NY’S 1st female governor, promising a fresh start
ALBANY, N.Y. – Kathy Hochul became the first female governor of New York on Tuesday, inheriting immense challenges as she takes over an administration facing criticism for inaction during Andrew Cuomo’s distracted final months in office.
Hochul, a Democrat and former member of Congress from Western New York, took the oath of office just after midnight in a brief, private event overseen by the state’s chief judge, Janet Difiore.
After another ceremonial swearingin Tuesday morning at the New York State Capitol, Hochul promised a “fresh, collaborative approach” in state government.
“I want people to believe in their government again. It’s important to me that people have faith,” she said.
She noted that she’d already begun speaking with leaders who Cuomo was famous for feuding with, including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
In the next few months, Hochul, who was a little-known figure as lieutenant governor, will have an opportunity to reshape the way power works in Albany, where Cuomo dominated decisionmaking for years before being felled in a sexual harassment scandal.
For generations, it’s been said that the real decisions in the state government were made by “three men in a room”: the governor and the leaders of the state Senate and Assembly.
Now, for the first time in state history, two of those three – Hochul and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-cousins – are women. Only the state Assembly is led by a man, Speaker Carl Heastie.
Cuomo left office at 12:00 a.m, two weeks after he announced he would resign rather than face an impeachment battle that seemed inevitable after a report by independent investigators, overseen by Attorney General Letitia James, concluded he had sexually harassed 11 women.
On his final day in office, Cuomo released a pre-recorded farewell address in which he again said he was innocent and portrayed himself as the victim of a “media frenzy.”
Hochul takes over with the state still dealing with rolling crises caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
In the coming weeks she is expected to make decisions about whether to mandate masks for children returning to school, which she said she favors.
She will be under pressure to get federal rent relief money into the hands of tenants. Little of the $2 billion set aside by the federal government to help New Yorkers pay off rent debt has been distributed to date in the state and thousands face the possibility of eviction if the state allows protections to expire.
Hochul also faces questions about if she’ll change the culture of governance in New York, where many other top Democrats have, for years, complained about being shut out of key decisions and bullied by Cuomo.