Politics
Hochul promotes her agenda with state-funded ad campaign
HOCHUL’S AD CAMPAIGN: Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office is using taxpayer money to fund an advertising blitz promoting her agenda, brushing up against a ban on governors appearing in promotional material.
State law prohibits elected officials from appearing in ads paid for with state funds.
Hochul doesn’t directly appear in any of the ads. Instead, they encourage people to visit a state-run website where she’s prominently featured talking about wanting to cut red tape to build affordable housing.
“They’re skirting the very intent of what that law was meant to do, and that’s using taxpayer dollars to promote the image or likeness of the governor,” Republican Assemblymember Matt Slater said. “It’s clearly something that needs to be looked into so we can figure out what consequences she should be facing if she is in fact violating the law.”
The ads have appeared over the past week on Facebook, YouTube, and at least one billboard. The governor’s office said a FOIL request would be required to see the full scope.
One example is a YouTube commercial that simply states “Let Them Build” and directs people to the state’s website. The Executive Chamber has spent between $10,000 and $15,000 on that ad — one of 21 to air on YouTube or Google over the past week. The ad has been viewed one million times.
“The state routinely engages in awareness and education campaigns on critical policy priorities and this campaign was designed in compliance with all ethics laws,” said Hochul spokesperson Jen Goodman.
Reinvent Albany’s Rachael Fauss said that if the 20-year-old law had been written today, “it probably would take into consideration” campaigns like this.
“From a technical perspective, she may not be violating the law,” she said. “But I think the spirit of the law is to not have the governor’s likeness be promoted through the use of taxpayer funds. That was the intent of it. Unfortunately, this is an area where the law hasn’t kept up with the way people consume media and ads these days.”
The ban on advertising came about after former Gov. George Pataki ran state-funded commercials during an election year in which he encouraged people to register in a new healthcare program. Ethics reforms passed as part of former Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s inaugural agenda included language prohibiting the practice.
Hochul isn’t the first elected official to brush up against the intent of the law in recent months. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s likeness has appeared on WiFi kiosks, a practice that’s permitted since the city is given the screentime for free. And Mamdani, unlike Hochul, isn’t up for reelection anytime soon.
“She’s got plenty of campaign funds that she could be using to pay for these things,” Slater said. “What she’s doing right now is spending taxpayer money to enhance her image when she’s on the ballot this year.” — Bill Mahoney
FROM THE CAPITOL
PRICING POLITICS: Democratic state Attorney General Letitia James is throwing her support behind a bill meant to crack down on retailers’ use of algorithmic pricing.
James was in Albany this morning to back legislation meant to halt the practice, which uses a consumer’s personal data to set individually tailored prices.
The bill, backed by Assemblymember Michaelle Solages and Deputy Senate Majority Leader Mike Gianaris, is part of a broader push being made by elected officials to address peoples’ pocketbook concerns.
“This online pricing model hits hardest where it hurts the most — food, medicine, diapers and other essentials,” James said at a news conference. “We all have all been focused on the issue of affordability across this state.” — Nick Reisman
FROM CITY HALL
EVIDENCE HUNT: The former NYPD sergeant accusing former mayoral aide Tim Pearson of sexual harassment wants to get her hands on the evidence that prompted the Mamdani administration to stop paying for Pearson’s legal bills.
In 2024, the former sergeant, Roxanne Ludemann, sued Pearson, a confidant and top adviser to former Mayor Eric Adams, accusing him of sexually harassing her at work and then professionally retaliating against her when she rejected his overtures.
Thanks to an unusual arrangement greenlit by Adams’ Law Department, Pearson received taxpayer-funded private lawyers to defend him against Ludemann’s suit. But Mamdani’s corporation counsel, Steve Banks, announced last week that he had rescinded Pearson’s arrangement, citing unspecified “new evidence” that warranted terminating it.
In a court filing late Friday, John Scola, an attorney representing Ludemann, demanded that the Law Department provide his client with access to the evidence in question, arguing it’s relevant to her ongoing case.
“Produce all documents, records, evidence, reports, memoranda, and materials of any kind that constitute, refer to, or relate to the ‘new evidence’ relied upon, reviewed, considered, or referenced by corp counsel in making its determination to decline or withdraw representation of Defendant Timothy Pearson in this matter,” Scola wrote in the filing.
Also last week, Banks terminated a similar arrangement that allowed Jeffrey Maddrey, an Adams ally and former NYPD chief of department, to receive taxpayer-funded attorneys in the Pearson matter, too. Maddrey is accused by Ludemann of helping Pearson retaliate against her.
Scola’s filing demanded access to the information that prompted Banks to slash Maddrey’s arrangement as well.
Pearson and Maddrey, who resigned from city government in late 2024 after being ensnared in unrelated corruption investigations, have denied any wrongdoing.
A Law Department spokesperson did not comment when asked today about Scola’s demand.
New York City taxpayers have already paid more than $620,000 to cover Pearson’s legal tab alone. — Chris Sommerfeldt
FINANCE SHUFFLE: Mamdani is zeroing in on a pick to run the Department of Finance, a normally under-the-radar agency that has taken on new prominence amid the mayor’s push to raise property taxes.
Mamdani’s administration is in talks to hire Richard Lee for the job, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions who were granted anonymity to discuss an internal personnel matter.
Lee currently serves as director of the City Council’s Division of Finance. That means his move to Mamdani’s finance department would leave Council Speaker Julie Menin without her top budget adviser amid increasingly tense negotiations over the city’s $127 billion spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year.
The Council is conducting budget oversight hearings throughout the month to better ascertain how city agencies are planning to operate amid a precarious fiscal situation. The city is facing a projected multi-billion dollar deficit over the next fiscal year, and Mamdani’s administration is relying on cash reserves, optimistic revenue projections and an increase in property taxes to bridge that gap and balance the spending plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
Increasing levies on property owners would require approval from the Council, and Menin has dismissed the idea as a nonstarter. She has argued the city needs to look for other ways to cut costs beforehand. The mayor, by contrast, says drastic steps like property levy hikes can be avoided if Albany gives the city the authority to raise local taxes on millionaires and corporations — proposals Menin has declined to support.
Lee, should he ultimately join Mamdani’s administration, would be working for the finance department as it tabulates a key variable — the assessed value of property in New York City — which helps determine how much revenue the city collects from owners each year.
Read the story from Joe Anuta and Chris Sommerfeldt in Blue Light News Pro.
AROUND NEW YORK
— MACHIAVELLIAN MAMDANI: The mayor forced his political will on fellow lefty lawmakers, including by squashing Tiffany Cabán’s congressional prospects and threatening Chi Ossé. (The New York Times)
— ADAMS OFFICIAL UNDER PROBE: The former commissioner of the city’s probation department under Mayor Eric Adams is being investigated by the Manhattan district attorney. (Gothamist)
— MAYOR DINES WITH KNICKS: Mamdani broke his Saturday Ramadan fast with Senegalese Knicks player Mo Diawara. (GQ)
Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.
Bill Cassidy on vaccines, RFK Jr. and the fight for public trust
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AI BILLS BILLS BILLS: One of the architects of New York’s pioneering legislation to put guardrails around artificial intelligence says ominous warnings from industry leaders prove states need to act aggressively.
“I’m very rarely one to say, ‘I told you so’ or ‘We told you so,’ But this is exactly … the things we had warned about,” said Democratic state Sen. Andrew Gounardes, who sponsored the RAISE Act.
The law is slated to take effect in January, requires the largest AI companies to report safety incidents to the state and establishes penalties for violations. New York lawmakers passed that bill last year, despite pushback from industry lobbyists. But now leading AI executives are ramping up warnings about the risks of their technology.
“These are the exact same concerns that we were flagging: biological weapons, nuclear weapons, catastrophic harms,” Gounardes said in an interview with Playbook. “Not only were we right, but some of the very same people that were telling us that we were wrong are now the ones saying that we need to be doing these things.”
President Donald Trump has dismissed AI safety concerns as a “HOAX” and Congress appears unlikely to act on the issue anytime soon.
So lawmakers in New York and other states are weighing how they can respond. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has floated the idea of a special session devoted to the issue, but New York’s Legislature isn’t slated to return to Albany until January.
Gounardes said he’s had an increasing amount of engagement with AI safety advocates, industry experts and others in recent weeks.
He’s focused on two bills he’s sponsoring — one requiring third-party safety audits, similar to a measure enacted in Illinois, and another strengthening safety reporting requirements.
“They’re good bills, they’re important bills, they should pass as is. But I think we can go further,” Gounardes said.
There’s a clear appetite among other key policymakers to pass more measures to bolster protections for New Yorkers.
Gov. Kathy Hochul told reporters Tuesday she’ll be looking for additional action the state can take to reduce AI safety risks.
State Sen. Kristen Gonzalez, chair of the Internet and Technology committee, said she plans to push for a “rights-based” framework and focus on potentially high risk uses of AI. Her bills for next year include a data privacy measure and the New York AI Act, which seeks to address concerns about algorithmic bias in employment, courts, finance and other contexts.
That measure also includes whistleblower protections for employees of AI companies. New York Attorney General Letitia James today urged AI workers to report safety risks or violations of current state laws, offering an anonymous tip line.
Gonzalez also has a bill pending on Hochul’s desk that would regulate AI chatbots and assign liability to companies who develop them.
“There are so many bills, and together, if we were to pass all of these that track out liability, we would be able to actually start fighting these companies, not just through slowing their development … but also mitigating more in court and having a foundation to claim damages,” she said. — Marie J. French
From the Capitol
MERGER WATCH: The state Public Health and Health Planning Council voted today to approve a merger between NYC Health + Hospitals and Maimonides Health, a private hospital in Brooklyn.
“We all need to get behind this and make it work,” PHHPC member Ann Monroe said during today’s meeting.
The merger was set into motion last year, after Hochul awarded $2.2 billion from the state-funded Safety Net Transformation Program to facilitate the deal. Maimonides has for years relied on substantial state support to keep its doors open, and state health officials expressed optimism that the combination would stabilize the hospital’s finances.
The transaction was expected to close by April 1, but a judge ruled earlier this year that NYC Health + Hospitals and Maimonides first needed to obtain PHHPC’s approval.
Read the full story from Blue Light News Pro’s Maya Kaufman
FROM CITY HALL
PENSION PADDING: Several top officials from former Mayor Eric Adams’ administration are raking in inflated NYPD pensions that should be lowered, a report from New York City’s corruption watchdog recommended Thursday.
The Department of Investigation report revolves around the use of so-called 821 waivers under the Adams administration.
The waivers allow NYPD employees to be “on loan” to other agencies, including the mayor’s office, so they can maintain a police title that comes with pension benefits while working in another capacity.
In its report, DOI found the NYPD documented the waivers in an inconsistent way during Adams’ tenure, resulting in the city’s Police Pension Fund awarding overly large retirement benefits to former cops who served in top roles under Adams. But the watchdog agency determined the NYPD wasn’t squarely to blame for this, given that the pension fund also seemingly ignored 821 restrictions “in a manner inconsistent with the law.”
The DOI findings come after a string of corruption scandals roiled the Adams administration and the NYPD. Adams himself faced federal corruption charges in 2024 before President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice stepped in to spare the former mayor from prosecution.
The DOI’s latest findings don’t allege criminal wrongdoing, but the report lays out a number of recommendations for how the NYPD and the pension fund can prevent similar missteps. It also calls for all the allegedly inflated retirement benefits to be recalculated so the former cops in question aren’t getting taxpayer-funded benefits that are overly generous.
Among the former NYPD cops who netted padded pensions are Kaz Daughtry, who served as Adams’ deputy mayor for public safety; Louis Molina, Adams’ commissioner of correction and citywide administrative services; and Juanita Holmes, Adams’ probation commissioner.
“NYPD officials were treated inconsistently and some received a higher pension than they would otherwise have been eligible for, with taxpayers footing the bill,” Department of Investigation Commissioner Nadia Shihata said. “Those pensions should be recalculated and adjusted properly.”
Read the full story from Chris Sommerfeldt in Blue Light News.
PREDICTED PROTESTS: NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said today she expects “multiple protests every day” next week as the city hosts the United Nations General Assembly.
No credible security threats have been identified, she noted, though the department will remain on high alert.
“The NYPD, as you know, handles thousands of protests and demonstrations each year, and there is no organization better trained to facilitate First Amendment activity,” Tisch said at a press conference with Mayor Zohran Mamdani. “Every year around the UN General Assembly time, we do see an uptick in the amount of protest activity, and this year I do not expect to be any different.”
The NYPD did not provide specific details on the number of protest permits filed or the exact number of demonstrations expected.
Some of the largest and most tumultuous protests are expected to take place ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech on Sept. 24.
Despite his strident anti-Israel rhetoric, Mamdani plans to skip next week’s protests, Chris Sommerfeldt first reported yesterday. When asked why he’s staying away, Mamdani cited a desire to focus on New Yorkers’ day-to-day transportation concerns during the assembly, which will cause significant traffic disruptions and road closures in Midtown.
Mamdani will not skip the UN proceedings altogether, though. He said he’s in the process of setting up meetings with foreign officials in town for the assembly, but did not elaborate on which ones. His press team did not immediately share any further details either. — Molly Reinmann
IN OTHER NEWS
— POINTING FINGERS: Some City Council members blamed Mamdani for a crime spike in the Bronx. (New York Post)
— SURVEILLANCE AND MURDER: Federal prosecutors accused five men of being part of a Kremlin-orchestrated network that planned to assassinate Russian dissidents and others in the United States and abroad. (The New York Times)
— DATA CENTER DIVIDE: Despite hesitating on the issue himself, Rep. Mike Lawler launched a seven-figure ad campaign attacking his Democratic challenger, Cait Conley, for her position on data centers. (New York Focus)
Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.
Democratic consultants are privately encouraging their battleground candidates to avoid talking about AI regulations out of fear that powerful tech groups will unleash a tidal wave of spending against them ahead of November.
That guidance came from strategists in three separate top-tier House races, according to people involved in those races, who were granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations. And it follows a surge in AI panic on Capitol Hill as industry leaders warn about existential threats posed by their rapidly developing technology.
Voters are increasingly worried about AI: About two-thirds of Americans say there’s a risk advanced AI could destroy humanity in a new Blue Light News Poll. President Donald Trump has called that concern a “hoax,” leaving an opening for Democrats to seize on the issue. But they still are grappling with how hard to go after big tech.
Senior Democrats and candidates are worried that if they go too hard in criticizing AI, industry-affiliated super PACs could drop millions more dollars against them, according to interviews with more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers and strategists. They are especially worried about a slate of competitive races, including Reps. Don Davis in North Carolina, Marcy Kaptur in Ohio, Henry Cuellar in Texas and a handful of South Texas and Pennsylvania races, getting hit with even more spending on topics like AI.
The party is already struggling to keep up in the outside spending battle as Trump and his allies including Elon Musk, a major AI investor, flood the airwaves, though Musk’s spending isn’t primarily driven by AI concerns.
“We do need to be able to make sure that we’re regulating [AI] and addressing those real fears,” said one senior Democratic strategist working on Senate campaigns, who was granted anonymity to candidly discuss strategy. But “we don’t want AI money coming in.”
“Like any industry, there should be a conversation about guardrails,” said Cuellar, who is trying to hold onto a GOP-leaning South Texas seat. “But, every member needs to make their own decision based on their district and beliefs.”
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the former Progressive Caucus chair, said she was also worried that pro-AI groups will start targeting key Democrats.
“You know, these AI groups — they come out and they say that they’re concerned, that they want regulation. But then they spend huge amounts of money on defeating anybody who wants legislative regulation,” Jayapal said in an interview.
With AI regulation on congressional Democrats’ agenda if they take power next year, Jayapal said AI groups will be “spending for candidates that they can count on to just allow them to write the bill.”
Some top Democratic candidates and their campaigns are quietly trying to avoid crossing any red lines for tech super PACs — even as it’s unclear exactly what those lines would be, after Musk and two of the biggest AI CEOs called for more regulation on the technology last week.
Democrats are especially wary of Leading the Future, a pro-AI industry super PAC that spent over $25 million in primary races this year and is backed by investors and executives of OpenAI. The rival super PAC network, Public First Action, pushes for AI regulation and is funded by OpenAI’s chief competitor, Anthropic.
Asked by Blue Light News, Leading the Future declined to name a specific policy on AI it opposes.
“The only people that have both threatened and carried out spending and intimidation tactics against Democratic members of Congress over their positions on AI are Public First and other groups funded by Anthropic and effective altruists,” said Leading the Future spokesperson Josh Vlasto. “Our agenda is and has always been Congress passing a strong and smart national regulation which has broad and building support in Congress and across the country.”
On Wednesday, Leading the Future launched its first round of ads in the general election through its Republican PAC. The group is spending $2 million to boost GOP Senate candidates Julia Letlow in Louisiana, Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi, Sen. Darline Graham in South Carolina and Sen. Mike Rounds in South Dakota — four Republicans in marginally competitive races that are unlikely to determine Senate control.
The two AI groups have been at odds. They spent in different primary races and went up against each other in the primary for retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler’s seat, where state Assemblymember Alex Bores’ AI-centered campaign ignited a spending war. A person familiar with Leading the Future’s strategy, who was granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, told Blue Light News in June that the group was unlikely to target another candidate this year with the kind of multi-million dollar negative ad deluge it dumped on Bores, and a person close to the group said that hasn’t changed. Democrats believe the groups could battle against each other again in key races.
Brad Carson, the co-founder of Public First Action, said the network will “absolutely” get involved in the general election.
Public First Action uses two “litmus tests” to weigh whether or not to jump into races, Carson said. If someone seeking office shows “strong support for export controls and strong opposition to the preemption of state laws regarding AI, absent a federal framework,” then they are a prime candidate to receive the group’s support.
And if a candidate were to hold the opposite position — opposition to export controls and support for the preemption of state laws — his group would be inclined to jump in and spend against them.
“It’s really about finding the people who want to step out and be heroes for you,” Carson said.
On Wednesday, Anthropic’s policy chief Sarah Heck said at Blue Light News’s Decoded summit that the United States “needs to stay in the lead on AI” over China, arguing “you can’t do safety from second place.” She agreed AI firms can’t be left on their own to ensure safety within their own companies, but declined to endorse bipartisan legislation for external regulation.
Some Democrats want to go hard on regulating AI in spite of the risk of antagonizing pro-industry groups.
Abdul El-Sayed, Democrats’ Senate nominee in Michigan, previously called for a regulatory crackdown on AI and is now advocating for a “full pause at the frontier of research.” He told Blue Light News in an interview on Wednesday that he’d “rather be on the truth than dodge [AI industry] money.”
Still, El-Sayed hasn’t committed to running ads on the issue. Battleground Democratic Reps. Susie Lee (Nev.) and Greg Landsman (Ohio) also told Blue Light News they weren’t planning ads on AI safeguards, even as they advocate for more regulations. It’s a sign that even as voters concerns’ rise about the technology, it’s not yet become a top issue for the November election.
Meanwhile, Republicans are hoping that the AI super PACs might come in and help boost them in other states — like Georgia, where Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff has been aggressive in criticizing the industry, or Texas, where the GOP nominee, Attorney General Ken Paxton, has been slightly behind in most recent polls.“We could use the help in some races like that,” said one GOP senator, granted anonymity to candidly discuss the internal conversations.
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