Politics
Hochul turns on the sarcasm for Mike Lawler
With help from Amira McKee
🚨 🚨 — “Trump Weighs Getting Involved in New York City Mayor Race,” by NYT’s Nicholas Fandos, Jeremy W. Peters, Maggie Haberman and Katherine Rosman: “President Trump may have moved out of New York City, but he has privately discussed whether to intercede in its fractious race for mayor to try to stop Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, according to eight people briefed on the discussions.” (More below)
CRY ME A RIVER: Even as Gov. Kathy Hochul doubles down on her Democratic gerrymandering plan, she said she’s feeling overcome with despondency for New York Republicans who could lose their seats when she tries to redraw New York’s maps to boost her party.
“I feel really sad,” Hochul said today, when asked if she had a message for any GOP reps who might see their seat erased if she pushes through a full-fledged gerrymander.
Hochul and California Gov. Gavin Newsom sprinted to the front lines of the mucky redistricting war and have vowed to redraw their own maps to add more Democratic seats ever since President Donald Trump called on Texas to abruptly redraw its Congressional maps to add 5 more GOP seats.
Luckily, Hochul noted, there’s a way out.
His name is Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, and, she said, he has the political power and sway in Washington to end partisan gerrymandering with his forthcoming federal bill that would ban the practice nationwide.
“He has so much enormous power in Washington,” Hochul said of Lawler.
Sike! She was kidding. She doesn’t feel sad. She doesn’t think Lawler has any juice in D.C. and she definitely doesn’t seem to be slowing down her push to gerrymander the hell out of New York in what she says is a response to Texas’ efforts.
On Tuesday, Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin indicated he’s encouraging other Democratic governors to consider redrawing their maps too. And the red state of Missouri, which has two GOP House seats, could be Republicans’ next gerrymandering target.
As the redistricting war looks to be going nuclear, Hochul is daring Republicans like Lawler to loudly call for an end to their party’s redistricting effort in Texas.
“Tell them to call the president of their own party and say, ‘Stand down in the war with New York and California and other Democratic states,’” Hochul said. “If you want to stop what you’re doing in Texas, I’ll stand down. You started it. You end it.”
“This is a guy who’s now saying, ‘I’m going to introduce a bill to get it changed,’” she said. “The same guy who promised a full restoration of the state and local tax deduction comes back far short from that and spins it as a win that everybody’s buying. He has no power. He won’t get it done. And I’m not sympathetic because he was silent.”
Lawler’s office noted that the increases in state and local tax deductions he fought with Trump for during the creation of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act provides relief for most of his district, with only the top 10 percent of taxpayers not getting a tax cut.
“Kathy Hochul is not just the worst Governor in America, she’s also the dumbest,” Lawler said in a statement. “After years of calling for the SALT cap to be fixed, she’s now attacking the solution because Democrats weren’t the ones to get it done, my New York GOP colleagues and I were. No one believes a word she says. Her own colleagues in the State Legislature mock her at every turn. What a pathetic excuse for a leader of New York State.” — Jason Beeferman
TRUMP EYES NYC MAYOR’S RACE: Trump is “very interested” in the New York City mayoral race, said Republican billionaire John Catsimatidis, who is friendly with both Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Eric Adams. Catsimatidis said he dined Friday with Trump.
“He’s a New York guy, he grew up in New York,” Catsimatidis told Playbook. “He loves New York. He wants to make sure there’s proper accounting in New York, that the quality of life goes on in New York and that we don’t lose any more population.”
Trump hasn’t committed to a role in the race, though, and Catsimatidis said he wants the president to hold off — for now.
“I asked him to put off decisions on anything until September,” Catsimatidis said.
The New York Times reported on the president’s interest earlier today.
The Times also reported that during a closed-door meeting with Lawler last month in the White House, Trump discussed the mayor’s race with the Hudson Valley congressman.
A person familiar with the meeting told Playbook that Trump did not express a specific preference for any of the mayoral candidates, but rather was interested in who has the best shot at winning.
Trump’s involvement would come as Cuomo’s pushing for the field to coalesce around the strongest challenger to Mamdani by mid-September — a dynamic that currently favors the former governor, according to most polls.
“The president runs the country and what is said to him at the dinner party is, ‘We saved America, we saved the free world, now it’s time to save New York,” Catsimatidis said. “I’m pretty sure he agreed with it.” — Nick Reisman and Jason Beeferman
ANDREW CUOMO, THE REPLY GUY: If you haven’t been on X in the last 24 hours (lucky you) you’ve missed Cuomo’s furious — and curious — barrage of posts and replies.
Since Monday, Cuomo has expressed gratitude to someone with the username “Andrew Cuomo is a Sex Pest.” He called on Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani to “Boycott, Divest, and Sanction” his property in Uganda — a country, he noted, “that murders LGBTQIA+ people.” And the former governor even responded earnestly to someone else who told him to “Give it up grandpa.”
“No grandkids yet- but I’ve got the experience and the ability to get things done,” Cuomo wrote.
The mayoral hopeful and failed primary candidate has posted over 35 times on X over the past two days, mostly with a new, direct tone that would’ve been unbecoming of the highly-coordinated primary campaign he was running just two months ago.
It’s a new social media approach from the 67-year-old and his campaign after his millennial foe Mamdani successfully utilized the medium to handily beat him in the Democratic primary and surge the under-30 turnout.
So is Andrew himself behind the account?
“We hired this really smart kid named A.J. Parkinson,” Rich Azzopardi told Playbook, an apparent tongue-in-cheek reference to a fictitious character Cuomo’s father first brought to life and quoted frequently in the early ‘80s.
Coincidentally, Parkinson emerged around the same time Cuomo took his last nap — a fact we now know because he told us so in one of his many replies on X this afternoon.
MAGA influencer Laura Loomer loves it.
“W,” she wrote in response to Cuomo’s call for a Uganda-centric BDS movement.
Mamdani’s campaign did not comment on Cuomo’s new online approach. — Jason Beeferman
NO MATCHING FUNDS FOR ADAMS: The New York City Campaign Finance Board denied Adams millions of dollars in matching funds for the tenth time this morning — and suggested in a strongly worded statement that Adams will not be getting a penny anytime soon, POLITICO reported today.
The regulatory body denied Adams the public funding he’s seeking for his general election bid on two grounds: His campaign has not submitted required paperwork, and the board has reason to believe the campaign violated the law.
The board’s decision escalates a long-simmering standoff with the incumbent and hobbles Adams’ ability to compete at a time when he is already at a severe disadvantage. The mayor dropped out of the Democratic primary after the controversial dismissal of a federal bribery case against him. He is now running in the crowded general election as an independent.
Fellow independents Cuomo and Jim Walden are hoping to take down Mamdani, a democratic socialist who has solidly staked out the left lane in the general election. So is GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa.
Cuomo’s base overlaps with Adams’, as does Sliwa’s, although to a lesser degree. Should the multimillion-dollar hole in his war chest persist, the mayor will be forced to continue the time-consuming process of fundraising long after his opponents, placing yet another obstacle in the way of his longshot comeback bid.
Adams’ campaign did not immediately comment on the board’s latest decision. — Joe Anuta
— PAC CASH: The pro-Adams PAC, Empower NYC, has raised $1 million in support of the mayor’s long-shot reelection bid, including from crypto industry donors. (City and State)
— NUCLEAR OPTION: Hochul’s administration wants to continue subsidizing New York’s aging nuclear facilities until 2050. (POLITICO Pro)
— RYDER’S LAW: The death of a New York City carriage horse has renewed calls for City Hall to phase-out horse-drawn carriages. (CBS News)
Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.
Tammy Haddad on Barbra Streisand, Trump and DC’s A-List weekend
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THE ISLAMAPHOBE & BLAKEMAN: As Nassau County Executive, Republican Bruce Blakeman has welcomed Muslim residents with open arms.
He’s eaten at their Ramadan Iftar dinners, appointed the first Muslim chaplain to the county’s police force and talked about the value of Muslims as Nassau County county residents and Americans.
But as he tries to win a statewide race for governor, Blakeman is now aligning himself with a leader of the anti-Muslim faction of the national GOP — and he’s not responding to questions about it.
On Friday night, Blakeman will appear with Rep. Andy Ogles — the Tennessee Republican who has led the effort in Washington to “denaturalize” and “deport” Mayor Zohran Mamdani — at the Metropolitan Republican Club’s annual gala.
“Muslims don’t belong in American society,” Ogles has said. He’s also called Mamdani “Little Muhammad” and claimed that “denaturalizations and deportations are the only way to save the Big Apple.”
Blakeman’s team declined to comment on Ogles’ past statements or the gubernatorial candidate’s upcoming appearance with the House member.
Blakeman will deliver the gala’s keynote speech, and Ogles will be honored with the club’s Ronald Reagan Award for the Advancement of Individual Liberty. Also on the list of featured attendees are former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Council Member Vickie Paladino and former Nassau County Bridge Authority Commissioner and pro-Israel influencer Emily Austin. Tickets start at $321.
The event’s host, the Metropolitan Republican Club, is often seen as the more mainstream counterpart to the city’s far-right New York Young Republican Club. The statewide New York State Young Republicans disbanded last year after POLITICO uncovered a trove of racist, homophobic and antisemitic chats involving members of the organization and other Young Republican groups around the country.
Ogles spoke at the New York Young Republican Club’s gala in December, where he said “naturalized illegal immigrants are polluting our politics” and “the new right must have courage to deport them,” a reference to his call for Mamdani’s deportation.
Husein Yatabarry, executive director of the Muslim Community Network, told Playbook remarks like Ogles’ can have a “huge impact” on the state’s roughly 1.7 million Muslim residents as they consider whether to engage in state politics.
“It’s sad to see that a lot of politicians are leaning into xenophobia and Islamaphobia and not looking at Muslims as part of their community’s fabric, but looking at Muslims as a way to get the most rude and heinous people behind you as a candidate,” Yatabarry said.
Ogles, who wrote a letter to the Department of Justice in October asking for Mamdani to be denaturalized, did not respond to a request for comment. He faces his own political battle this year, as a Democratic mayor has found fundraising success while hoping to topple Ogles in his deep-red district. Federal authorities are also reportedly investigating Ogles for potential campaign finance violations.
On the campaign trail, Blakeman often touts his strong electoral performances in purple Nassau County when speaking of his electability statewide. He easily won reelection last year in what was otherwise a bleak year for Republicans in New York.
But his Friday night appearance won’t be the first time he’ll find himself alongside figures from the extreme corners of the GOP. Blakeman was the keynote speaker at an event honoring John Eastman, an attorney who was disbarred in California last week for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. When Blakeman’s running mate, Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood, spoke at a Buffalo-area political club led by a man who called Mamdani “vermin,” the Nassau County executive didn’t seem to mind.
“Mayor Mamdani is a disgrace,” Blakeman said in a statement at the time. “He is anti-American, antisemitic, and anti-Cop.” — Jason Beeferman
FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
PAC IT UP: House Democrats’ biggest super PAC touted its “largest early investment” in the organization’s history, with a notable omission — New York.
House Majority PAC’s announcement earlier today of an initial $272 million spend on advertisements includes zilch in the notoriously expensive New York City media market, where Democrats are protecting Reps. Tom Suozzi and Laura Gillen on Long Island and attempting to flip Rep. Mike Lawler’s seat just north of the city in NY-17.
Democrats, fear not. Money is on the way, according to HMP.
“Today’s initial reservations prioritize markets where rates increase significantly and there will be more reservations to come,” the super PAC’s communications director CJ Warnke said in a statement. “HMP plans to invest heavily to flip districts like NJ-07 and NY-17.” (The NYC media market covers Republican Rep. Tom Kean in New Jersey’s 7th District as well.)
National Democratic groups are working from a much smaller electoral map in New York after flipping four seats two years ago. Last cycle, HMP’s initial reserve included $16 million in New York City and $5 million in markets further upstate.
Meanwhile, the Congressional Leadership Fund — the House GOP’s main super PAC — on Thursday also released its initial advertising reservations, which the group similarly described as its “largest ever.” That $153 million investment includes $18.6 million in New York City. CLF also said it is putting money into Albany ($2.1 million), Binghamton ($1.8 million) and Syracuse ($658,000), markets that cover Democratic Rep. Josh Riley’s district — another seat that Republicans have their eye on.
Last cycle, CLF’s initial reservation included $20 million in New York City and $8 million in markets elsewhere in the state.
“House Majority PAC isn’t even spending one dollar to defend vulnerable Dem members Tom Suozzi, Laura Gillen, Josh Riley & [New Jersey Rep.] Nellie Pou,” CLF spokesperson Lydia Hall said in a statement. “They’ve given up on these incumbents while funding other offensive fantasies across the country.” — Madison Fernandez
From the Capitol
SCHRÖDINGER’S CANNABIS: New York’s beleaguered medical cannabis program can breathe a sigh of relief today after the Trump administration rescheduled medical cannabis through an executive order. Overnight, they went from dealing in a Schedule I, federally illegal substance to one that has a pathway to federal regulation under Schedule III.
What does this do for New York’s medical cannabis producers? First off, they will no longer be subject to an onerous federal tax code that barred them from taking typical business deductions like employee salaries. And starting next week, they’ll be able to register with the Drug Enforcement Administration — a dramatic shift for an industry that was viewed by the federal government as illegal drug traffickers.
The cannabis industry in New York and beyond is cheering the move as normalizing medical use of the substance. While the order doesn’t immediately change the status of the state’s adult-use market, where anyone at least 21 years old can legally shop, it does signal that the administration will likely take steps to do so this summer.
Beyond that is where things get a little murky. “There are a lot more questions coming out of this order than there are answers,” said Katie Neer, a cannabis regulatory lawyer who represents the New York Medical Cannabis Industry Association.
It could make it easier for the cannabis industry to access financial services, though that remains to be seen. And it could draw more capital to New York’s medical cannabis operators, where there are 10 licensees that are not yet operational. It could also enable New York’s medical cannabis operators, who are under one of the strictest programs in the nation, to export their products.
“It creates a market across the world for New York’s pharmaceutical [cannabis] products … to be exported internationally,” said Adam Goers, senior vice president of corporate affairs for New York medical cannabis operator Columbia Care. In terms of interstate commerce? “We’ll see how that plays out.”
New York’s medical cannabis program launched in January 2016 with 10 licensed operators. Eight of those are still operational, and the state issued licenses to 11 new medical operators more recently.
For now, even as they welcome the federal shift, cannabis companies will be tasked with figuring out the confusing legal complexities moving forward. Some of New York’s medical marijuana businesses also sell products in the adult-use market, which creates a quandary when it comes to figuring out their taxes, and more.
“It’s Schrödinger’s cannabis, right?” said Mike Feldman, general counsel of Nabis, a cannabis distributor in New York. “It is sitting in a warehouse, and it is both Schedule I and Schedule III at the same time.” — Mona Zhang
TRAIN TROUBLES — A dispute between Amtrak and New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority threatens the full rollout of new Acela trains, Amtrak said in a lawsuit that represents the latest transit dispute between President Donald Trump’s and Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administrations.
The suit, filed in Manhattan federal court, asks a judge to order Metro-North to give Amtrak access to the tracks, Blue Light News Pro reports.
Amtrak said Metro-North is blocking its ability to test new trains because of a dispute between the two railways over liability for damage to an overhead power line that Metro-North blames on one of Amtrak’s NextGen Acela trains.
In a statement, MTA suggested Amtrak is trying to distract from another ongoing dispute where MTA says Amtrak is holding up expansion of commuter service to Penn Station.
In the lawsuit, Amtrak reveals an issue with its new Acela trains tangling with MTA infrastructure near a bridge in Westport, Connecticut during previous tests. Similar infrastructure problems — involving the interaction between overhead power lines and a train pole that draws energy from them — caused massive delays for commuters in New Jersey two summers ago. The Garden State and Amtrak were able to work through their issues; this lawsuit against New York suggests a broken relationship between Amtrak and Empire State officials. — Ry Rivard
IN OTHER NEWS
— BILLIONAIRE BLUES: Citadel CEO Ken Griffin suggested the hedge fund might halt its planned New York City expansion after Mamdani filmed a video at his Manhattan penthouse to announce a new tax on second-homes worth over $5 million. (The Wall Street Journal)
— DELAY NOW, PAY LATER: Mamdani’s team presented Hochul’s administration with a plan to delay pension fund payments in an effort to save at least $1 billion as New York City faces a multibillion-dollar budget gap. (The New York Times)
— ZONE OF INTEREST: Unions are meeting with Mamdani’s administration to push for a veto of the buffer zone bill, which keeps protesters away from schools and educational facilities, as the mayor’s decision deadline nears. (THE CITY)
Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.
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