Turmoil And Trouble: Hochul’s Four-Year Anniversary
On Sunday, August 24, Rosh Chodesh Elul, Governor Kathy Hochul will celebrate an anniversary of serving as New York’s chief executive for four years. It would be an understatement to say the first female chief executive of the Empire State has had a tumultuous four years. The positive accomplishments she achieved are well-documented by her own administration hires. Disclosing and fully explaining the turmoil during the last four years has been impeded by deliberate obscurity and obfuscation. That’s the playbook for all chief executives and Hochul’s advisors are following that methodology to a T.
As Andrew Cuomo’s lieutenant governor, Hochul played an unsatisfying but dutiful role as his number two. Prior to rising up through the statewide ranks, Hochul, a Buffalo Democrat, was an elected official on the county level as Erie County clerk, and a one-term member of Congress. It was Andrew Cuomo who tapped her to become his second in command for his second term when the first lieutenant governor, Bob Duffy, a former Rochester police chief and mayor of the Lilac City, bolted for a top post in the Finger Lakes region as the president and CEO of the Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce, a position he has held since January 1, 2015.
Hochul took over after Cuomo, a Queens native, resigned from office amid allegations of sexual harassment in the form of inappropriate touching of staff members. Hochul’s first objective was to clean house, make for a friendlier work environment, and shuffle the deck chairs on an apparent sinking ship.
However, not everything was smooth sailing for her. Two days after taking office, she chose as her number two a state senator from Harlem, Brian Benjamin. Known as a progressive, Benjamin was sworn in on September 9, 2021, as New York’s second Black lieutenant governor to serve alongside New York’s first female governor. That political marriage didn’t quite work as smoothly as expected considering the support the senator had from the Democrats when chosen by Hochul. One of Benjamin’s strongest allies was Hazel Dukes, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and president of the organization’s New York State chapter.
However, it turns out Benjamin was not squeaky clean but had slipped through the cracks as investigators from the New York State Police gave the governor’s office the green light on his appointment prior to September 9. Even while passing muster with state law enforcement officials, scrutiny continued on the federal level. Federal prosecutors alleged that in 2019, when Benjamin was a state senator, he used his position to steer a $50,000 state grant to a nonprofit, Friends of Public School Harlem, run by Harlem real estate developer and lawyer Gerald Migdol, who in turn arranged thousands of dollars in unlawful “straw donor” campaign contributions to Benjamin’s 2021 bid for New York City comptroller. Migdol pleaded guilty to bribery in 2022 and gave federal prosecutors evidence against Benjamin. In the indictment, prosecutors also alleged that Benjamin had falsified campaign contribution paperwork and provided false information on forms during an August 2021 background check before his selection as lieutenant governor. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
Despite these incidents and returning several thousands of dollars from his campaign account, he later told state police that he had never been contacted by the New York Board of Elections while being vetted for lieutenant governor.
Benjamin’s downfall exploded while he was in the Hochul administration. On April 12, 2022, he resigned as lieutenant governor and Hochul dropped his name like a hot potato after a federal indictment charging him with bribery, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and falsification of records was unsealed.
The federal case fell apart when Gerald Migdol died in February 2024, as Migdol had been anticipated to be the prosecution’s key witness. On January 17, 2025, the U.S. Attorney’s Office dropped its case against Benjamin, including the charges of bribery and federal wire fraud, citing the difficulty of proving the charges after Migdol’s death.
The governmental marriage between Hochul and Benjamin was never repaired. She never uttered his name, even though he was no longer under a cloud of judicial suspicion.
A similar case occurred after Hochul took over the reins of government from Andrew Cuomo. Hochul refused to mention her predecessor’s name even in cases where projects which began under his administration were finished under her administration. Although Cuomo denied any wrongdoing in the touching scandal, Hochul had no stomach for that alleged conduct. She has refused to give him the benefit of the doubt and has not spoken to him in four years.
While Hochul had two men whom she refused to acknowledge or speak to, her second choice for lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado, has dumped her. He is now trying to mount a nascent but fledgling campaign to challenge her in next year’s gubernatorial election. Hochul had high hopes for Delgado when she tapped him to be her second number two. Both are former members of Congress and knew the federal process well, including how to tap into funding for New York state projects.
Delgado said he felt unsatisfied in his role as Hochul’s teammate. Following public disagreements with her, he said in February 2025 that he would not seek reelection as lieutenant governor in 2026. In June 2025, he announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for governor of New York in 2026. When he gave up on Hochul, in the few remaining months of this year’s session he also never presided over the Senate session, which is the only duty he is required to do by law. No one has ever explicitly expressed why he has not entered the Capitol building since he broke away from Hochul, never resigned his $227,673 position, and never showed up to the office. Hochul redeployed Delgado’s staff. Her only comment about Delgado was, “I could have used a partner in government. It is obvious he didn’t want to be my partner in government. He didn’t want to do the job.” But she never tried to remove him from office.
For his part, Delgado countered with a backhanded slap against Hochul: “I believed we needed more leaders in government willing to hold themselves accountable to the people – and only the people. I believe New Yorkers deserve this kind of leadership now more than ever. Serving the people of New York is a privilege I don’t take lightly. I am determined to be your voice in state government now and in the future. All options are on the table.”
The 66-year-old chief executive has also had trouble within her communications office since she took over from Andrew Cuomo four years ago. When Hochul began her tenure as governor, she vowed not to tolerate a hostile work environment or sexual misconduct in the executive chamber. Hochul instituted strict protocols to try to prevent this from happening. For the most part it worked effectively, but there are always exceptions. The most startling problem was one of the people closest to Hochul – her communications director Avi Small, a gay Jewish member of her administration. Small was the go-to guy for reporters. He’s affable and always helpful and was a favorite of most reporters.
Unbeknownst to the inner circle of the administration or reporters, during the past couple of years Small created a hostile work environment among his colleagues in the Albany and New York City gubernatorial offices. Hochul apparently knew about his actions but turned a blind eye to the matter.
During late June, a complaint was filed against Small for inappropriate touching of another male member of the administration at a straight bar in Albany catering to politicos for decades. The incident allegedly occurred after a baseball game after the legislative session ended. The question remains: If this inappropriate touching was done in a bar, were the individuals involved off-duty and on private time? In other words, when does an employee for the executive chamber have time off?
Small resigned his $162,000 position from the executive chamber and the other employee was reassigned, never to be seen again. This must have been agonizing for Governor Hochul since this was another close, high-profile associate who had failed her in the line of duty.
Next year should be the culmination of all this coming home to roost once the Republicans begin to campaign against her after Delgado challenges her in a primary contest.
Hochul has had many successes during her past four years, which she is not shy about promoting. You can read about all the positive actions by Hochul and her administration on her official website, www.governor.ny.gov.
