Diss me, Cait!
Gov. Kathy Hochul got fired up Friday about suggestions that she’s dragging down fellow Democrats on next month’s ballot — after a congressional candidate was caught on video agreeing with her Republican opponent that the incumbent governor has “got to go.”
“I really don’t lose a lot of sleep over other people’s debates,” Hochul told reporters when asked about fellow Dem Cait Conley’s comments during a forum with her GOP Rep. Mike Lawler in the contentious race for New York’s 17th House District.
“I don’t really care about how Mike Lawler characterizes something,” she railed, during an unrelated event in Manhattan.
She then claimed that Conley had “clarified” the caught-on-camera moment.
Conley’s campaign bizarrely claimed in a statement Thursday evening that Lawler was “lying in a desperate attempt to save face,” but didn’t explain further.
The video, taken at a VFW forum in northeastern Putnam County on October 13, shows Lawler telling attendees: “We need a new governor. Kathy Hochul has to go.”
Conley then takes the mic and says she’s in “absolute agreement” with Lawler, before she repeatedly bashes New York’s business climate.
Though she attempted to wave off the public diss, Hochul didn’t really push back on the notion that she’s a drag on down-ballot Democratic candidates, a reality that’s haunted her since Republicans made huge gains the last time she was up for election, in 2022 against then-Long Island Rep. Lee Zelding.
The GOP picked up three seats in New York that year, helping them take control of the House of Representatives, and Hochul was blamed by prominent members of the party, including Nancy Pelosi.
“I want my candidates to win, and that’s all I’m going to say about it, I want my candidates to win,” Hochul said Friday.
