From The News' archives: Who is Kathy Hochul?

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.

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.

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.

Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul has been a public face for the state's response to the coronavirus pandemic in Western New York. She helped drive home Gov. Andrew Cuomo's messaging when the region was shut down last spring and was ostensibly responsible for assessing the reopening of Western New York as the weather warmed.

She's a named leader of the Western New York vaccine hub. She held news conferences and showed up at pizza joints, hospitals, shops and churches to help explain the state's position on the Covid-19 response, state reopening guidance and pop-up vaccination clinics. 

This story, about Kathy Hochul's six years as lieutenant governor, was originally published in March after the allegations against Cuomo were raised.

Kathy Hochul hasn't made many headlines in her six years as lieutenant governor – but she's made unlikely friends in unlikely places, from the Town of Arcade to the borough of Brooklyn.

Visits to all 62 New York counties at least once, and sometimes many times. Some 524 media interviews. More than 120 calls with Western New York officials and medical professionals about the Covid-19 pandemic.

It was all in a year's work for Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul of Buffalo – in a year when a pandemic made all of that work more challenging. Hochul has long seen herself as Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's eyes and ears in the state's far reaches, and she said she wasn't going to let that role lapse even though the springtime coronavirus shutdown hampered her travels for a while.

WASHINGTON – Virtual schmoozing isn't really a thing, but you'd never really know it by the pace Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul kept during this week's virtual Democratic National Convention.

On Monday, Hochul – who chairs the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association – took part in an online panel with colleagues from Illinois and Nevada. The next morning, she made statewide headlines – and drew a rebuke from Fox News host Sean Hannity's website – with a tweet demanding that President Trump rescind his pardon of Susan B. Anthony. Hours later, she appeared on the convention's national broadcast, standing on the Brooklyn waterfront with Manhattan's nighttime skyline behind her as part of the New York contingent in the roll call of states that nominated Joe Biden for President.

National political conventions, even virtual affairs, always feature myriad side attractions that focus attention on favorite party topics. Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul joined the effort Monday on a panel on Zoom titled: “Women in Leadership in the States: A Conversation.” 

As Western New York enters phase four of its reopening on Tuesday, it's not clear how soon the businesses that have been left out will get the green light.

Movie theaters, gyms and malls are frustrated at their exclusion. Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul said Monday the state is adopting a cautious approach, wary of backsliding in its progress combating Covid-19 infections.

Some discussion topics for your next virtual cocktail party:

• Since so many viewers of the daily “Lunchtime with Andrew Show” have inquired about Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul during Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Covid-19 briefings, the Politics Column posed the question last week during a telephone interview.

New York is ready to say yes to recreational marijuana, but Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul says she'll still just say no.

The Buffalo resident, a former member of Congress and Erie County clerk, told the Daily News this week that she's never tried pot and she doesn't plan to do so if it's legalized in the state.

NEW YORK – There was a time when Kathy Hochul worried only about Hamburg, the small town where she grew up and first entered politics.

But everything changed after she rose to lieutenant governor of New York. Now the one-time Town Council member finds herself in bustling places like Brooklyn, working overtime to convince big city voters that someone from a suburb on the other side of the state can address homelessness, fair housing, income inequality and deteriorating subways.

This year’s primary for lieutenant governor could rank as the most fascinating election you never heard of.

Wait a minute. A barn-burning contest for the second spot?

Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, an Erie County Democrat, had not raised a penny for her campaign since the fall of 2014. That all changed on May 2, and she’s been on a blistering fundraising pace ever since.

Driving it: the serious Democratic primary challenge she is facing for her job from Jumaane Williams, a New York City Council member from Brooklyn.

Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul won the Athena Award, presented by the Buffalo Niagara Partnership to an individual dedicated to the advancement of women.

PHOTO GALLERY: Smiles at the 2018 Athena Awards Luncheon

Albany – Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul said – again – today that she is running for re-election with Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the fall campaigns.

“The governor and I are running together,’’ Hochul said this afternoon on the Senate floor after presiding over a swearing-in ceremony of two Democrats elected in last week’s special elections.

ALBANY – Kathy Hochul, the state lieutenant governor who has logged tens of thousands of miles promoting Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and his policies, again is facing questions about her political future after the governor recently promoted her as an ideal candidate to run for Congress.

That’s not sitting well with some who, like Hochul, are female and members of the Democratic Party who have fought to ascend the male-dominated political clubhouse in New York.

ALBANY – It’s semi-official: Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul want to stay together.

A few weeks after Hochul, a Democrat from Buffalo, said she fully intends to run again this November with Cuomo at the top of the ticket, Cuomo on Thursday said he hopes that happens again.

ALBANY — Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul dismisses talk that she will not run as Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s running mate and instead challenge Republican U.S. Rep. Chris Collins this fall as “political fodder of the chattering class.”

"My choice is to continue on as lieutenant governor and to run for re-election with the governor and not be distracted by individuals who would like me to consider beating Chris Collins this year,’’ Hochul said in an interview with The Buffalo News.

These are good days for Buffalo’s Kathy Hochul.

On Wednesday, the lieutenant governor presided over groundbreaking ceremonies for the new Explore & More Children’s Museum at Canalside before returning to Albany. Then on Thursday, she traveled back to Syracuse to promote Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s opioid abuse and college affordability programs.

If there were any questions about the close relationship between Kathy Hochul and Hillary Clinton, they were settled last month at the Hyatt Regency Buffalo.

That’s when the lieutenant governor introduced the presidential candidate at the big fundraiser that gained about $400,000 for the Democrats’ leading presidential contender. After a relationship dating from Clinton’s Senate efforts and Hochul’s days as a member of the Hamburg Town Board, Hochul is now assuming another significant role as surrogate campaigner in the key early contests of Iowa and New Hampshire.

ALBANY – In her first major assignment of the Cuomo administration, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul will lead an intensive effort to pass legislation in this session requiring private colleges to go beyond the campus and engage with law enforcement in cases of alleged sexual assault.

The lieutenant governor, a Buffalo resident, headed to Long Island on Wednesday afternoon after Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced earlier in the day his full-court press to gain the same level of protection for women at private colleges as he obtained for State University of New York students last year.

It sounds like Kathy Hochul will be busy.

Nine regional economic development councils need managing. She wants to help the state’s veterans and promote Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s women’s equality agenda. And then there’s the lieutenant governor’s one constitutional responsibility: presiding over the State Senate, a time-consuming task with all the daily excitement of watching a broken clock.

NEW YORK – Kathy Hochul will become the first lieutenant governor from Buffalo in 120 years thanks to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s Election Day win in his bid for a second term.

And she seemed very happy about it all, embracing her daughter, Katie, in their hotel room upon hearing of Cuomo’s victory shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday, and taking the stage at a ballroom at the Sheraton New York about an hour later to declare victory and look forward.

NEW YORK – In the eyes of Tim Wu, there are two Kathy Hochuls: the pro-gun, anti-immigrant conservative who served as a Democratic member of Congress from Western New York, and the conservative who’s masquerading as a progressive gun control advocate and champion of immigrants in hopes of becoming Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s lieutenant governor.

But there are two Tim Wus, too.

ALBANY – When it comes to promoting his running mate, Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino makes sure media outlets around the state regularly know the whereabouts of Chris Moss.

But Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has taken a different approach with Kathy Hochul, the former U.S. congresswoman from Erie County tapped in May by Cuomo his lieutenant governor candidate.

Former Rep. Kathleen C. Hochul is joining M&T Bank as vice president of government relations. She says her new job is all about what her old one was: bringing jobs to Western New York.

Hochul, who lost her House re-election bid in November in a close race against former Erie County Executive Chris Collins, will represent M&T in building relationships with local, state and federal officials, the bank said Wednesday. She will work out of M&T’s headquarters in downtown Buffalo.

One year ago today, Chris Collins found himself wallowing in a self-described "funk" – his promising political career in tatters.

The Republican county executive had just lost his re-election bid to Democrat Mark C. Poloncarz. A return to politics, he acknowledged, appeared unlikely.

First-term Democratic Congresswoman Kathleen C. Hochul conceded to Republican challenger Chris Collins early this morning after their torrid race for the 27th District ended in one of the closest congressional finishes in Western New York history.

“Early this morning I called Chris Collins and congratulated him on being elected to Congress,” Hochul said in a statement emailed about 2 a.m. to The Buffalo News.

Incumbent Congresswoman Kathleen C. Hochul showed up early to cast her vote at Grace Lutheran Church on McKinley Parkway in Hamburg this morning. Elections inspector Nancy McCarthy, above, helped sign her in. Polls have shown Hochul to be in a virtual tie with Republican challenger Chris Collins in the 27th District race, and voters in the farflung district, which includes parts of eight Western New York counties, may face a long wait for results. (Photos by Robert Kirkham/Buffalo News)

When Kathleen C. Hochul won a special House election six months ago, she stood for a moment at the center of the political universe.

And it's a place she has kept walking back into ever since.

    WASHINGTON -- If you believe the 10-second-long video being shopped by Republicans Tuesday, Democratic congressional candidate Kathy Hochul thinks former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has "done a great job for this country." Period.

   But in the real-life, fully-in-context version of the quote, taken from Hochul's appearance on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews on Tuesday, Hochul said of Pelosi, "You know, she's done a great job for this country, but I want people to know that I'm a very independent Democrat." Later in the interview, Hochul spelled out how she disagrees with Democratic leaders on tax increases for people making less than $500,000 a year.

Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul of Buffalo has had very little to say about the sexual harassment allegations against Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo – which could, in a worst-case scenario for Cuomo, make the former congresswoman from Buffalo the state's first female governor.

But Hochul has had plenty to say about sexual harassment and assault over the years, with most of it revolving around the theme: "Enough is enough."