Kathy Hochul saw her first legislative session as governor wrap up last week, just in time for the gubernatorial primary to kick into high gear. But there will also be state Assembly and party positions on the ballots. WNYC's senior political correspondent Brigid Bergin joined host Michael Hill Monday morning to talk about what lies ahead.
The interview has been lightly edited.
The legislative session was supposed to wrap up on Thursday but your colleague Jon Campbell was still reporting into Saturday morning. What caused the session to drag on?
In short, it was the Assembly. Keep in mind, that’s the larger legislative chamber, more like the House of Representatives. So there are lots of members to wrangle there. Ultimately, state lawmakers passed some significant bills by the end of session.
What are some legislative highlights?
Mayor Eric Adams is expected to retain mayoral control of schools for another two years; he wanted longer. The Legislature also passed a bill calling for smaller class sizes, which will be a real challenge for the administration and is something that Adams has been bristling at, calling it an unfunded mandate.
As far as other highlights, there was a gun control measure passed that would effectively raise the legal age for purchasing a weapon like an AR-15 from 18 to 21. Hochul is going to the Bronx later Monday morning to sign the legislation. They also passed major voting rights protections through the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act which is intended to prevent race-based voter suppression or dilution. There were also some measures intended to protect abortion rights and reproductive health care providers.
It sounds like the state Legislature is trying to get ahead of the U.S. Supreme Court and some of the decisions we know are coming any day now. Is that a fair assessment?
I think it is certainly fair to say that the Democrat-controlled legislative and executive branches are bracing for decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court. We're expecting a ruling related to gun rights, and specifically a case about whether people have the right to carry concealed weapons. Plus there's a major ruling about the future of abortion access. The U.S. Supreme Court generally tries to release any outstanding decisions before the end of June. Those decisions could come as early as this week. We know they are trying to wrap up some of those outstanding decisions by the end of this month. So we will be watching for those rulings and how that could affect our region.
Shifting back to the primary calendar, Hochul will sit down for her first debate this week. Where can listeners find that?
This coming Tuesday night, all three Democratic candidates for governor will debate in person on WCBS radio and WCBS television at 7pm. Last week, Rep. Tom Suozzi and New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams went head to head in a debate on NY1 where Hochul was a no show for the event. Much of the commentary was about taking shots at the person who wasn’t in the room. Tomorrow night will be the first time all three candidates will be on the debate stage together, so the dynamics will be interesting.
What will you be watching for?
Hochul has held a commanding lead in terms of polling and fundraising. What happens when she is on the stage with these two male candidates? Do they go after her on something like the billions of dollars spent for the new Buffalo stadium? And how does she respond? Hochul will likely be looking for a moment when she can lean into the historic nature of her candidacy as New York's first woman governor. Can she capitalize on that in an effective way?
There is also a risk for both Suozzi and Williams not to appear as though they are coming at her in a coordinated attack. But they also need to land a punch if they have any hope of competing with her in the final days. While nothing is certain at this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if some really nasty stories start to emerge sway voters in this primary.
Anything else voters should know about this week?
We are one week out from the deadline for the Board of Elections to receive absentee ballot applications — so to be clear, that is not one week from the postmark date. It’s one week from when you either drop the application off at the BOE or when it arrives because you mailed it sooner. On top of that, the absentee ballot laws changed so that now if you apply for an absentee ballot and you decide to vote in person, you will need to cast an affidavit ballot. That means your ballot goes into an envelope and won’t go through a machine for election night.
We will be talking a lot more about that this week, but the short version: be sure if you apply for an absentee ballot, that’s the way you really plan to vote.
