Who won the NY governor debate between Hochul, Blakeman? Recap, analysis, reaction

[0:00] You support every single thing that Donald Trump does. [0:03] People should know that when they go in to vote on November 3rd. [0:06] You put a ban in because you said that you needed time to figure it out. [0:10] What have you been doing for the last four years? [0:12] All right, a big night. [0:14] The gloves were off and the candidates held back no punches [0:17] at last night's one and only New York gubernatorial debate. [0:21] Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul and Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman [0:25] battling over key issues like affordability, crime, immigration, and a lot more. [0:30] Joining us right now with some insight on the debate is Ben Max, [0:34] political analyst, host of Max Politics podcast. [0:38] Nice to have you back on Good Day. [0:40] Thanks for having me. [0:40] So was there a clear winner last night? [0:43] Well, I think both candidates did pretty well with their talking points overall. [0:49] The governor is the winner coming out of the debate because she didn't have any major gaffe. [0:53] There were no seemingly game-changing moments, [0:55] and she's the frontrunner in a very blue state leading in all the polls. [0:58] So she got through her one and only debate without seemingly any major missteps or big [1:04] moments for Blakeman. [1:05] So she's probably the winner. [1:06] But, you know, he got his points across. [1:08] So she criticized him because, obviously, he's a Republican and a supporter of Donald Trump. [1:14] And he only criticized her once on Mayor Momdani, which I think a lot of people were hoping [1:21] that he would go after her more because of their, you know, allegiance. [1:26] Yeah, yeah. [1:27] Yeah, I think there was room for him to do that more, especially on the prospect of raising taxes [1:31] next year if she's reelected and the pressure from him on that and how they have been allied [1:36] on a lot of things, even though she said she doesn't want to raise taxes. [1:39] But speaking of the president, he's complicated that thing, which Governor Hochul brought up the [1:44] first time that Blakeman brought up Momdani. [1:47] The governor said, well, President Trump seems to think he's doing a pretty good job. [1:51] And Blakeman had to say sort of jokingly, well, that's another thing I disagree with him on. [1:55] So Trump has complicated that situation for Blakeman. [1:58] But also the polling in New York State isn't that bad for Momdani. [2:02] It's not great upstate, of course, in the suburbs, but it's not as bad as I think a lot [2:06] of Republicans would have thought. [2:07] Bruce Blakeman did mention Trump multiple times, so did Governor Kathy Hochul, but he [2:13] also tried to create some distance on things like abortion and some of the immigration issues. [2:19] Does that actually resonate with people that he is trying to sort of create an independent [2:23] slice here for himself? [2:24] Well, we know that there are quite a few pro-choice Republicans in New York. [2:28] We know there's a lot of independent voters who skew towards pro-choice. [2:31] I mean, you know, it's a liberal state overall, blue state. [2:34] So does that help him with some independents, moderates who might be skeptical of him? [2:40] Probably, sure. [2:41] But I think a lot of those people are overall pretty disapproving of Donald Trump, if we [2:46] believe the polling in front of us. [2:47] He's got a very low approval rating. [2:49] So I don't know that just distancing himself on a couple of those issues while he's rallying [2:53] with Trump multiple times is helping him that much. [2:56] I mean, look at us, how many times we've mentioned the president's name just sitting here in the [2:59] first two minutes. [3:00] But is it a surprise to you also that Governor Kathy Hochul didn't necessarily bring up some [3:05] of her key issues like affordability and child care, things along those lines? [3:09] Right. [3:10] Well, Trump is a dominant figure in our politics all over the country. [3:13] Of course, he's such an active, aggressive president. [3:15] He's going to overshadow a lot of things and be part of it. [3:18] But I thought there were the Hochul strategy to tie Blakem to Trump, of course, is smart in [3:24] New York where Trump is so unpopular. [3:26] But you don't want to just be negative. [3:28] And I thought there were a number of instances she brought up elements of her record, but [3:31] she probably could have been a little more proactive talking about ways she's expanded [3:35] child care funding and some of the other things that she's done. [3:38] She mentioned them here and there. [3:39] But Blakem was right at the time when he pointed out, you just want to talk about Trump. [3:43] You don't want to talk about your record. [3:45] And she has the student cell phone ban and a variety of other things that she has done that [3:49] are popular in New York that she could have talked a little bit about. [3:51] Obviously, there are, you know, especially on social media, a lot of talk about anti-Semitic [3:55] crime and a lot of people, you know, they point the finger at the mayor and saying that, [4:02] you know, his rhetoric encourages that kind of behavior. [4:05] Whether that's true or not, I don't know. [4:08] There are a lot of Democrats that are supporting Blakeman just on that issue. [4:13] Why didn't he bring that up more? [4:15] Yeah, that was an interesting element that also wasn't really part of the debate. [4:18] He sort of talked towards the end of the night about calling Mamdani anti-Semitic. [4:24] I was actually a little bit surprised the governor didn't sort of jump in to dispute him on that. [4:29] She was a little reserved multiple times where I thought she could have sort of jumped back in to refute him. [4:33] I'm sure she's gotten some heat on that. [4:35] Absolutely. [4:36] But she could have talked in certain, you know, you're not running against Mamdani, [4:39] you're running against me, you know, that type of thing like he was trying to do about Trump. [4:42] There are, of course, many Democrats, especially more conservative Jews who are supporting Blakeman, no doubt about it. [4:49] We've seen a lot of even registered Democrat conservative Jews supporting Republicans, including Trump, for a long time now. [4:57] Does that help make this race closer than it might have been? [5:00] Possibly. [5:01] We don't know what's going to happen here, but of course Hochul is the favorite. [5:04] You know, let's just zoom out for a second. [5:06] The polls still show Kathy Hochul leading, some by double digits, but some show it's a lot closer than some people might think. [5:14] Are there anything in any of these numbers that you're looking at that sort of stand out to you in some of the polls that we've seen recently? [5:20] We have to take these polls with a grain of salt. [5:23] We always remind ourselves of that, but then also it's the data that we have to go on. [5:27] So it's very tricky, right? [5:28] Last time around four years ago, we saw Hochul with a larger lead than it wound up being, six points against Lee Zeldin. [5:35] Now, that was a political environment that was much more helpful to him. [5:38] Trump wasn't in the White House. [5:40] There weren't unpopular, you know, policies coming out of the federal government to hurt the Republican. [5:46] But this could be a closer race than these polls show, undoubtedly. [5:51] I think the independent numbers on the independent voters are, of course, always interesting to watch because there's more independents in New York than Republicans, right? [5:58] So where those independent voters go is really important. [6:02] It'll be interesting to see whether these debates really matter. [6:05] I mean, like the attorney general race, that debate, that was, by many accounts, not great for Letitia James. [6:12] Which could make that race closer. [6:14] I mean, Saritha Comitoretti, people do not know her across New York. [6:17] That debate and all the social media attention on it afterward, along with traditional media, certainly could help her close what seemingly would have been an insurmountable gap. [6:27] By the way, Max, love your podcast. [6:29] You just put out a new episode about 45 minutes ago about that variation. [6:32] With the Republican attorney general candidate, yes, and hoping Tish James will also join me for her interviews. [6:36] All right, Max Politics Podcast, check it out. [6:38] Thank you, sir. [6:39] Thanks. [6:39] Thank you. [6:39] Thank you.