2026 is going to be an eventful year for Gov. Kathy Hochul, between midterm elections, own reelection, a new socialist NYC mayor, an unpredictable president and federal cuts. I sat down with her recently to chat about how she plans to tackle it all www.cityandstateny.com/personality/...

Rep. Ritchie Torres is getting another primary challenger in Dalourny Nemorin, a Legal Aid attorney and DSA organizer who is being propelled by Zohran Mamdani's victory www.cityandstateny.com/politics/202...

NEW: Gov. Hochul announces state agencies can once again issue SNAP benefits following USDA guidance. A recent court decision ordered the Trump administration to end the SNAP freeze that started this month. (Deleted a previous post that inaccurately said the state was paying)

Gov. Hochul tells me the approval of the NESE pipeline did not involve President Trump, despite reports of a deal around congestion pricing. "Obviously not, no. The one he really wanted was turned down," Hochul said, referring to the Constitution pipeline

New: The NY DEC has given the controversial NESE Pipeline the green light to move ahead

Spotted at Somos: leading City Council speaker candidate Crystal Hudson meeting with DC37 President Henry Garrido

Kinda did a double take at this notification

Elise Stefanik launched her campaign for governor with an attack ad-like announcement video that promised she would help NY "rise from the ashes" of Gov. Hochul's "failed policies." It led with attacks of the guv rather than introducing Stefanik www.cityandstateny.com/politics/202...

Oh, THAT'S where the joke comes from

Puerto Rican socialists: We want Zohran Mamdani! Puerto Rican moms: We have Zohran Mamdani at home. Zohran Mamdani at home:

Oh god, Grok is trying to revive the Independence Party 😭 (As an aside, this is a very real reason not to blindly trust AI chatbots because this is WILDLY incorrect)

Throwback to five-and-a-half years ago, when I covered then political newbie Zohran Mamdani's first campaign for Assembly as a DSA insurgent. "Meteoric" has been used to describe many politicians' rises, but it really is true for Mamdani www.cityandstateny.com/politics/202...

In case you were busy paying attention to the mayoral election (fair), the ballot prop to move NYC elections to even years failed pretty handily

Zohran Mamdani has won the race for mayor, becoming the first Muslim mayor in NYC's history and the youngest in recent history. From my colleagues @anniemcdonough.bsky.social and @sahalied.bsky.social www.cityandstateny.com/politics/202...

Curtis Sliwa arrives at his election night party, beginning his remarks by praising rhe turnout in this race. Over 2 million cast ballots, the first time in over half a century

First tranche of results, representing early voting totals and mail ins counted so far. Mamdani ended up with over 50% of the 820k cast before Election Day, which could be a good sign for his ability to break 50% overall

It's 9 p.m., polls are closed. But if you're on line, you can still make your haters your poll site coordinators at the polling place of success, so STAY ON LINE

Not campaign merch, but someone is handing out these stickers at Sliwa's party. The QR code leads to a Sticker Mule shop. In case you forgot, that's Anthony Constantino's business, the famous right wing personality who is also running for Elise Stefanik's seat. So on brand

Curtis Sliwa is giving away (?) swag at his election night party

So we're all workshopping our 9 pm "polls are closed," "if you're on line, stay on line" tweets in our drafts right?

In case you've been at work and that work doesn't revolve 24/7 around NY politics, you can catch up on what's been happening in the elections today here! www.cityandstateny.com/politics/202...

The non-New York mind cannot comprehend fusion voting (begging a certain richest man on earth to learn just a little about it before tweeting)

Gov. Hochul was out stumping for the housing-related Props 2-5 in NYC. No thoughts on Zohran Mamdani not backing them. "There's going to be 1000 issues that come up, and I think you ought to ask the candidates how they feel about them." Says she hasn't spoken to him about them

Me at the club on Halloween: They don't know I have three new horror novels in my bag I bought before coming here, including from USA Today bestseller Chuck Tingle

Decided to take the bus directly to my building instead of walking the last few blocks when given the opportunity, but wound up stuck for 30 minutes trying to go one ave west before the driver let us off and walked it anyway. Hubris, thy name is Rebecca

New: Hochul is declaring an official "food emergency" and has announced an additional $65 million for food assistance, bringing total to $106 million dedicated in the past few days

Gov. Hochul is at a Harlem food pantry, flanked by Rev. Al Sharpton, other clergy and local lawmakers, to once again decry the planned shut off of SNAP benefits on Saturday l. "I'm looking at the whole scale of this," she says. "This is all bad."

So City & State fans, how have you been spending your day since the website is down and thus preventing you from the hours I know you spend consuming our reporting?

If you told me a year ago that a week before the NYC mayoral election in which Zohran Mamdani is the frontrunner, a British tabloid would run a story with completely fabricated negative quotes from Bill de Blasio about said candidate, I definitely would not have believed you

If you thought redistricting couldn't get even more messy, you'd be wrong. The judge assigned to hear a new lawsuit to redraw NY-11 has expertise in election law -- but he also worked for both Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Hochul www.cityandstateny.com/politics/202...

From a Long Island source (my mom). The state GOP is working hard to tie Nassau Dems to Zohran Mamdani. Surprisingly the words "socialist," "communist" or "jihad" don't appear, which are commonly seen in rightwing attacks of him

Need a break from non-stop election coverage? Check out my profile of Chief Judge Rowan Wilson. Come for the in-depth look at the head of the third co-equal branch of NY govt, stay for the explanation of the volleyball on his desk www.cityandstateny.com/personality/...

Update: Jen Goodman, a spokesperson for Hochul, says that the governor's position has not changed. "She's not open to raising income taxes," Goodman said in a text

In the past, Gov. Hochul has called raising most taxes, even on the wealthy, a hard "no." She softened the stance today. "I have a lot of calculations to do," Hochul says. "There's a lot of popular phrases out there... But I am open to trying to help people who are struggling"

New: Ahead of the shut off of SNAP benefits on Nov. 1, Gov. Hochul has announced $30 million to fund 16 million meals. That's on top of the $11 million announced Friday. Hochul also is looking at how to expand free school meals to permit students to take food home

Andrew Cuomo had a good debate night. Then he went on Sid Rosenberg's radio show and seemed to agree that Zohran Mamdani would cheer another 9/11 www.cityandstateny.com/politics/202...

Wut

Gov. Hochul responds to Andrew Cuomo's apparent agreement that Zohran's Mamdani would laugh if a 9/11-like attack happened again. "Time to get out of the gutter." Just last night, Cuomo said that he and Hochul would have a good working relationship if he become mayor

Live Ivy reaction to the second NYC mayoral debate

In case anyone needs a reminder, sexual harassment is a civil, not a criminal offense. The "dropped" cases Cuomo constantly refers to were probes into allegedly criminal behavior as part of the overall harassment accusations

Mamdani said he would rank Sliwa second if the mayoral general was ranked choice (it's not). "Please don't be glazing me here Zohran," Sliwa responds to laughs from Mamdani. Debates are great

Cuomo just clarified that he meant ONLY the last four years because of Hochul, a person he only minutes ago said he could work well with because he had picked her as his LG (though tried to ditch her at least twice)

Cuomo, speaking about how he'd deal with state elected leaders as mayor, says "the city has been getting screwed by the state" (quite ironic, given Cuomo was governor until 2021).

"[Trump] considers Mandami (sic) a communist. He happens to be a socialist." - Andrew Cuomo surprisingly corrects the common GOP mischaracterization of Zohran Mamdani. Still didn't get his name right though.

Inbox: Assembly Member Deborah Glick, the first out gay member elected to the state Legislature, announced she is retiring and will not seek reelection next year. She has been in office for over three decades

After Metro-North extended its train service to Albany, Rep. Elise Stefanik falsely accused Gov. Kathy Hochul of raising taxes on Albany residents to pay for it. www.cityandstateny.com/politics/202...

Curtis Sliwa: "Every parade has the right to exist." Sublime. No notes.

Or a person who's celebrating a new business

“I knew Mario Cuomo. You’re no Mario Cuomo, Andrew Cuomo.” - Sliwa

"I try to avoid yellow cabs. I was shot in the back of a yellow cab by the Gambinos." God DAMN I love New York City politics.