Michael Goodwin: Blakeman finds Hochul’s weakest spot — her lefty alliance with Mamdani
For months, Gov. Hochul’s Republican opponent, Bruce Blakeman, has been searching for a compelling argument that would turn the political tide in his favor.
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Heart be still, he might have struck gold just in time.
Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, is laser focused on the incumbent’s too-cozy relationship with Gotham’s socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani.
It’s an alliance the GOP nominee believes is distorted because, as Blakeman sees it, Mamdani is calling the shots and Hochul is tagging along for the ride.
“It’s Mamdani the commie and comrade Kathy,” he told me Tuesday.
The governor’s odious habit of doing the mayor’s bidding is becoming a staple of Blakeman’s pitch to voters that Mamdani is “running the Democratic Party and Hochul is taking orders from him.”
It’s a powerful message about an outrageous alliance waiting to be exploited.
The governor’s five-year Albany spending spree, including her bail-out of Mamdani’s extravagant budget with billions of state money, and her passage of the pied-à-terre tax, demolish forever the Big Lie that she is a moderate.
‘Helpful’ alliance: Kat
It’s a ruse that the lefty media are happy to swallow hook, line and sinker.
Hochul repeated the false claim in a recent interview with Politico, saying “I’m a moderate Democrat,” while also acknowledging she and Mamdani frequently see things the same way.
“So I think our interests are more aligned than people believe. I don’t think it’s a socialism versus capitalism debate,” she insisted.
Oh, but that’s exactly what it should be and would be if she hadn’t surrendered the high ground in a craven bid to attract the mayor’s youthful followers. It doesn’t bother her that many are anti-Israel and anti-American.
Nor does she seem even mildly troubled that Mamdani doesn’t believe Israel should exist as the Jewish homeland.
Asked by Politico about Mamdani campaigning for her, she said, “I think he’ll be helpful.”
The alliance touches on the battle roiling the Democratic Party, and where Hochul stands.
For example, it’s not clear what she thinks of Hasan Piker, the racist and antisemitic streamer who declared that “America deserved 9/11.”
Piker’s latest outrage was a recent statement where he said American Jews are effectively to blame for violence against them when they support Israel.
“If Jews in America keep putting this idea out there that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone is going to come around and take action,” Piker said, “not against the state of Israel, mind you, but against American Jews.”
The outrage was too much even for Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s radical Dem nominee for Senate, who campaigned with Piker in the past.
This time, he said he opposes “any rhetoric that puts the community at risk.”
No word from Mamdani, of whom Piker said recently on Twitch, “I love the guy.”
He also said he finds it “awesome” that Mamdani surrounds himself with some people who are “cooler” than he is, apparently meaning more radical.
He has also faulted Mamdani for endorsing Hochul, saying she could not be trusted.
I’m not aware of any comment where Hochul denounced Piker, or raised questions about Mamdani’s relationship with him.
‘Super’ backing
Count on Blakeman and the two super PACs supporting him to refuse to allow her to get away with that. If she can’t denounce vile creatures like Piker and demand that Mamdani do the same, she deserves to be toast.
The opportunities for Blakeman come at a critical time.
Although a recent Siena poll showed he had cut Hochul’s lead in half, to 10 points, he still faces a steep climb.
The poll’s best news for him was that he holds a five-point lead among independent voters, who outnumber registered Republicans in the state.
He also holds an eight-point lead in downstate suburbs, but is getting absolutely crushed in the city, 64%-19%. If anything like that holds, Hochul would win in a landslide.
But Blakeman is fortunate in that two super PACs are picking up the fight for him.
Because campaign laws prohibit any coordination, Blakeman said he has had no contact with either group.
One of them is called Strong and Safe New York and is backed by Knicks owner James Dolan. It started running ads on TV and social media attacking the governor’s record.
“Kathy Hochul blames President Trump for everything,” a narrator says in one ad.
“But the president didn’t raise our energy bill 48 times — Hochul did.”
It also says, Trump “didn’t put illegal migrants in hotels and stick us with the bill — Hochul did.”
And this, too, “The president didn’t raise taxes and tell New Yorkers to get the hell out — Hochul did.”
The second super PAC is getting started and organizer Jason Meister believes he can raise millions to tie Hochul to Mamdani and defeat what he calls the “Marxist, Communist wing of the Democratic Party.”
Meister, an insurance executive and a Trump supporter, ran a “Defend NYC” super PAC that targeted Mamdani during last year’s mayoral race while backing Andrew Cuomo.
Meister told me he sees this year’s race as actually much easier than that one, which he described as telling Republicans and moderate Dems to “hold your nose and vote for Cuomo.”
This time, he said, he’ll target those Dems with a similar message to get them to vote for the GOP candidate, telling them to hold their nose and vote for Blakeman.
Roadmap for Bruce
Meister is aware of the odds, and the fact that the recent GOP highwater mark in the five boroughs came with Lee Zeldin’s 2022 race against Hochul and Trump’s 2024 campaign.
Both got just 30% in the city, and lost the state by about six points.
Meister sees those contests as roadmaps, especially because black voters, a traditional strength for Dems, have not been turning out in big numbers for socialists in New York and around the nation.
He sees the situation as an advantage for Blakeman, in that Zeldin and Trump did not have the benefit of running while there was a socialist in City Hall.
He believes many city voters are repelled by Mamdani’s agenda of “destruction by design” and the spreading of socialism across the country.
Mamdani got about 1.1 million votes last year, but almost as many New Yorkers voted against him.
In a crowded field, Cuomo finished second with 906,000 votes and Curtis Sliwa came in third with nearly 154,000.
Meister sees a golden opportunity in that result, saying “we are aiming for all those people who didn’t vote for Mamdani as well as those who did and already are disenchanted.”
It’s the right approach, and probably the only way Blakeman can win the state.
By doing even modestly better than the 30% of the city vote that Trump and Zeldin got, he could end Hochul’s reign of error.
