which includes a gas-tax reduction through the end of the year and a series of gun-control and abortion-access measures she signed into law just this month.

But Hochul’s tenure has not been without controversy. She selected then-state Sen. Brian Benjamin, a Manhattan Democrat, to replace her as lieutenant governor despite questions over his past campaign-fundraising tactics. Within six months, Benjamin was arrested on federal bribery charges and resigned.

Hochul’s opponents have faulted her for spearheading a deal to build a new $1.4 billion football stadium for the Buffalo Bills, which came with $850 million in direct public subsidies. And they’ve latched on to her past positions on gun issues, which earned her an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association when she represented a conservative-leaning district in Congress a decade ago.

Hochul has said her views have changed on the issue of gun control, and she successfully led the effort to boost the minimum age for purchasing a semi-automatic rifle from 18 to 21 in New York after an 18-year-old killed 10 people in a Buffalo supermarket last month.

Suozzi’s positions align with Hochul’s more often than not, so he is campaigning on his track record as a “proven executive,” having once served as a town mayor and county executive during his 30 years in politics. He has framed Hochul, who also held local office and, briefly, a seat in Congress, as unprepared or unwilling to take the necessary steps to improve the state in essential ways.

Williams, the No. 2 official in New York City, is the candidate favored by progressives, including the Working Families Party, the influential third party with a habit of backing insurgent, left-leaning candidates. This is his second race against Hochul; he came within seven percentage points of defeating her in the 2018 lieutenant governor primary.

He has criticized the governor for not doing more to focus on street-level crime in Harlem, the Bronx and other areas susceptible to gun violence.

All the public polling has shown Hochul with a comfortable lead over her two rivals, but the lieutenant governor’s race is much harder to gauge.

The winner of the Democratic primary will face the candidate that emerges from a contentious, four-way Republican primary Tuesday between Representative Lee Zeldin, former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, businessman Harry Wilson, and Andrew Giuliani, a former Trump administration aide who is son of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Zeldin, of Long Island, has the backing of Republican Party leaders across the state, who voted earlier this year to make him their designated candidate — a distinction that gave him an automatic spot on the primary ballot without petitioning.

Giuliani is making his first run for elected office and has made his unabashed support of Donald Trump a central part of his campaign. During a debate earlier this month, Giuliani repeated the discredited, incorrect claim that Trump rightfully won the 2020 election, going as far as claiming a “crime” had been perpetrated on the American people.

But Trump has not formally endorsed any candidate in the Republican race. Along with Giuliani, Trump counts Astorino and Zeldin — both of whom have been staunch defenders of Trump on cable news programs — as allies.

New York has more than twice as many Democrats as Republicans, with independent voters also outpacing the GOP. The state hasn’t elected a Republican to statewide office since George Pataki won his third term as governor in 2002.

It is a closed-primary state, meaning only enrolled members of a party can vote in their respective primary.

Lenny Bruce

JAMESTOWN, NY – The 2018 Lucille Ball Comedy Festival and opening of the National Comedy Center (NCC) is just three weeks away.

A key exhibit that will be featured at the NCC will focus on the life and work of Lenny Bruce, whose provocative and – at the time controversial – stand up and commentary blazed a trail for First Amendment expression in the field of comedy.

Bruce was convicted in 1964 on obscenity charges and was posthumously pardoned by Governor George Pataki in 2003, the first in the history of New York State.

To highlight the exhibit, the NCC grand opening week will include a discussion on “Comedy and the First Amendment” and commence a fundraising partnership with the Lenny Bruce Memorial Foundation.

“Comedy and the First Amendment: How far is too far and who decides?” will spotlight how comedians use humor to speak truth to power, but not without the consequence of censorship, lost work, and even criminal prosecution. Panelists include Kitty Bruce, First Amendment attorney Paul Cambria, and comedian Lewis Black.

This event will take place in Jamestown at the Robert H. Jackson Center on Thursday, August 2nd at 4 pm.

Tickets may be purchased by calling 716-484-2222, at the festival box office located at 2 W. 3rd Street, or by going to NationalComedyCenter.org.

The NCC will open Wednesday, August 1.

It is the first non-profit cultural institution and national-scale visitor attraction dedicated to the art of comedy.

Former NY Governor George Pataki (left) and former state comptroller H. Carl McCall (right) join current governor Andrew Cuomo on Oct. 2 during his announcement of a state tax relief commission. (Photo from office of NY Governor Andrew Cuomo)

ALBANY – Gov. Andrew Cuomo has enlisted one of his predecessors to look for ways to cut taxes for businesses and middle class New Yorkers.

On Wednesday, the governor named former Gov. George Pataki and former state Comptroller Carl McCall as co-chairmen of a Tax Relief Commission.  Cuomo, a Democrat, said he went to former Pataki, a Republican, partly to keep politics out of the process. Pataki joked that when he got the call from Cuomo he thought at first it was a wrong number. McCall was also the challenger to Pataki during the 2002 Gubernatorial election.

The Tax Relief Commission is in addition to the Governor’s efforts to streamline New York’s tax code to make the state more affordable and competitive, ultimately creating jobs and helping grow the economy. The new Tax Relief Commission will collaborate with the Tax Reform and Fairness Commission, launched last December to conduct a comprehensive review of the State’s taxation policy, including corporate, sales and personal income taxation and make recommendations to improve and simplify the current tax system.

The commission is to report to Cuomo by Dec. 6 so that he can include its recommendations in next year’s state budget.