New York Governor Candidates Start Early Push for 2022 Race

(Bloomberg) -- New York’s governor’s race is a year away, but potential candidates are already jockeying for support.

On Thursday, outgoing New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio released a state education plan that called for free year-round schooling for New York students and a tax hike on the wealthy in an interview that hinted at potential plans to run for governor. 

“This would be a first-in-the-nation approach,” de Blasio said Thursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” 

De Blasio said his plan will help working families across the state, but he declined to say whether that meant he will be running for governor when his second term as mayor expires at the end of the year. He said he will be in public service “no matter what.”

The plan was not issued in his official capacity as mayor, but rather on a website paid for by a recently formed committee called “New Yorkers for a Fair Future.” The committee will allow de Blasio to start fundraising for public, statewide office and sets him up to enter the governor’s race.

“New York has 118 billionaires,” he said on his website. “We will increase the state’s income tax for everyone making over a million dollars and new brackets for the highest earners to make sure those who can afford it most give all New York’s children and families a shot at success while reducing the outrageous levels of inequality in our state.”

Union Rally

The 2022 gubernatorial race has been heating up, with New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams this week becoming the latest candidate to announce his run. 

Williams joined Governor Kathy Hochul and New York Attorney General Letitia James -- who have also declared their candidacies -- converged in midtown Manhattan Wednesday for a rally organized by the 1199SEIU, the largest U.S. health-care union. It was a gathering for nursing-home workers whose contract negotiations have stalled, but served as an early campaign opportunity as the Democrats vie for early endorsements.

“I think it was a smart move on their part,” said union President George Gresham said in an interview. He said whoever is elected “will play a critical role in health care in New York, so we were pleased that they decided to all come.”

A mass of people congregated outside of the union’s Seventh Avenue headquarters, with Hochul, James and Williams giving speeches in support of health-care workers and labor rights. They were appealing to a particularly important group: 1199SEIU is one of New York’s most influential unions, and its support was critical to propelling de Blasio to victory in 2013. Over 40% of the union’s 450,000 members are based in the New York metro area.

Hochul, who took office in August after the resignation of Andrew Cuomo, vowed that “your governor will never abandon you.” Williams hyped up the crowd with a series of chants such as “we are essential” but “not expendable.” James brought up her investigation into nursing-home conditions during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, which found that deaths were substantially undercounted. 

“I stand with you, I stood with you before and will always stand with you,” she said.

The rally was centered on contracts with for-profit nursing homes that expired on Sept. 30. A small subset of workers with the union has a separate agreement with New York City expiring in April. 

Business Pitch 

Hochul doubled down Thursday, delivering a campaign-style speech at the Association for a Better New York’s Power Breakfast in Manhattan in which she urged workers to return to company offices and talked about the $1 billion she wants to use to repair roads and bridges.

Hochul said her “new approach to the governorship,” which includes addressing racial inequities and working alongside New York City and other local governments, will help her win the primary.

“They’ll start feeling tangible results in their lives because of the new leadership in Albany, and there’ll be no reason for them to change that,” Hochul said when asked about her strategy.

She said she also planned to use her role as a Democratic leader to help keep Democrats in office at the national level during the 2022 midterm elections, so President Joe Biden doesn’t get “hamstrung” in the last two years of his administration. 

“There is an anxiety out there, a frustration,” she said. “We need to start speaking to the people who feel that we’ve lost it. We’ve not been speaking to the middle-class families, the struggling farmers, the small businesses, we have to start letting people know that we’re fighting for all of them.”

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