Campaign time for Hochul

By ERIN DURKIN, ANNA GRONEWOLD and DEANNA GARCIA

04/12/2022 06:59 AM EDT

It’s finally time for Kathy Hochul to get political.

Fresh off a budget deal that wrapped up over the weekend, the governor hit the campaign trail on Monday with double rallies in New York City and earned official endorsements from both TWU Local 100 and 32BJ SEIU.

She’s started talking politics, too. Hochul said she is open to the new-old idea that state party chair Jay Jacobs recently floated, which would create an independent third party forDemocrats to run on this fall. “This is about winning in November, and so we are going to weigh all of our options,” she said.

And she said she’d accept the Working Families Party line in November, if offered. The WFP has endorsed Hochul’s opponent New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams for the June primary.

That’s fewer than three months away, and it’s none too soon to get everyone hyped up. Though she’s got a hearty $21 million in her campaign account, Hochul hasn’t yet begun airing TV advertisements to counter the millions spent by both other gubernatorial candidates from both parties. It’s still unclear how she’ll earn broad support from key voting blocs, like Black voters downstate.

She’s thus far pivoted from directly responding to any of her opponents as they’ve hammered from both right and left on crime, taxes, and a hefty check from the state that will keep the Buffalo Bills in her hometown. Her focus has been on the...

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