Gov. Kathy Hochul, who will become the state Democrats’ standard-bearer today, was not a sure bet when she replaced Andrew Cuomo last summer.
Good morning. It’s Thursday. We’ll look at how Gov. Kathy Hochul assembled a campaign juggernaut. We’ll also look at the difficulties facing would-be small business owners who dream of becoming marijuana retailers in New Jersey.
Think back to last summer, when Kathy Hochul became governor. She had made friends, but not headlines, in her six years as lieutenant governor. New York’s political class did not see her as the kind of powerhouse they were accustomed to — assertive, even audacious. And perhaps most of all, male.
The Democratic primary was little more than nine months away, to be followed by the election for a full four-year term a few months later. Many Democrats figured there would be a battle for the Democratic nomination for governor, with Hochul struggling to keep her job.
My colleague Nicholas Fandos writes that they could scarcely look more wrong now.
She is set to win the Democratic Party’s endorsement for nomination to a full term on Thursday. And, in a nod to Hochul’s history-making status as the first woman to lead New York, Hillary Clinton is scheduled to introduce her at the state Democratic convention in Midtown Manhattan.
[How Kathy Hochul Went From Unexpected Governor to Clear Front-Runner]
Hochul has reached this moment after a brisk campaign to corner party leaders and crowd out potential rivals that was as efficient as it was congenial. She put a new face on a state government mired in scandal. She also amassed $21 million in campaign contributions by January, more than her rivals combined.
It is all the more remarkable given that just a year ago, her political career appeared headed toward a dead end. Before former Gov. Andrew Cuomo became caught up in allegations of sexual harassment, his aides had curtly informed Hochul that he planned to remove her from the ticket when he ran for a fourth term in 2022.
Since then, Hochul has benefited from repeated good fortune, including the decision by her most serious rival, Letitia James, the state attorney general, to abandon a campaign for governor. Polls now show Hochul with a comfortable lead.
But she faces accusations from her primary opponents — Representative Tom Suozzi and Jumaane Williams, the New York City public advocate — that she is obfuscating on issues like crime and housing, or kowtowing to special interests that have contributed to her campaign. And political strategists say there are signs that Hochul is not yet generating the kind of enthusiasm among the Black, Latino and young voters around New York City that she may need to assemble a winning general election coalition.
“Enthusiasm means everything,” said Gabby Seay, a labor strategist who served as James’s campaign manager. “She has to work in order to build that relationship where folks are on fire about her candidacy. The question is, does she have time to do that while she is governing?”
For her part, Hochul told reporters on Tuesday that she intended to “run like an underdog until it’s over.”
Weather
A southwest wind will drive in mild air with temps approaching 60. Expect rain overnight and a low of 54 as a cold front approaches.
alternate-side parking
In effect until Feb. 21 (Washington’s Birthday).
Slimming down the city budget
Mayor Eric Adams’s first budget proposal called for across-the-board cuts of about 3 percent for most city agencies along with a gradual reduction in the city’s work force, which had grown to the largest ever under his predecessor, Bill de Blasio.
Adams’s $98.5 billion spending plan is $4 billion less than the current budget. He said it fulfilled a campaign promise to uncover savings and make city government more efficient.
Adams announced higher funding for priorities like a summer youth jobs program. But he said funding for the Police Department would remain “basically flat” at about $5 billion. Saying he disagreed with efforts to defund the police, he said he could improve public safety by moving officers from desk jobs to street duty.
“We’re going to redeploy our manpower, we’re going to make sure that everyone who is supposed to be on the streets doing their job is doing their job,” said Adams, a former police captain, “and then we will make the analysis if we have to put more money into it.”
Adams shielded some city agencies from his budget cutting, among them the Correction Department, which faces a crisis at the Rikers Island jail complex, and the Health Department, which oversees City Hall’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
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The rocky road to a retail marijuana store
New Jersey is legalizing marijuana, and hundreds of entrepreneurs are scrambling to be ready to apply for licenses to become cannabis retailers. But there are twists and turns on the road to opening a business in a new industry.
Lawmakers drafted the cannabis law to remedy wrongs in the state’s criminal justice system, which disproportionately ensnarls Black and Latino people. As recently as 2018, Black residents were more than three times as likely as white residents to be charged with possessing marijuana, although roughly the same numbers of Black and white New Jerseyans use marijuana.
For Black men like Michael White, who was charged with low-level drug possession as a teenager decades ago, running a shop that sells marijuana would be a way to write a new ending to a familiar war-on-drugs story.
His mother, Bessie White, is 78 and determined to get a license for a store that she, he and the next generation of the family could oversee. They have a name for it — Simple ReLeaf. The play on the word “relief” reflects their focus on homeopathic remedies. But they say the hurdles are high for small-business owners in an industry dominated by deep-pocketed corporations.
If they win approval, they will face competition. At least eight companies that already operate medical marijuana dispensaries have applied to become retailers. Each claims it has stockpiled enough cannabis to satisfy patients and recreational users alike — a gauge for dispensaries that want to move into the adult-use market.
Some companies have pressed the state to speed the process. Lawmakers had hoped the adult-use market would be up and running by Feb. 22, but the state will not meet that deadline. Some of the companies claim that cannabis they stockpiled to sell to retail customers will grow moldy if it is stored much longer. Others have said they may fire workers they have already hired.
The Whites and their relatives also face another roadblock — marijuana remains illegal under federal law. My colleague Tracey Tully writes that this makes banks reluctant to lend money or open accounts for cannabis businesses. Landlords, worried that a cannabis store could jeopardize their federally backed mortgages, are similarly reluctant to sign leases.
Bessie White’s niece, Theresa Howard, said the owner of a storefront they considered renting in Plainfield, N.J., increased the price to $7,200 a month — from $3,500 a month — after learning what business they had in mind. They are considering buying property instead, with help from a consultant who runs a private equity fund and has offered $500,000 in start-up money.
“We’re trying to have Plan B and C, and, if we need it, D,” Howard said.
What we’re reading
Black unemployment rates in New York City are stuck above 15 percent, The City reports.
Gothamist says the future of outdoor dining is “roadway cafes.”
METROPOLITAN diary
History lesson
Dear Diary:
My husband, son and I were on a Q train from Brooklyn to Manhattan. The car was fairly crowded, and we had to stand near one of the poles.
A young girl who was sitting next to her father leaned over to him. She might have been about 8.
“This train is really old,” I heard her whisper into his ear.
A young man of perhaps 22 with hair dyed bright yellow was standing nearby.
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” he said, “I couldn’t help overhear. But did you know they started making this train when my grandfather was a boy?”
Other passengers started to smile.
“And now they put them into the ocean when they’re done with them,” the young man added.
“Yeah,” someone else said. “They grow reefs in them!”
People started to nod in agreement.
“Your hair is golden!” an older woman shouted to the young man.
He laughed.
“My friends and I had a little bit too much fun last night and this is what happened,” he said. “My mom’s going to kill me.”
“Well, I think you look spunky,” the older woman said.
— Suzanne Pettypiece
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B.
P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here.
Melissa Guerrero, Sadiba Hasan, Emma G. Fitzsimmons, Olivia Parker and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com.
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Source: Elections - nytimes.com
