Politics
Bruce Blakeman’s Kafkaesque Albany sojourn
DAYS THE BUDGET IS LATE: 31
BLAKEMAN’S DAY IN COURT: Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman’s battle to access the state’s new public campaign finance program made its way to an Albany County courthouse this afternoon.
The legal fight is over hypertechnical matters like whether duplicate copies of a “PCF-22” form submitted separately should be considered as a joint submission.
But the repercussions are significant. Blakeman is seeking to build momentum for his underdog campaign in a blue state, and a win would provide a $3.5 million boost to his effort, guaranteeing he’d be one of the better-funded state Republican candidates in recent decades. It would also give him bragging rights over the Democrats who call all the shots in Albany.
The GOP case rests on the idea that Democrats made the rules for joining the program impossible to follow. Blakeman lawyer Adam Fusco noted that none of the gubernatorial candidates who applied are likely to receive any money.
“There is a hidden ball trick,” Fusco said. “And everyone who tried to do this failed to do it correctly: 0-7. It sounds like my high school baseball career.”
Blakeman was booted from the program in March. During the same week in December, he received a letter saying he was accepted into the program and the Public Campaign Finance Board approved a new rule that gubernatorial candidates and their running mates must apply jointly.
The board never published the form they’d need to submit and never mentioned the need for a signature from Blakeman’s running mate, lieutenant governor hopeful Todd Hood. The requirement was also absent from a training Blakeman sat through in January and wasn’t mentioned in a recent update to the campaign finance handbook. But since the nonexistent form was never received, the board’s Democratic majority deemed Blakeman no longer eligible.
Democratic lawyer Chris Massaroni rejected the idea that the decision stemmed from partisan gamesmanship. Any serious campaign for governor should stay abreast of changing rules, he said.
“It wasn’t a sort of casual, quick determination,” Massaroni said. “It was a careful consideration that we have to apply the rules carefully, and we can’t appear to be giving exceptions. … If we start bending these election rules once, we don’t know where that’s going to end.”
Justice Denise Hartman, who was first nominated to the bench by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, seemed perturbed by the board’s failure to produce the form Blakeman was expected to file.
“This is very problematic that there was no joint form,” she said.
“Under the board’s own regulation, the board shall — it’s a shall — produce a joint form for the candidates. Why hasn’t that happened?” she later asked.
She also noted, however, that the fact Hood never even attempted to file anything at all was a “concern.”
Fusco is requesting the court to require the board to produce a form that Blakeman and Hood can jointly fill out and allow for a new “window for filing that form.”
Hartman promised to “hurry this along” and issue a decision in the next week or two. That will allow for arguments in a mid-level appellate court before the end of May, making it more likely the matter will be resolved before judges start taking summer vacations. — Bill Mahoney
From the Capitol
THE END IS NEAR: Gov. Kathy Hochul is bullish that a state budget agreement is on the verge of completion in the coming weeks, telling reporters today that a compact is close.
“Our teams are going to continue working day and night for the entire weekend,” she said in an impromptu gaggle.
The governor acknowledged, though, that sticking points remain over devising the structure of a pied-à-terre surcharge for high-value non-primary homes in New York City. She also indicated that more education aid is being discussed for the Big Apple as Mayor Zohran Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin push for additional revenue from Albany. And she said a potential rebate check program is “on the table” in negotiations with the Legislature.
The budget is now more than a month past its March 31 due date. The month-long impasse between Hochul and the Legislature stemmed from her push to weaken a 2019 climate law and to overhaul the state’s car insurance laws. — Nick Reisman
THE RINGS: In the same gaggle, Hochul teased a potential push for New York to get an Olympic games.
“We had a very productive meeting today to launch our exploratory committee for the Olympics,” she said.
But the governor quickly clammed up after that and wouldn’t go into detail. Her news, though, comes as New York officials have made various efforts over the years to bring the Olympics back to the Empire State. Lake Placid last hosted the winter games in 1980.
Democratic Assemblymember Bobby Carroll earlier this year pitched a potential Lake Placid-New York City winter games, similar to how Italy spread its Olympics between Milan and Cortina. — Nick Reisman
FROM CITY HALL
ZO GO GO: In a speech this afternoon to the Regional Plan Association’s annual assembly — which has been described as a sort of Oscars for urbanists — Mamdani once again delved into faster buses.
With free buses not happening this year, the mayor said he’s focusing on delivering faster bus service through street redesign projects and a plan to speed up buses along dozens of corridors. The aim is to cut commutes by six minutes each way.
“I say that as someone who, when I went to Bronx Science and I got off the 1 train and I knew that I’d missed the bus, if I ran fast enough, I could catch up to it three stops later,” Mamdani said.
He also used the speech to suggest he would work often with the RPA, the same way as the group and Mayor Fiorello La Guardia did decades ago. “Together, they turned ideas into action, delivering on transitways, parks and a more livable New York City,” Mamdani said. “A century later, let us do the same.”
The RPA gave an award to Port Authority Executive Director Kathryn Garcia. New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill also delivered remarks and said that lack of investment in New Jersey Transit has “pushed it into really hard times.” — Ry Rivard
CONGESTION PRICING APPEALED: The Trump administration is appealing a court ruling blocking its attempts to end New York City’s congestion pricing program.
“Appealing congestion pricing once again is just a waste of everyone’s time,” said Sean Butler, a spokesperson for Hochul. “Sean Duffy can keep trying, but traffic will stay down, business will stay up, and the cameras will stay on.”
A Southern District of New York judge ruled against the Department of Transportation in March, finding that the federal government could not unilaterally terminate an agreement with state and city agencies that gave the go-ahead for the tolling program.
President Donald Trump’s social media posts did not help the federal government’s case.
“CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!” he posted in February 2025, on the same day that the MTA filed its lawsuit against the DOT.
Justice Department lawyers filed an appeal Friday to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. — Mona Zhang
IN OTHER NEWS
— BILLIONAIRE BOOST: Crypto billionaire Chris Larsen is pouring $3.5 million into a super PAC backing Alex Bores, escalating a high-stakes primary fight with AI regulations emerging as a key issue. (POLITICO)
— ACROSS THE AISLE: New York City Council Member Lincoln Restler’s wife, Anna Poe-Kest, is taking a senior role at the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget has drawn scrutiny as it places them on opposite sides of budget negotiations. (City & State)
— WASTE WARS: The Council has introduced a package of bills to curb dog waste after a winter surge, aiming to expand bag access, composting and outreach to pet owners. (THE CITY)
Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.
Politics
‘We’re fighting this by ourselves’: Southern Black leaders feel abandoned by Democratic Party
Black leaders across the South have expressed a visceral shock in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision gutting the Voting Rights Act. But as the surprise wears off, a sense of isolation has begun to set in among some.
Black lawmakers and activists across the Deep South argue they have been abandoned by the Democratic Party to fight an existential crisis on their own. They say they’ve been let down by nearly all corners of the party: would be-presidential hopefuls who have flocked to early and swing states but don’t bring their megaphones elsewhere; congressional leadership focused on majority-making battlegrounds while safe Black seats are drawn out; and years of chronic underfunding that has allowed local party apparatus to wither away.
“Folks who lead our party go to swing states like North Carolina and Georgia, but states like Mississippi and Tennessee and Alabama and South Carolina are really neglected and are really forgotten and are really treated as if it is inevitable that we’ll always stay in such systems of what I call apartheid type of politics,” said Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones.
The feeling of neglect is compounding what the lawmakers called a crisis for Black representation already underway in the wake of Louisiana v. Callais, the April Supreme Court decision that took aim at the VRA.
While Black Southern lawmakers sound the alarm on the long-term consequences for their congressional delegations and legislatures, Republican leaders in several Southern strongholds have already signaled plans to redraw district lines ahead of 2028.
Florida state House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell said that between the Supreme Court, the White House and GOP-controlled statehouses, there is a “concerted effort to suppress Black votes” — a refrain many Black leaders have been shouting recently.
“Republicans in the Legislature and the Supreme Court have said that it’s okay to turn back the clock and reverse civil rights progress in this country,” Driskell said. “They’re basically giving these Southern states what they have consistently and persistently wanted, which is to suppress Black voices.”
Though many Black leaders said they ultimately hold Republicans responsible for the Callais decision — andthe subsequent redistricting efforts — a sense of frustration at congressional Democrats is also palpable, especially among younger Black Americans.
“The Democrats sort of allowed for this behavior to regularly happen,” said Yolanda Renee King, the granddaughter of Martin Luther King Jr., noting that the party fumbled its chance to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act during the Biden administration. “I think that there could have been an opportunity before this second surge in MAGA. As of right now, I’m not sure if we necessarily have the infrastructure for that.”
Black elected officials and activists who spoke to Blue Light News did not call out particular party leaders by name, with Jones’ team arguing it is a broader problem in a “political system that continually abandons Black voters.”
“This crisis of multiracial democracy is bigger than any one person’s failing, and will require a unified movement if we are going to stop the largest assault on Black representation since the end of Reconstruction,” Chandler Quaile, Jones’ chief of staff, said in a later statement.
But it comes at a time when the party’s three most prominent leaders — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and DNC Chair Ken Martin — face discontent from various wings of the party.
The DNC defended its work with Black communities and voters, saying it has been providing some tools to Southern states — such as training and staffing for those in need of infrastructure, including a 10-week training for states without a voter protection director. And since the start of the year, Martin has traveled to cities including Atlanta; Selma, Alabama; and Memphis, Tennessee.
“The DNC will use every tool at our disposal to protect the right to vote and to fight against the dilution of Black political power as a result of the disastrous Callais decision,” said Angelo Fernández Hernández, spokesperson for the DNC, in a statement.
And Republicans rejected Democrats’ characterization of their post-decision redistricting scramble. In a statement, White House spokesperson Allison Schuster said the Supreme Court’s ruling ended “the unlawful practice of drawing congressional districts on the basis of race” and was “a win for all Americans and our colorblind constitution.”
But Black Democrats say it’s hard to build a defense when party leaders are clashing over what their offensive strategy should be. Some have called for redrawing maps in blue states to favor Democratic candidates, while others are relying on lawsuits challenging new GOP maps.
Some have called for both.
“I don’t need anybody to hold my hand, but what I need is strategy,” Driskell said. “I need us to be thoughtful, and I think that that is what is missing.”
Like Jones, Driskell didn’t direct her frustrations at any one specific party leader, but added that Black leaders across the South “definitely understand” the potential repercussions Callais could have on their communities — and that “it would be great for the national dialogue to pick up on that.”
Jeffries’ office did not respond to a request for comment, and a spokesperson for Schumer declined to comment, instead directing questions to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Jessica Knight Henry, deputy executive director for the DSCC, said in a statement that Democrats are working to meet Republican-led attacks on voters through the courts and investments.
“Democrats have worked to meet these attacks head on in court, in campaigns, and we will continue to invest strategically in states that offer opportunities for Democrats to flip seats and take back majorities so we can fight to pass legislation that advances voter protections and rights, like the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act,” Knight Henry said.
Still, over the last year, the party’s main focus has been on winning back the House and Senate. Even the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus PAC, the campaigning arm of the entirely Democratic 62-member caucus, said in a previous interview that its focus remains taking back Congress.
“The PAC has always been focused on electing Democrats in tough seats so that we can reclaim the majority. That goal, that focus, has not changed,” Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) told Blue Light News in May, shortly after the Callais ruling came down.
The fight over redistricting could dramatically weaken Black representation, both in Congress and in state governments; CBC leadership has projected that roughly a third of their members could see their seats erased with redistricting efforts.
And in The POLITICO Poll in May, 45 percent of Democratic voters said the party should consider countering Republican efforts by drawing their own maps that create more Democratic seats, even if it means reducing the number of majority-minority districts.
Black leaders in the states said that dual reality — Republicans targeting seats in the South and a Democratic Party rank and file seemingly willing to abandon other seats for more political power — only deepens the isolation they feel. Non-Black voters fail to grasp the gravity of the moment, they argued.
For these leaders, the stakes are personal, citing a direct, familial connection to a pre-VRA era, when Jim Crow laws were flourishing across many Southern states.
Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones recalled sitting across the dinner table from his father, who integrated a public school at just 7 years old, while Driskell shared stories of her father seeing “colored only” water fountains at public parks as a child.
“A lot of Black people feel like, in some ways, we’re fighting this by ourselves,” Justin Jones, the Tennessee lawmaker, said. “We need the wider community — particularly our white allies — to step up and see that this is not just a fight for Black people, but it’s a fight for all Americans who really believe in multiracial democracy.”
Some state leaders are now leaning on each other to try and get ahead of potential issues come the midterms this November. Jay Jones said his office is using “every tool at our disposal” to maintain “free elections,” including collaborating with other Democratic attorneys general to brainstorm voter protection tactics.
“We want to make sure that everybody participates and steps up, that they can go do so freely, without fear of intimidation, retribution, or being denied a ballot,” said Jay Jones, the commonwealth’s first Black attorney general.
Meanwhile, activists are leading their own charge as well, trying to rally a groundswell movement that they hope cannot be ignored.
“Every major question of whether America is going to be a democracy — that question was asked and answered in the South,” said LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter. “And so, once again, we’re being asked. And our question is: Is America going to be a democratic nation with free and fair elections? That question is for America, but the South will answer it.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (former captain of the Yale University baseball team) said he’s not “a soccer fan.” But he did take some time to talk about the World Cup and U.S. national team while guest hosting Sean Hannity’s radio program Thursday — including a blunt assessment of how the team fared in its 4-1 loss to Belgium earlier this week.
“I’m not a soccer fan, but there’s a lot of interest in it,” DeSantis said. “I think the U.S. laid a big egg the other day against Belgium. I mean, again, I don’t even know that much about soccer, but I tell you, they got their rear end kicked, no question about it.”
Miami has been the host of several World Cup matches, and DeSantis did attend last month’s Brazil-Scotland game. The GOP governor wound up taking a Scotland fan to the iconic Joe’s Stone Crab restaurant in Miami, which he publicized on social media.
For one evening at least, Les Bleus accomplished what few others can: uniting France’s political class.
Senior French politicians from across the spectrum praised France’s victory over Morocco in the World Cup quarterfinals on Thursday night, as they eye eventual glory in New Jersey on July 19.
“We’re proud of our Les Bleus,” said French President Emmanuel Macron. “Congratulations to Morocco, a formidable opponent tonight just as they were four years ago. France is in the semifinals, with panache and camaraderie!” His party ally Benjamin Haddad, France’s Europe minister, added: “Bravo to the French team for delivering a magnificent collective performance. The adventure continues!”
Even Jordan Bardella joined the chorus — notable given the French far right’s often fraught relationship with the multicultural national team.
“Congratulations to the French team, which completely dominated the game and advanced to the semifinals. Les Bleus are now just two games away from the ultimate achievement!” said the National Rally party president.
Surprisingly, none of France’s 2027 presidential wannabes — far-right Marine Le Pen, conservative Bruno Retailleau, centrist Edouard Philippe and hard-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon — were quick to post their reaction to the result.
- Capitol agenda: GOP faces megabill angst and a ‘time problem’
- ‘We’re fighting this by ourselves’: Southern Black leaders feel abandoned by Democratic Party
- John Kennedy is the Senate GOP’s unlikely campaign-trail star
- ‘They got their rear end kicked,’ DeSantis says of U.S. team
- Emmanuel Macron cheers Les Bleus. So does Jordan Bardella.
- Morris Katz: ‘I’m deeply disappointed’
- Macron’s sports protectionism
- Dream lives for Moroccans in Brussels
- Morocco has its eye on the 2030 final
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