Jumaane Williams and Kathy Hochul (Photo: MNN)
Watch the Lieutenant Governor Democratic primary debate between incumbent Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul and her challenger, City Council Member Jumaane Williams. The debate was hosted by Manhattan Neighborhood Network and moderated by Gotham Gazette editor Ben Max ahead of the September 13 primary vote.
Screenshot of Cuomo campaign ad
In two advertisements issued this week, Governor Andrew Cuomo’s campaign went after Republican gubernatorial nominee Marc Molinaro, comparing the Dutchess county executive to President Donald Trump and alleging that he has participated in pay-to-play politics, with both ads full of accusations that Molinaro and his campaign vehemently denied.
Molinaro’s campaign aimed to disprove Cuomo’s accusations, which came just a few weeks before the state primary election, in which Cuomo is being challenged by Cynthia Nixon, and hardly a week after Molinaro released his own TV ad disparaging the governor for corruption scandals shrouding his administration. Nixon and Molinaro have been levying some of the same attacks against Cuomo.
In an email to members of the media, the Molinaro campaign confronted Cuomo’s allegations, comparing the “fabricated” nature of the first advertisement, which ran on Facebook and New York television networks, to being “as egregious as Russian disinformation campaigns.”
The first ad, which ran last week, juxtaposes pictures of Molinaro to those of Trump while a voice narrates, “Donald Trump is attacking New York, our values and rights. And now his puppet Marc Molinaro is running for Governor.” As the video ticks off Molinaro’s alleged opposition to women’s reproductive rights and marriage equality, his “A” rating from the NRA, his support of Trump’s new tax plan, and his refusal to release his own tax returns, it also checks off boxes for both Trump and Molinaro on being, among other things, “Anti-Choice” and “Anti-LGBTQ Rights.”
But, Molinaro’s campaign holds that this information is largely inaccurate, and well beyond the norms of forgivable political messaging that may bend the truth.
Molinaro argues he is no “Trump mini-me” as he has repeatedly said he did not vote for him in the 2016 presidential election, as Gotham Gazette and other news outlets have previously reported (Molinaro says he wrote in former Rep. Chris Gibson). On the other hand, the Molinaro campaign raised the point that Cuomo has accepted over $60,000 in past donations from Trump while Molinaro has received no donations from the president in this campaign. Yet, Molinaro does appear to share a number of broader principles with the president of his own party, and when asked he has provided few specifics in terms of differences with Trump or reasons why he did not vote for him.
On the issues of reproductive rights and marriage equality, Molinaro has repeatedly said that he sees both as settled law and he would not be looking to overturn or repeal anything. For example, in a prior interview with Gotham Gazette, Molinaro said on abortion that he believes in “preserving life [...] but I accept that there are certain situations where individuals need to be able to make that decision, but I also accept that this is settled law in the state.” And, although he voted against same-sex marriage during his time in the state Assembly, Molinaro has said that his position “evolved,” as did the positions of heralded Democratic politicians such as President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and even Andrew Cuomo.
“If the language in the ad were accurate,” the Molinaro campaign email states, “Andrew Cuomo opposes marriage equality.” Additionally, while Molinaro has previously received “A” ratings from the NRA, his campaign alleges that he doesn’t have a current rating and that he also refuses to take NRA campaign contributions. At the same time, Molinaro has continued to criticize Cuomo’s gun-control SAFE Act, and appears open to tweaking it if elected. He does not regularly bring it up as a campaign issue, however.
When it comes to the accusations of acting as a “Trump mini-me” and supporting Trump’s tax overhaul that Cuomo has vehemently opposed, Molinaro’s campaign cited reports in which he criticized the recent federal tax changes and that recognize his own tax returns release. “I for one won’t support a tax plan that finances a tax cut for Roy Moore’s Alabama on the back of middle class New Yorkers,” wrote Molinaro in Hudson Valley Press. Although Cuomo’s ad accuses Molinaro of refusing to release his tax returns, the ad itself references a WXXI story that acknowledges that Molinaro and his wife released their tax returns for 2017, although Cuomo challenged Molinaro to release his tax returns for the past 10 years, a gesture the governor called “basic transparency” and that Molinaro seemingly eschewed.
“Andrew Cuomo’s ad is every bit as dishonest as what the Russians ran on Facebook’s networks in 2016 and beyond,” said Katherine Delgado, a spokesperson for Molinaro’s campaign, in an emailed statement. “Facebook’s credibility is on the line here; it needs to check the false Cuomo smear ad against the actual facts of Mr. Molinaro’s record and make a determination on whether to keep Mr. Cuomo’s misinformation on its platform.”
The Molinaro campaign officially filed a complaint with Facebook on the Cuomo ad, citing it as a false news story, according to Delgado. Facebook did not respond to Gotham Gazette for comment on any review of the ad that might be underway.
The second Cuomo advertisement, which aired on Tuesday, paints the Dutchess county executive as a participant in pay-to-play politics by highlighting more than $5,000 in campaign contributions from county contractor Tinkelman Brothers Development Corporations, which subsequently received hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax breaks from the county and hired Molinaro’s wife, Corinne Adams, as the company’s director of marketing. The ad also reiterated that Molinaro has yet to release his tax returns for the time he was a state Assembly member.
“Return the dirty money and come clean. What are you really hiding?” the ad asks of Molinaro.
In response to the most recent advertisement, which has an ad buy in the six figures according to the Cuomo campaign, Molinaro called Cuomo “a classless buffoon who chooses to attack a woman who is six-months pregnant and no longer works at the company he is referring to,” in a phone interview with the Daily News. “I really suggest to Andrew that he stick with me, because my wife is way out of his league,” he said.
“Hello, kettle? It’s the pot,” Molinaro told the Daily News in response to the pay-to-play allegations, attempting to remind anyone interested that Cuomo has been the subject of a number of pay-to-play allegations.
“Like Donald Trump, Molinaro is the king of cheap shots — but when it comes to any scrutiny of his record, he has a full-blown meltdown,” said Cuomo campaign spokesperson Abbey Fashouer in an emailed statement. “These are the facts: Molinaro has been busy taking the nepotism page from Trump’s playbook and giving tax breaks to companies with county contracts. New Yorkers already rejected one Donald Trump – and they won’t be played for fools by his mini-me.”
Both of these advertisements come a week after the Molinaro campaign put out its own 30-second TV ad that framed the governor in the context of recent corruption scandals, which saw federal corruption convictions of Joseph Percoco and Alain Kaloyeros, two former top associates of Cuomo, as well as a guilty plea from former Cuomo ally Todd Howe and multiple Cuomo donors.
“Andrew Cuomo’s top advisers are going to jail for stealing your tax dollars, and, now, he’s under investigation again in another pay-to-play scam,” a voice narrates in the ad, referencing an ongoing investigation of Crystal Run Healthcare, a healthcare company based in the Hudson Valley that donated $400,000 in campaign contributions to Cuomo and later received millions in state grants.
After its airing, the Cuomo campaign filed a cease-and-desist letter to the subsequent broadcast stations in an effort to have the ad, which the campaign reportedly called “false, cheap and nasty,” pulled from the air. The Cuomo campaign alleged that it is false because Cuomo himself is not said to be under investigation. However, the ad concluded its initial run on August 22, according to the Daily News.
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by Chelsey Sanchez, Gotham Gazette
@chelseynsanchez @GothamGazette>
Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul (photo: The Governor's Office)
Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul on Wednesday said she was “very much involved” in the recently signed laws aimed at combating sexual harassment in the workplace — a claim that comes in stark contrast to all prior indications that the legislation had been determined exclusively by four elected men and no elected women.
“I was used as a resource, as someone who has lived this experience personally, which is why I’m so passionate about standing up for women,” Hochul said while debating her Democratic primary challenger, City Council Member Jumaane Williams.
“I was there helping chart the course that the state ended up adopting,” she added, responding to a question from Gotham Gazette editor Ben Max, who moderated the debate hosted by Manhattan Neighborhood Network.
Following the debate, Hochul told a group of reporters that her “views were taken into consideration” in the legislation, adding context to the apparent debate revelation, which came after months of criticism aimed at Governor Andrew Cuomo, Hochul’s running-mate, and legislative leaders, over a lack of public hearings and female input on the legislation.
Throughout the race and the debate, Hochul has fended off criticism from Williams — an insurgent running to the lieutenant governor’s left on most issues while promising to reinvent the position if elected — who argues her role has in practice been merely a ceremonial ribbon-cutting one. She said Wednesday that not only has she had a hand in a variety of policy work, but that ribbon-cuttings should not be denigrated, given that they show something positive happening that benefits constituents.
Although the state’s new anti-sexual harassment laws have been heavily touted by Cuomo, Hochul and their allies, there has been ongoing criticism that they were passed without the direct input of elected women or harassment victims. Instead, the behind-closed-doors negotiations involved four elected men: Cuomo, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, and Senator Jeff Klein, then-leader of the now-defunct Senate Independent Democratic Conference, who has been accused by a former staffer of forcibly kissing her.
In the lead-up to those final negotiations before the larger state budget deal of which the anti-harassment bills were a part, Cuomo’s office had said that Senate Minority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Democrat and the only woman leader of a legislative conference, would be included in the talks on harassment prevention. But she was not. Amid criticism, neither the governor nor anyone from his team publicly indicated that Hochul had been involved.
Chief among the critics of the process and product was the Sexual Harassment Working Group — a new coalition of seven women who have alleged facing sexual harassment or abuse while working in state government. One of the women, Rita Pasarell, told Gotham Gazette on Thursday that she had “not heard of Lieutenant Governor Hochul's involvement until her recent statements.” Pasarell said she “would like to hear more about what specific parts of the law she advocated for and how she believes these will help workers.”
“I would also like to know if she has spoken to any victims who have reported sexual harassment at work, including government workers,” she added. “While the 2018 laws make some progress, there is much room for improvement.”
She said, extent of Hochul’s role in the process aside, it would be no substitute for a “transparent public vetting for legislation.”
“We need to create victim-informed laws by listening to workers across industries, in public hearings,” Pasarell said.
For her part, Senator Stewart-Cousins, who was briefed on discussions but not included in them, said in June on the Max & Murphy podcast that it was “strange” to her that she did not have a seat at the table when the legislation was being drafted.
“As the only elected woman leader, and the only elected woman leader that has led a conference in the history of New York State, during this #MeToo moment, you would have thought you would have been able to get in a room and at least let her say something,” she continued. “Never happened.”
This line of criticism prompted pushback from some in the governor’s office, who noted that there were female aides who had a hand in crafting the sexual harassment legislation.
“Actually, I am in the room-along w other top female aides to the Senate & Assembly,” Melissa DeRosa, Cuomo’s top aide, tweeted in late March, attempting to throw cold water on the assertion that no women were involved in the legislative process. “It’s sad, though not entirely surprising, that even when a woman like me is in the room helping to lead the charge, some only see a room full of men.”
There was no mention of Hochul.
Asked for more explanation the day after the Hochul-Williams debate, Haley Viccaro, a spokesperson for Hochul, described the lieutenant governor’s role in informing the anti-sexual harassment legislation.
"The Lieutenant Governor often meets with women across New York and discusses issues important to them. Of course in the #MeToo era, sexual harassment is a topic that's unavoidable,” she said Thursday in a statement. “As she said, she was used as a resource as someone who has lived with this experience personally, which is why she is so passionate about standing up for women all across this country who have been silenced by men who have abused their power.”
Viccaro went on to say that Hochul was “most focused” on ensuring that the sexual harassment policy applied to both public and private employers.
“The Lieutenant Governor feels strongly that all New Yorkers deserve to have a safe and harassment-free workplace, and she has been very vocal that there must be a standard that reflects our seismic societal shift to a culture that treats men and women equally," she said.
In a statement, Dani Lever, a spokesperson for Governor Cuomo, echoed the sentiment expressed by the lieutenant governor during Wednesday’s debate.
“The Lieutenant Governor’s leadership and partnership in advocating for causes important to women across the state has been indispensable,” she said, “including her strong advocacy for extending the state’s sexual harassment model policies to private employers which will make workplaces safer for all New Yorkers.”
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by Sam Raskin
@samraskinz @GothamGazette