In all the craziness surrounding Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s disastrous visit to the White House last week, you are excused for not noticing President Trump’s action against his own Vice President, JD Vance. You see, VP Vance decided that he was going to stand up to President Trump and criticize him for some of his positions. In response, President Trump blocked him from accessing his offices both in the White House and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
Confused? Did you miss this piece of news? Well, actually, this is not what happened in Washington, but in Albany, with our governor and lieutenant governor last week. You see, Governor Kathy Hochul, who lucked into her position as governor, has consistently proven why she should not be in her position. She currently boasts a 39% approval rating, according to a poll released just this week from Siena College. By the way, in the same poll, Donald Trump has a 41% approval rating in New York. If you are the Democrat sitting in the governor’s office in Albany, and Donald Trump is more popular than you are in your own state, you know you have problems.
You know who else knows you have problems? The rest of your party, including your lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado. Recently, Delgado announced that he will not be running alongside Hochul in 2026, priming him for a primary challenge against his former boss. Delgado cites some major political decisions made by Hochul in the last year that have caused him to lean in this direction, specifically Hochul’s decision to back Joe Biden after his disastrous debate performance in 2024, and her decision to allow New York Mayor Eric Adams to remain in his position.
In response to his announcement, Hochul removed his access to his offices in the State Capitol in Albany, as well as his offices in Hudson Valley and New York City. She has also confiscated his communication devices and has reassigned his staff. Effectively, he is an elected lieutenant governor with nothing to do. Well actually, he does have something to do: He can now spend his time campaigning for the next two years against his current boss. Don’t worry about his finances, though. Despite the governor taking away his job, Delgado gets to keep his salary. So, in essence, Hochul is paying one of her main competitors to travel around the state and tell everyone why he should replace her.
How much is the salary for the lieutenant governor of New York, you ask? A mere $220,000 annually, which, of course, is the highest in the nation for that position. So, for the next 22 months, New York State will be paying a man over $372,000 to stay home, not to mention all of Delgado’s staff that will presumably be sent to do jobs that do not need to exist. That sounds like a good use of money, especially from someone who has already done New Yorkers the courtesy of saving them money by implementing congestion pricing in Manhattan.
This behavior tells us several things about our soon-to-be-ex-governor. Firstly, she does not know how to choose a staff. She selected a running mate in her first election who has been extremely outspoken against her. (I guess she has that in common with Trump.) Secondly, she is learning from her predecessor in that the Governor of New York has to hold everyone else down in order to maintain power. It worked for Andrew Cuomo until certain actions caught up with him. But for a very long time, Cuomo ruled New York without anyone able to touch him, all because everyone knew not to step up to him. Hochul is trying to do the same thing – except she doesn’t have the backing of her constituents, nor the charisma to pull it off.
Finally, it shows us where her priorities lie. The mayor of New York City is embattled in a hefty amount of corruption with a foreign government, and despite having the power to remove him from office, she decides to take no action. But a lieutenant governor who has been accused of nothing more than speaking out against her political decisions, despite having no authority to remove him from office, Governor Hochul basically does it anyway. Let’s just say if Donald Trump, or even any nationally recognized Republican governor like a Ron DeSantis of Florida, or Gregg Abbott of Texas, had done something like this, they would be accused of attacking Democracy.
Do not take this as an endorsement of Antonio Delgado. When it comes to policies, he widely agrees with Hochul. If anything, Delgado may be further to the left on key issues than Hochul is and would be a disaster leading this state, as well. While there may be some level-headed Democrats like Congressman Ritchie Torres, who have all but announced their intentions, this may be another election where the Republicans can nominate a strong candidate to run this time. Too bad Donald Trump has already taken Lee Zeldin and Elise Stefanik to be part of his administration.
Izzo Zwiren works in healthcare administration, constantly concerning himself with the state of healthcare politics. The topic of healthcare has led Izzo to become passionate about a variety of political issues affecting our country today. Aside from politics, Izzo is a fan of trivia, stand-up comedy, and the New York Giants. Izzo lives on Long Island with his wife and two adorable, hilarious daughters.
