NEW YORK — The state’s first woman governor rarely stops to take it all in.
But after signing a package of bills to protect survivors of domestic violence last week, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she let herself feel proud, knowing her late mother — whose work on the issue launched Hochul into public service — would have been too.
Usually there’s not enough time to be so reflective.
Hochul has been running for election since she took office in August 2021 following former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s resignation amid sexual harassment allegations. In an interview with POLITICO in East Harlem last week, the only time Hochul hesitated to answer a question was when she was asked how she would spend a day off. (She eventually decided on taking a boat out on Lake Erie or whitewater rafting.)
In 14 months, the former lieutenant governor and Western New York congressperson passed her first state budget with many of her priorities intact, braced the state for a major weather disaster when Hurricane Ida flooded New York City days after she took office and responded to tragedy after 10 people were killed in a Buffalo supermarket shooting not far from her home. She’s been applauded by other elected officials for her focus on collaboration and relationship-building — a dynamic more striking after Cuomo’s seeming aversion to both.
She’s also earned criticism for choosing a lieutenant governor who quickly resigned amid federal bribery charges, quietly closing a deal sending millions of dollars of state funding to keep the Buffalo Bills in New York, struggling to address the state’s crime problems and choosing to buy millions of dollars worth of state Covid-19 tests from campaign donor Digital Gadgets, despite other options with lower price tags.
But Republicans, Democrats and even some of her own advisers say Hochul’s biggest challenge in her election bid against Republican foe Rep. Lee Zeldin is that New Yorkers still don’t know her.
She’s bumped up her name recognition while campaigning over the past several months, but several voters interviewed in recent days still couldn’t pronounce Hochul (it’s like “vocal”) correctly. There are fast-tracks to fame in New York politics — an outrageous personality or penchant for stunning scandal. Hochul shows neither.
“I feel like I'm just a regular person in a diner who has a very significant job that I treasure,” she said. “I love this job, but I'm no better than any person in a diner or the waitress waiting on me. And I think they [voters] know that about me, that there's that sense of grounding that makes me different than other elected officials, I believe, because I haven't changed at this age — and I don't plan to change.”
But with just two weeks before Election Day, she says, voters need to see her as someone who propels New York forward, not just cleans up its messes: “They need to know that I also see into the future and have a vision — not just as a crisis manager, which is required — but also I have a vision to take us into the next generation.”
Below is POLITICO’s interview with Hochul, edited and condensed for length and clarity.
Q: What will voters see if they elect Kathy Hochul for another four years?
They will see first of all, a bold vision put forth in our State of the State address. The basic lens is that we're going to do everything we can to focus on making New York state a place people want to live, want to come to, can afford to live in, can get a job in, where they can build a business and raise their families. So everything we do is through the framework of what's going to meet those objectives.
Within that, tackling public safety; to continue focusing on that, supporting law enforcement efforts and getting more guns off the streets every way we can. We’re making progress, but I'm not satisfied yet. It’s to give people that sense of security that they don't have right now. And I understand that.
People want to live here; they just can't afford it anymore. The cost of housing is up 57 percent in the last seven years. Rent is up, depending on the part of the state, anywhere from 27 percent to 57 percent across New York. And so what that does is it creates a barrier for young people who are raised here, educated here and want to live in the same neighborhood they grew up in — Long Island, Westchester, the city — and they can't afford it. That's a tragedy.
So we have a very ambitious housing plan that we're developing right now with national experts to really just dive into this and build a coalition around all the different ways that we can promote the building of housing and apartments. We need about 500,000 to a million units over the next 10 years across the state. We had $25 billion in our last budget, and that only gets us 100,000 units. So we have to be much more creative and start catching up with other cities and regions in building housing.
Focusing on those two areas is primary, but also creating a more pro-business environment for small businesses to start, for MWBEs, but also to continue attracting the large mega projects like Micron, which is staggering in its scale.
Q: So people wanting and being able to live in New York starts with housing?
That is the number one issue. It’s apartments. It's that housing stock is not what it should be, nowhere near what it should be. It is half of Boston's, the building that's going on. We're not building enough new housing, we're not doing conversions, and I directed my team to find all the barriers at the local level, at the state level, and to find what policies are in place that are holding back the growth that we need.
It's not that people don't want to live here. That's why you can't find an apartment in the city. If people didn't want to live here, there'd be plentiful apartments, so that narrative doesn't even work.
Q: I’ve heard every candidate needs to have three issues that every voter should know about them. Out talking to voters in the Hudson Valley this week and a lot of them still don't know that much about Kathy Hochul. What are the issues you want every voter to know about you?
That I’m tough as nails. I can handle anything that comes my way. And I have the ability now to prove that a woman can do anything. Just because I'm the first, I definitely know I will not be the last. I showed that a woman can govern with the same tenacity and strength required of a job like this, but also govern with heart and compassion and see things through a different lens. That’s how we lift this state up.
They need to know I'm tough. I'm battle tested. I love public service — I’m a public servant to my core, and I'm going to be there for them. I have a strong vision for the future. I have a great vision of how we can take the state to the next level. We’ll be judged by how we came out of this pandemic, and that’s the weight on my shoulders right now.
Q: Does it still feel like New York is pulling out of a pandemic?
To the extent that there is still fear, whether it's fear attracting Covid or the fact that riders are still not back on our subways. Whatever the motivating force is, I still have to get us through this era where there's still hesitation. People aren't feeling completely unleashed and liberated. I want to be the spark that lets that all open up and lets people know that there's no limit to what we can do.
Q: You’re familiar with the very red parts of the state, and you’ve been talking about the dangers of extremism that you see in your opponent and that you're seeing in parts of the Republican Party. Is there hope for that demographic, a way to draw those voters back into a sort of political world that you would like to see?
It’s never too late. I understood the people in these areas because I was elected as their congressperson — first Democrat they ever voted for, many of them, when I said I'd fight on Social Security and Medicare and protect seniors and protect our farmers. It didn't last because I supported the contraception mandate in the Affordable Care Act.
But I also knew that they were open minded to me at one time. And I know what it's like to come from upstate; those little communities feel forgotten. People feel like no one is their voice and all the clout belongs somewhere else in the state. And I let them know, I come from this. I understand you. Will that mean they'll vote for me? I don't know and it doesn't matter.
I'm here to let them know that no matter what you do on Election Day, I'm still your governor. I'll still have your back. The first upstate governor in at least 100 years? That means something to people. I always have hope there’s going to be common issues we’re going to be able to work on together. I really believe that.
Q: In the 2018 gubernatorial election, education was a huge topic. Do you support keeping of the charter [school] cap, expanding charter schools or not?
We'll be talking about our education policy. We have talked about, you know, giving more options to parents and how important that is. So we'll be having those conversations. But we're not prepared to talk about it right now.
Q: Do you think the conversations around bail reform and public safety laws will continue into the next legislative session? Is that something that you're open to?
I’m sure the conversations will continue. I’m going to look at the data.
We made some targeted changes. We made changes to give more discretion to judges; we gave more power back to the district attorneys. We did all that. And they've only been in effect since May. Let the system start to work with that, but also the backlog in courts [from the pandemic] has been a real driver of our problem right now.
I'm working on that. I'll get a new chief judge. We'll work on that and will have the district attorneys across the state and the judges do their job. That's how we get out of this. Every part of the system has to work. It's not just one area — that’s oversimplifying it.
They [bail reform critics] are not giving any credit for the changes that have been made and need some time to play out. I'm not taking my eye off the ball. I'm laser focused on this. I can focus on public safety, affordability, abortion rights and gun safety all at the same time. Because women can multitask.
Q: Who are the top five or six people that have your ear? Who can you call your inner circle?
[Secrerary to the governor] Karen Persichilli Keogh is just brilliant, she has a lot of experience in the private sector and in running the statewide [U.S. Senate campaign] for Hillary [Clinton]. Kathryn Garcia, the operations director, whether it's dealing with support for Puerto Rico after a hurricane, cleaning up our own hurricanes, deploying National Guard to help the mayor with the migrant problem, or dealing with homelessness — every area where we have complex problems. The two of them have been helping me have major breakthroughs and infrastructure projects that were dead. Those two are the fixers. They know how to go out there and help work behind the scenes, then I'm the closer.
Stacy Lynch is my chief of staff. Her insights are incredible in terms of what's happening on the ground and what people need to know. So beyond the chief of staff role internally, she's external facing for me as well. Micah Lasher does policy for us: nonstop working on trying to find creative solutions, so we can always be nation leading no matter what the issue is. Liz Fine, our counsel, is top notch.
I didn't know any of these people, other than Karen. I had coffee once with Kathryn when she was running [for NYC mayor]. I just asked for the smartest people.
Melissa Bochenski has been with me since my days in Congress, so she has been phenomenal in terms of permanent institutional knowledge and just helping me chart through each day. We just do a lot of events, and I want to do that. I don't want to spend much time in the office … I can make decisions driving somewhere on my way to an event. I don’t have to sit in the office, processing. I go in for staff meetings, but after that, get me out there with people.
Q: What have you done to the Executive Mansion in Albany to make it feel like home?
I put in plants. It’s an older house from the 1800s. I was thinking about the era — you always see these palms like in ‘The Gilded Age’ — I have palms in a few of the corners, ferns on the front porch. I hope they’re still alive.
Q: That porch was closed, its chairs were stacked, for the past few years. No one was using it!
That porch is gorgeous. I sit out there. I do work from there all the time when I'm back. It’s charming and feels like you're in the middle of a Victorian area.
There was really historic furniture from the original house. And it had a sign in a rope over it that said ‘do not sit’ and I said ‘OK, we're going to sit on our furniture.’ So I tried to warm it up a little bit but I do want to keep the historic nature of it on the first floor. Upstairs I got rid of a really ugly 1970s shag rug, it was dusty raspberry [colored], but I think it had faded in time because it was just so ugly, and it was filled with dust. So I just had that removed and there were gorgeous wood floors underneath.
That's all I've had time to do: Move a piece of furniture and put up some nicer paintings. There was one painting ... a big picture, very prominent on the first floor, and it was an image of this young, frightened looking Pocahontas, surrounded by Captain John Smith and all these glaring, intimidating men.
I walked in and said, 'Get rid of this subjugation of this child.' And so we replaced it with a beautiful picture of Niagara Falls with Native Americans first discovering Niagara Falls, so they're looking up at the falls like the first time they would have seen it. So it just had a more positive vibe.
Q: I've heard it's haunted, but I don't know if you've experienced anything...
I don’t think so — I have not personally seen anything.
Q: You don’t get tired, you’ve famously said, but if you have a day off — you don't have anything scheduled and it’s just open — what are you going to do?
I don't have … I don't know what that looks like.
Q: You can't even imagine? Ideally, what would it look like?
I don’t know what it would be like. I just haven't had one.
Q: Just try to think of something fun.
If it was summertime, I’d go out on the boat. Lake Erie is my swimming pool when I'm home. We take the boat out and I jump in the water, way out in the lake, and I just swim, out where the waves are high. I like an adventure.
