New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman faced off in their only debate of the gubernatorial campaign Tuesday.
It was moderated by Susan Arbetter, anchor of "Capital Tonight" on Spectrum News. She reflected on the night with WAMC's David Guistina:
Susan Arbetter: So first, I have to say that as a human being, it's a very long day. As someone who's going to be 62, that was a long, long day. As a journalist, the responsibility is enormous because it was the only debate. So, we were crafting, and that's what it is – crafting, questions for months before the debate actually took place. And we had probably 20 amazing questions, and we couldn't get to like 12 of them because it just goes so quickly. And I didn't feel - as much as I thought that both of the candidates did a really good job, and they're both pros, and there was no sort of personal animosity, and they shook each other's hand after the debate was over, and they looked like they were having a great time - they spoke in sound bites. And they weren't really debating each other. They were talking past each other, and I think that that might be the new way of debates, because everybody's trying to get that viral moment. So instead of getting into some substantive policy debates, we're just getting into the moment on TikTok or X or whatever that they will see the next day. And that was that was a little bit disappointing after we spent so much time really trying to tease out the issues and get something substantial out of them.
David Guistina: Yeah, and I guess part of all of this is: are they really changing anybody's minds out there, or is it more…you're kind of waiting for a mistake or a slip up or something that impacts one of those candidates negatively and then reverberates out toward an election?
Susan Arbetter: That's exactly what they're trying to do. That viral moment, which neither of them really got during this debate, it didn't really happen. They didn't slip up. The debate that we had the week before, with Tish (Letitia) James and Saritha Komatireddy, that was an interesting debate because unfortunately Tish did. She had an error that Komatireddy was able to capitalize on in the few days since then. There was nothing like that during this debate. Both of them were very well prepared, and I think equally matched.
David Guistina: And interestingly too, I find if you look at the national scene, so many analysts, prognosticators see the Democrats doing very well in the midterms, and yet Hochul is not that far ahead of Blakeman. Well, remember Lee Zeldin, you know, came six points from Hochul in the last gubernatorial election. Zeldin's – what - nine to 19 points, somewhere in there between the polls, and right at the center of this whole thing is the president of the United States, Donald Trump, someone who you would think is a liability, and yet he comes to Syracuse, he visits with Blakeman, and you have Governor Hochul using that as a hammer to hit Blakeman during the debate.
Susan Arbetter: Yeah, I mean we all expected that to happen, but we also expected on the other side for Blakeman to bring up Mamdani all the time in reference to Hochul, and he didn't. And I thought that that was interesting. And I thought maybe he was coached not to. This is, I don't know this, David, but I'm speculating, that he was told not to because she will bring up Trump, and he doesn't want to be so, you know, tied to Trump at this point during the last weeks of the debate because Trump is so very much unpopular, not only in New York but nationally, as I'm seeing on CNN today.
David Guistina: If you were to look at some of the issues that were discussed like immigration enforcement, crime, utility cost, is there any one in there that made any point that you thought was the clear winner in the argument?
Susan Arbetter: Well, I don't know if I would say anybody's a clear winner, but I will say that I was surprised that Bruce Blakeman said that he was foreclosing the voluntary intoxication loophole. That's the so-called loophole to make sure that when, if you're drunk, you're not allowed to say I was raped simply because you had voluntarily had some alcoholic drinks prior. So that was a takeaway for me. I also thought that what he said about Cornell was interesting, in that she is an ex officio member of the board. He makes a very good point. She is. The other issue I thought that was interesting is that Hochul was very on the defense when it came to firing all of the prison guards. I mean, many of them were rehired. But still, I mean, we have this incredible shortage of a prison guards still, and we have the national guard sort of backfilling. But the thing is that it's costing the state a billion dollars since the strike, and that's a real Achilles' heel for her. For Blakeman, he said some inflammatory things to a Hasidic community just the night before, in what was tape recorded. I don't think that he meant this for public release, but there were some people who felt that the comments were Islamophobic. I'm not sure if I thought that they were Islamophobic, but I did think that they were very much in keeping with some of his other comments regarding the pro-Palestinian efforts in New York City.
David Guistina: As you said, this is the only televised debate.
Susan Arbetter: I wish there was more!
David Guistina: Right? Knowing what we know about New Yorkers, you know, there's probably a pretty good likelihood most of them didn't see this, right?
Susan Arbetter: No, I'm sure not. I mean, what is it Tuesday night? It's at 7 p.m. You're feeding your kids. You're, you know, watching Law and Order. You're doing anything other than watching a debate, even though to be a really you know, educated voter, you should probably watch the debate, or at least watch some of the clips, and certainly read the newspapers after the debate.
David Guistina: And since there were no TikTok moments, I guess you're going to miss it on social media.
Susan Arbetter: Yeah, unfortunately. Yeah, I'm sure that they've clipped some stuff anyway, David.
David Guistina: Susan Arbetter from Spectrum News, really appreciate you taking the time to speak with us, our old friend in public media. You're the best. Appreciate it.
Susan Arbetter: Thank you. Thank you so much, David.
This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and then edited and reviewed for accuracy by WAMC staff.
