New York Governor Race: Hochul in East Flatbush, Blakeman in Middle Village as the Final Push Hits New York City
The race for governor spent its last Saturday inside the five boroughs: Gov. Kathy Hochul talked housing and affordability at a Brooklyn church while Bruce Blakeman rallied in a Queens park with a tax pitch — two visions of the same city's cost of living.
The race for New York governor made its final-weekend stand in New York City on Saturday, and both campaigns chose the same subject: what it costs to live here. Gov. Kathy Hochul campaigned in Brooklyn while her Republican challenger, Bruce Blakeman, rallied in Queens, each arguing the other's record is why New Yorkers pay too much.
Hochul stopped at Lenox Road Baptist Church in East Flatbush on Saturday afternoon, where, according to FOX 5 NY's reporting from the event, she focused on affordability and her investments in child care, education and housing. On housing, she put the argument on supply. "The only way rents will go down, where you'll have the possibility of homeownership is if we build more supply," Hochul said at the event, adding that she is, in her words, sick and tired of those who say no to building in their neighborhood — everybody, she said, deserves a good roof over their heads.
Across the East River in Middle Village, Blakeman rallied supporters at Juniper Valley Park and turned the affordability charge around, accusing the governor of leaving the door open to raising taxes. His counter-offer, as he stated it at the rally, is a tax cut aimed at the first dollars earned: "I want to be a governor who makes it affordable by putting more money in your pocket so your first $100,000 as a joint filer, no state income tax," Blakeman said. New Yorkers, he argued, cannot honestly tell their kids and grandkids they will have a better life in New York unless the state's leadership changes.
The argument lands on voters who are, in unusual numbers, already voting. More than 468,000 New Yorkers had cast early ballots by Friday night, according to the Board of Elections figures cited in the same reporting, and the count has since climbed past 572,000 heading into early voting's final day today. The governor's race is decided Tuesday, November 3, when polls across the city are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
