Blakeman Welcomes Mamdani’s First Campaign Event With Hochul

Republican candidate Bruce Blakeman welcomed New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s first campaign event with Governor Hochul on Friday evening.The two Democrats held a joint appearance in a Brooklyn park as Mr. Mamdani lent his support to Ms. Hochul’s reelection bid, just one day before early voting kicked off across the state. During a rally at the Bronx earlier in the day, Mr. Blakeman said the joint appearance would help him at the polls. “We’re going to win this election because we’ve got the momentum. We’re on the right side of the issues and we’ve got our secret weapon, Zohran Mamdani, who’s campaigning with Kathy Hochul,” Mr Blakeman said. “The more they get out together, the better I’m going to do.”Ms. Hochul and Mr. Mamdani are scheduled to canvas together at Brooklyn again on Sunday.Mr. Blakeman held his own rally at Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood just while Mr. Mamdani and Ms. Hochul campaigned together.The mayor is the latest Democratic Socialist to climb aboard Ms. Hochul’s campaign, after Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined her for photo-ops across the Hudson Valley at the start of the month. A recent poll from Marist predicts Ms. Hochul will win in New York City with support from 69 percent of local voters. Ms. Hochul dismissed Mr. Blakeman’s remarks as she stood next to Mr. Mamdani on Friday, saying the mayor was more popular than her Republican opponent “across the damn state of New York.”Mr. Blakeman leads upstate with 51 percent of voters, according to the Oct. 7 Marist poll. The same survey gave Ms. Hochul an 11 point lead overall, whileQuinnipiac University put the governor ahead by 14 points.Ahead of his appearance with Ms. Hochul, Mr. Mamdani put out one of his signature social media videos declaring Mr. Blakeman “a bad apple” who thinks New Yorkers “have it way too good right now.” Mr. Blakeman’s misdeeds, as laid out in the video, include cooperating with ICE, calling to cut Medicaid spending, and opposing the Mr. Mamdani’s push for taxpayer-funded daycare.Child care has been a running theme in Mr. Mamdani’s collaboration with Albany under Ms. Hochul’s leadership. Just one week after he took office in January they announced 2,000 free daycare spots for 2-year-olds as part of a pilot program to launch the city’s free 2-K program.Ahead of Friday’s meet-and-greet in Brooklyn, the pair shared a podium once again for a joint press conference at the Bronx, where Ms. Hochul joined the mayor at a trampoline park to announce the expansion of the 2-K program to include an additional 10,000 spots next year. Ms. Hochul’s office has coughed up $1.2 billion this year in support of the mayor’s universal childcare initiatives. How those programs will be funded after Albany’s initial cash injection wears out in two years remains to be seen. Ms. Hochul would not rule out a tax increase when asked at the trampoline park Tuesday.

Blakeman Welcomes Mamdani’s First Campaign Event With Hochul

Blakeman Welcomes Mamdani’s First Campaign Event With Hochul

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