Kathy Hochul will be sworn in as New York’s first woman governor at midnight on Monday, after Andrew Cuomo resigned in disgrace to avoid impeachment by the state legislature. Hochul faces multiple challenges, including rising COVID-19 rates due to the Delta variant of the virus, stagnating vaccination rates, and a looming eviction crisis.
Hochul was Cuomo’s chief cheerleader during her six years as lieutenant governor, traveling across the vast state of New York to promote his policies, often at several events in one day.
Despite that, Hochul was never part of Cuomo’s inner circle. She was left out of his daily, nationally-televised COVID briefings during the height of the pandemic. Hochul says she was unaware of the sexual harassment allegations against Cuomo until the women went public with their accusations. She condemned Cuomo after the state’s Attorney General, Tish James, found that he harassed — and in one case sexually assaulted — 11 women, and led an office rife with intimidation and bullying. One day after Cuomo announced his resignation, Hochul promised that she would run the state differently.
“No one will ever describe my administration as a toxic work environment,” Hochul said in her first public appearance on August 11, one day after Cuomo announced his resignation.
Hochul, who describes herself as someone who listens first, then takes decisive action, will be leading the state’s efforts to grapple with the spread of the COVID Delta variant among unvaccinated and younger New Yorkers, including school-aged children. Earlier this month, Cuomo’s health commissioner failed to provide guidance to schools on health and safety policy. Hochul says she will act swiftly to develop safety protocols, and she believes the commissioner has the power to impose mask mandates in school, if necessary.
“Mask mandates is something that the department of health has the authority to call for,” Hochul said. “I believe that we will need mask mandates for children to go back to schools. And that will have to be universal, it will be statewide.”
New York’s eviction moratorium runs out August 31, and the state has been awarded over $2 billion in federal aid to help tenants pay back rent. But a recent report by the state’s comptroller finds that as of mid August, only $108.8 million has been distributed. Hochul says she will speed up the process, but says there is a longer time period for the money to go out.
“I know we are facing a crushing deadline,” Hochul said on August 18. But she says there is a “one year window” for applicants to receive the money.
As Hochul prepared to take over as governor, she announced two key appointments. Karen Persichilli Keogh, who’s worked for then-Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, will be chief of staff, and Elizabeth Fine will be chief counsel. Fine is currently counsel to the state’s Empire State Development authority.
Hochul has said there will be “turnover” among Cuomo’s former staff, and anyone implicated in bad behavior in the attorney general’s report will be out of job. She’s asking for a 45-day transition period to continue interviewing potential new staff and making final decisions.
Meanwhile, Cuomo, during his final hours in office, made several public appearances, presiding over storm briefings to alert New Yorkers about the potential dangers from tropical storm Henri, and giving a farewell address twelve hours before his planned midnight exit. He used his last speech as governor, in part, to continue to deny the accusations against him, saying the attorney general’s report was political instead of factual.
“The attorney general's report was designed to be a political firecracker on an explosive topic. And it worked. There was a political and media stampede,” Cuomo said. “But the truth will out in time. Of that I am confident.”
Attorney General James stands by her report, saying the women’s claims were corroborated by a “mountain of evidence."
Cuomo also offered “advice” to his successor on pandemic policy going forward, and recounted what he believes were his major accomplishments in office, including renovating major airports and revitalizing Buffalo.
Cuomo continues to face several criminal investigations, including for allegations he groped a staffer, a federal probe of how he handled nursing home policy during the pandemic, and an investigation by the state’s attorney general over whether his aides improperly helped him write and edit a book, for which he was paid $5 million.
