Stories: Andrew Cuomo resigns; Kathy Hochul to become NY governor

ALBANY – Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul of Buffalo – soon to be New York's first female governor – Thursday vowed to run for reelection in 2022 while also indicating she will tackle the politically perilous issue of masks in the state's schools.

Asked on NBC's "Today" show whether she will run for reelection, Hochul said: "Yes, I will. I fully expect to. I prepared for this. I've led a life working at every level of government, from Congress to local government. I'm the most prepared person to assume this responsibility, and I'm going to ask the voters at some point for their faith in me again."

ALBANY – New standards of ethics and transparency are coming to the governor's mansion. The next lieutenant governor will be a full partner in governing. And soon, New York will have a governor engaged in making sure the Bills remain in Buffalo.

Those were among the points that Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul made to The Buffalo News in the first one-on-one interview she has granted since Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced Tuesday that he will resign.

ALBANY – Kathy Hochul presented herself to New Yorkers on Wednesday as the incoming 57th governor of New York, saying she is ready to tackle rising Covid-19 caseloads, economic worries and other issues that have not gotten the full attention of scandal-distracted Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

“I’m ready. I want people to know I’m ready for this," Hochul said in a brief, 20-minute appearance before reporters in the Capitol on Wednesday afternoon.

Kathy Hochul, the New York lieutenant governor about to succeed Andrew M. Cuomo as governor, said today she will act as soon as within two weeks to name her successor as the state's second in command.

"It will be somebody who is no stranger to me, but also someone that will carry on the vision of my administration, which is to continue the strongly progressive policies," she said in Albany.

Incoming Gov. Kathy Hochul chose the Capitol’s Blue Room – a less ornate space than the Red Room, which is located on the other end of the Capitol and adjoins Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s personal Capitol office – for her first speech and news conference.

The Blue Room, which in 1883 housed the state Court of Appeals, was favored by the late Gov. Mario Cuomo, the outgoing governor’s father, as a place to hold formal news conferences. His son since 2011 has studiously avoided the space, in part, because governors had to walk through the Capitol’s public halls – with its protestors or tourists or pestering reporters in chase – to get back to their private offices.

Anyone looking for clues from Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul about what school might look like this September came away disappointed from her first news conference after Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced he would resign in two weeks.

Hochul said she knew the last year and a half has been "so challenging" for families and businesses."

Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul made it plain Wednesday that she wasn't going to carry baggage that Gov. Andrew Cuomo is leaving behind.

"I think it's very clear that the governor and I have not been close. Physically or otherwise in terms of much time," she told reporters in her first address since Cuomo announced Tuesday that he would resign following an explosive report by the state attorney general that found he sexually harassed 11 women.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo will leave office in less than two weeks after his resignation on Tuesday, but a Western New York gender studies leader hopes the impact of his departure marks a milestone in the way sexual harassment in the workplace is addressed going forward.

“Leaders of a company set the climate. They set the tone. And if they don't lead through a practice of morality, integrity and openness, then it's going to lead to a kind of trickle-down toxicity that we’ve seen in the governor's executive office,” said Carrie Tirado Bramen, director of the University at Buffalo Institute for Research and Education on Women and Gender. 

Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul's husband will remain a top executive with a Buffalo-based concessions and gambling giant after she becomes governor, despite the possible conflict of interest between the two roles.

William J. Hochul Jr., a longtime federal prosecutor, was hired by Delaware North in 2016 and as senior vice president and general counsel manages legal, regulatory and compliance matters for the international, privately held firm.

ALBANY – The resignation of Andrew M. Cuomo as New York’s 56th governor – paving the way for Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul to be governor in 14 days – raises many questions about process, continuity of key government duties and filling of key positions in Albany.

A look at just some of the immediate issues in the process:

The name "Nathan Miller” is hardly chiseled on marble pillars throughout New York. Still, it is a name to remember today, as Western New York native Kathy Hochul waits to ascend to governor after the resignation of Andrew Cuomo, who announced Tuesday that he will step down in 14 days after an investigation led by state Attorney General Letitia James determined that Cuomo “sexually harassed multiple women and in doing so violated federal and state law."

Miller, a Syracuse lawyer born in Cortland County, served one term as a Republican governor, reaching that job in 1920 by defeating legendary Democrat Al Smith. That makes him the last New York governor before Hochul truly shaped by a life in what most of us would consider Upstate, at least the vast swath of the state that falls west of Albany.

The morning began with Gov. Andrew Cuomo's lawyer fiercely defending him from allegations of sexual harassment.

Within an hour and a half, Cuomo announced he would resign, clearing the way for his lieutenant governor, Kathy Hochul, to become the first woman governor of New York and only the second from Buffalo.

As New York's lieutenant governor, Kathy Hochul spent the past six years smiling her way across the state, working every hamlet as if it were her own political precinct.

But now she finds herself playing politics on New York's toughest turf: the state capital, where she will become governor in 14 days.

ALBANY – When Kathy Hochul becomes the 57th governor of New York this month, she will do so at an extraordinary moment in the state's history.

Leading the state through the pandemic as the Delta variant has upended what the public – and scientists – thought they knew about Covid-19 would be enough to keep any chief executive busy.

For more than 10 years, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo made economic development in Buffalo Niagara a priority unlike any of his post-war predecessors.

But with Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Buffalo native, poised to succeed Cuomo in two weeks as the embattled governor resigns, it's not likely that Western New York – and much of upstate – will return to its old status as the troubled, yet often ignored, stepchild.

ALBANY – On his first day in office in 2011, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo promised to “bring back integrity” to the State Capitol.

Ten years and seven months later, laid low by a report that accused of him of serial sexual harassment, he announced his resignation and became the latest in a long line of state officials remembered not for integrity, but for ignominy.

For more than a decade, Andrew M. Cuomo dominated the politics of New York State.

He may have sparred with his own Democrats and ignored opposing Republicans in recent years. But his persona of power and omnipotence often overwhelmed any effort at challenge.

In the end, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo did the right thing. Acknowledging the damage the allegations of sexual harassment was inflicting on the state, and only a week after the explosive report that led to the moment, New York’s governor of 10 years announced that he would resign in two weeks. Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul of Buffalo will become governor before the month is out.

Cuomo governed with his elbows out and he made enemies, even within his own party. But he was also able to project a measure of eloquence and, in a rueful way, he brought that to bear in Tuesday’s surprise announcement. While denying any actions that he would not want to see his daughters endure, he acknowledged that some of his conduct had properly offended women. It was, at least as far as it went, an admission that seemed heartfelt.

As lieutenant governor, Kathy Hochul has served as a goodwill ambassador for the administration of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, amassing political capital across the state. Now, Hochul must draw on that surplus as she prepares to become governor of New York in two weeks.

Hochul will make history as the first woman to occupy the office, the first Buffalo native since Grover Cleveland resigned as governor in January 1885 to become president of the United States and the first upstate governor in 100 years.

Seventeen minutes after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced he was stepping aside, the first of many politicians to come emailed their reaction to The Buffalo News. 

"Today marks one small step toward restoring honor, decency, and accountability to New York State government. I hope today also brings some measure of justice to the brave women who had the courage to come forward against a powerful and vindictive political figure," said the message from Sen. Robert Ortt, R-North Tonawanda, the State Senate minority leader. 

Kathleen Courtney Hochul timeline

1958: Born in Buffalo.

With Gov. Andrew Cuomo's announcement Tuesday, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Buffalo Democrat, will become the state's first female governor in 14 days. The announcement puts her in rarefied political air. Of the nation's five largest states by population, just one, Texas, has had a female chief executive – and that was 30 years ago.

Here's a look at some of her company among "female firsts" in New York State government.

A defiant Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday he will resign in 14 days in the wake of Attorney General Letitia James' scathing report that accused Cuomo of sexually harassing 11 women.

The resignation of the 63-year-old Democrat will make Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Buffalo Democrat, the state’s chief executive and the first female governor in the state's history.

Kathy Hochul has been traveling the state since 2015 as New York's lieutenant governor without a lot of attention, as happens with lieutenant governors everywhere.

But now intense scrutiny focuses upon Albany's second-in-command as she assumes the new and unofficial title of governor-in-waiting.

ALBANY – Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s time as the state government’s chief executive was drawing closer to an apparent end Sunday night as his most trusted adviser, Melissa DeRosa, submitted her resignation, saying that the past two years have been “emotionally and mentally trying.”

The abrupt resignation of DeRosa, sharply criticized by the state's top lawyer for her handling of sexual harassment allegations against the governor, was a simple and direct sign: Cuomo's ability to hold onto his job is evaporating by the hour.

More often than not, the stars, moons and planets of New York's political heavens have aligned perfectly for Kathy Hochul.

From rising through former Chairman Joseph F. Crangle's Democratic organization, to her appointment and subsequent election as county clerk, to the three-way race allowing victory in a Republican congressional district, to her selection as Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's running mate, opportunity has always followed Hochul.

The list of Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul's biggest campaign donors includes a Rockefeller. There's also lots of money from big labor and business – and far more money from downstate than from Hochul's hometown of Buffalo.

In other words, in that list of big donors, you'll find the building blocks of a statewide donor network that could come in very handy for Hochul if Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo resigns or is removed from office, making Hochul a governor running for reelection next year.

Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul handled the attorney general's report on sexual harassment in the governor's office just the same way she's handled such allegations against Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo from the start: with caution.

But that's not how the Buffalo-based lieutenant governor is handling her own future, which she's preparing for – boldly.

Buffalo’s Howard Zemsky tried to help his chief of staff at Empire State Development deal with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s unwanted and, in Zemsky’s view, inappropriate  interest in her, the state attorney general’s damning report on the governor reveals.

Zemsky, the development agency’s former chairman and chief executive, heard the governor say that aide Lindsey Boylan was more beautiful than certain Hollywood actresses of the past, and Zemsky later told Boylan that Cuomo has a crush on her and asked if there was anything he could do on her behalf, the report says.

Politicians' reactions to Attorney General Letitia James' bombshell report on Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's harassment of women were harsh – and unanimous that Cuomo should resign.

"The conduct by the Governor outlined in this report would indicate someone who is not fit for office," Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a New York City Democrat, said in a prepared statement.

ALBANY – An explosive report accusing Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of repeatedly sexually harassing female government employees, including a state trooper and a woman Cuomo knew to be a sexual assault victim, has left the three-term governor  seemingly facing a choice between resignation or impeachment.

“I believe these women,’’ Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat like Cuomo, said of the 11 women who talked to her investigators about Cuomo’s behavior. The report said the Cuomo administration was a “toxic” workplace in which at least one of the women faced workplace retaliation for reporting her run-ins with Cuomo.

ALBANY – Democrats who control the state Assembly, on a hot Friday afternoon when few New Yorkers were paying attention to the news, said they were ending their five-month impeachment investigation of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, saying they don’t possess the legal authority to impeach the governor once he resigns.

Republicans said Democrats were, as Cuomo is packing boxes to move out of the Executive Mansion in Albany, covering for the Democratic governor. They threatened to release their own report – based on the 100,000 pages of documents and interviews Assembly investigators have collected – to provide a full public accounting of the many allegations against the disgraced outgoing governor.