I won't count Hochul/Delgado out just yet. Incumbency is so strong. But they will have lots of work to do and quickly. It wouldn't surprise me if Hochul plays nice with Mango to keep NYS sound. Of course he's an ass and out for revenge. NYS/NYC is clearly in his sights.
Delgado did get 12 bills passed in Congress under GOP and Dem administrations... and was voted the fourth most bipartisan legislator in the House at one point along the way.
"Bipartisan" is a swear word to both the right and the left these days, yeah. However, to be that and a state official in New York it's necessary to bridge the proverbial urban/rural divide when it comes to legislation and subsequent execution of it. It's not easy re issues like gun safety, bail reform, etc.
Delgado, like Hochul when she was just another pol up in Erie County, has managed to rack up support in a lot of counties by addressing other and very LOCAL issues, one at a time. In a way it's a model the Dems need more of because it eventually draws residents into running for local office on the strength of that kind of accomplishment.
More show, less tell... it works, one town at a time. And it's why I cringe sometimes right now hearing Dems high up in the DNC talking about how they need to fix their messaging. They need to get over their top-down fixation.
All the Dems' talk of democracy ....but it's all about the WH to the DNC. At the state level that translates to the state Dem chairs catering to what the DNC is focused on, which at best is only "how much do we have to spend on keeping your delegation blue, or flipping that seat back to blue?" That leaves state chairs looking at no time/money to find someone to run for state assembly in a red district. They're busy arranging fundraisers that can help the tickets farther up the ballot.
So we get lucky when we get a Congress critter who does maintain a focus on intra-district issues after the yard signs come down.
For instance, in a three county area up here in the western Catskills, where there's a severe shortage of mental health professionals and rehab facilities --in a region plagued by alcoholism, drug abuse and related issues of family dysfunction, erratic employment etc-- Delgado managed to round up $500k in funding to an entity in Oneonta that had become known for effective resource provision to recovering addicts, and even found a matching $500k private donation.
The programs expanded by those funds have been innovative in things like effective outreach to a couple dozen local companies on hiring recovering alcoholics/addicts, who are meanwhile also helped to maintain their recovery through counseling, peer social engagement in a safe and family-friendly environment, a halfway house, and help w/ referrals to social services when needed. Hochul and Delgao both know that at a local level, $500k or $1 million or even $15k is a lot of money.
Meanwhile the 2024 federal level campaigns spent dozens of
billions of dollars on ads for prez. And this in a country of people who with partisan fervor currently thrive on hating the opposition politician yet holding nose to bother voting for their own.
