It’s game on as state Attorney General Tish James announced her run for governor Friday. Sadly, that signals that the Democratic primary will fast become a race to the left.
James is sharp on both policy and politics: As city public advocate, she was an effective critic of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s mismanagement. As AG, she presided over two damning reports that brought down a onetime Democratic Party golden boy, now-ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
First came her devastating January report over Cuomo’s handling of COVID-related nursing-home deaths. Then the kill-shot in August: a damning exposé corroborating 11 separate sexual-harassment allegations that soon forced him to resign — ahead of impeachment.
But she’s also yet another progressive: Her announcement video brags of going after the drug companies allegedly behind the opioid epidemic, suing the Trump administration 76 times and pushing to divest public pension funds from fossil fuels. She’s also done politically driven investigations on police shootings and the NYPD’s response to Black Lives Matter protests in summer 2020 — and wasted resources on a frivolous federal suit against ExxonMobil.
More quietly, city Public Advocate Jumaane Williams also filed to enter the race, ensuring two politically savvy black Brooklyn lefties will be going after Gov. Kathy Hochul in the primary.
The gov plainly saw this coming: She started sprinting left before she even took over. Now her First 45 Days site boasts all her left-pleasing actions:
- Decriminalizing the use of syringes and needles for illegal intravenous drugs.
- Nixing proposed natural-gas-powered electric-generation projects in Queens and Newburgh.
- Proposing $1 billion in new borrowing via a “Clean Water, Clean Air and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act.”
- Handing out $1 billion in no-questions-asked pandemic aid to undocumented workers via the Excluded Workers Fund.
- Mandating masks for school kids and state workers.
- Enacting a statewide eviction moratorium through next January.
Meanwhile, the left has nothing to say about New York’s real problems, including soaring crime in the wake of ill-conceived state criminal-justice “reforms.” That offers an opening for a more moderate Democrat to enter the race — and for a Republican to actually win next November.
Sadly, it also seems to guarantee that public safety won’t be a top priority for the governor, at least through the June 7 primary. Be afraid, New York.