2022 Election: NY Democratic party nominates Hochul for Governor

NEW YORK - In a historic step, the New York State Democratic Party nominated the first female candidate for Governor, at the 2022 State Democratic Convention.

But being first is something Governor Kathy Hochul already knows well, assuming the role of first female Governor of New York when former Governor Andrew Cuomo resigned amid numerous allegations of misconduct.

Hochul’s reception at the State Convention was overwhelmingly supportive and she walked away with 85% of the weighted vote from the hundreds of committee members gathered at the Sheraton Hotel.

Her two rivals on the other hand, Congressman Tom Suozzi, who chose not to enter his name to be voted on, and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who received about 12% of the vote, fell short of the 25% needed to automatically appear on the primary ballot in June.

Yet both say they are more than prepared to start knocking on doors to petition their way onto the ballot. 

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In 2018, Cynthia Nixon and her then Lieutenant Governor pick Jumaane Williams had to gather signatures in order to run against former Governor Cuomo and his Lieutenant Governor pick Kathy Hochul in the Democratic primary.

"We always viewed this as a glass half full either way," Williams said about needing to petition his way again to get on the ballot. "As an organizer, I always valued having this as a tool to organize people around."

Williams also has the backing of the Working Families Party again which should help him garner signatures over the next few months.

"I’ve already done seven telephone town halls with over 45,000 registered Democrats," Suozzi said  he is confident he can take his message straight to voters.

But both rival candidates took issue with the fact that State Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs already endorsed Hochul in the primary.

Jacobs, who has been pushing against having a primary, was unfazed by the criticism.

"I’m in a leadership position and I think it would have been disingenuous of me to know that I want Kathy Hochul, I felt she was the best candidate, and not be forthcoming," Jacobs said. Then I’d be accused of something else. So one way or another, I was gonna get accused of something. I support Kathy Hochul and I’m very proud of it."

And he is not the only one. Suozzi revealed that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called and asked him not to run and to stay in Congress.

Suozzi says he turned her down.

"I feel so strongly that the country is in a lot of trouble, and people are not talking to each other," Suozzi said

Attorney General Letitia James was also nominated to be the party’s designee in her re-election bid for Attorney General.

James delivered a passionate speech, tying her handling of former Governor Andrew Cuomo to former President Donald Trump.

"When I was elected Attorney General, I vowed to act without fear or favor, to hold the powerful accountable whether Republican or Democrat, public or private sector," James said. 

James then launched into detailing her January 2021 report which showed that the Cuomo administration miscounted the number of COVID-related nursing home deaths by more than 50%.

"When COVID struck and our seniors were dying in nursing homes, I stood up and fought for them," she said. "My office investigated and found that the State's Department of Health undercounted COVID-19 deaths and nursing homes failed to comply with infection control protocols. And worst of all, they lied about it."

James also thinly referenced the pushback from the Cuomo camp on the sexual harassment allegations and said she "will not bow" and "will not break.

"It has become clear that the former governor will never accept any version of these events other than his own," James said. "And to achieve that he is now claiming the mantle of victim and disgracefully attacking anyone in his path, pushing others down in order to prop himself up."

Cuomo has denied doing anything wrong on numerous occasions and his lawyer has filed a complaint against the Attorney General, saying the lawyers she appointed to lead the investigation into Cuomo were biased.

Cuomo did resign in August 2021 though, once it became likely he would be facing an impeachment trial.

In a statement on Thursday, Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi called James a "serial liar."

"The fact is she ignored clear evidence of blackmail, perjury, inconsistent testimony and witness tampering, misused her office as a springboard for her own botched bid for governor and falsely accused the former governor violating the law only to have five separate district attorneys reject her claims," he said. "No number of speeches can paper over the fact that Tish James, Joon Kim and Anne Clark committed prosecutorial misconduct and this will now be a matter for the relevant attorney misconduct review board. We also challenge her to stop hiding and defend her report in a public forum."

Lieutenant Governor Brian Benjamin also won handily the Democratic Party’s designation in his run for the seat.

He will be running in a primary against Diana Reyna, Suozzi’s pick for Lieutenant Governor. Williams has not yet named a running mate nor does he technically have.

Unlike the presidential election, Governor and Lt. Governor run separately.

State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli also breezed to victory as well as U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, who kicked off his speech calling for student debt to be canceled and marijuana to be legalized on the federal level.

Clinton headlined the event, called on the Democratic Party to unify itself to beat Republicans in the fall.

"America is only as strong as our unity and our democracy allows us to be," Hillary Clinton said. "That's why New York must be not just the home of the Statue of Liberty, we must be the defenders of liberty, not just a laboratory of democracy, but a protector of democracy.

"It’s a whole new dawn, it’s a whole new day," Hochul said ending the 2022 Democratic Convention.