Politics
Kirk memorial in Arizona to have Super Bowl-level security
The upcoming memorial honoring the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Arizona will have Super Bowl-level security, according to officials familiar with the matter. The memorial for Kirk, who was killed while speaking at a college event in Utah last week, will be held at State Farm Stadium in Glendale…
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Republicans have tried to find a new boogeyman this year as they rail against Democratic socialism and the “radical” left: Zohran Mamdani. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Bernie Sanders.
Still more mentioned than all of them, at least in campaign ads: former President Joe Biden.
A Blue Light News review of hundreds of ads running in battleground House and Senate races in recent months shows Republicans largely haven’t seized on progressive icons in paid media. Instead, Biden is the Democrat most likely to be mentioned in GOP ads this cycle, coming up across dozens of races.
President Donald Trump has frequently sought to blame Biden for high prices and other challenges that his administration has faced. Even so, the former president has become a far less useful punching bag for Republicans since leaving office and remaining largely out of the spotlight: At this time in the 2024 cycle, Biden had been mentioned in more than 1,000 Republican House and Senate ads, according to AdImpact data.
The data illustrates how Republicans have been unable to land on a clear villain as they seek to convince voters that Democratic control of Congress would be worse than keeping the GOP in charge. Their warnings about old establishment figures like Biden and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi don’t land like they once did. But they also haven’t been able to seize on emerging democratic socialists like they had hoped to.
Democrats’ foil, meanwhile, has never been more obvious, with Trump’s approval rating in the mid-thirties amid continued high prices and the Iran war.
“No one will match the level of Pelosi for Republicans, in part because the Obamacare vote was such a touchstone moment. And the ‘we have to pass it to find out what’s in it,’” said Doug Heye, a longtime Republican operative who noted he still has “Fire Pelosi” swag from the Republicans’ successful 2010 midterm rout. The then-speaker was central to the GOP’s campaign message that year.
Part of the challenge for Republicans comes from Democrats’ lack of a clear leader. Pelosi stepped down from Democratic leadership at the start of 2023, and her successor, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) does not elicit the same animus from Republicans. In the 2022 cycle, her last term as Democratic leader, Pelosi was invoked in more than 80 GOP ads, Blue Light News’s analysis found. Now, she’s mentioned just a handful of times, while Jeffries hasn’t been mentioned in any battleground TV ads this year, according to the Blue Light News review of transcripts.
Biden was an easy target for the GOP in 2022 and 2024, when Republicans blamed him for high inflation and the cost of living. Now, poll after poll shows that voters are more likely to hold Trump — not Biden — responsible for the current state of the U.S. economy, even as Trump tries to redirect the blame.
Even Kamala Harris, the most recent Democratic standard-bearer as their 2024 nominee, is named less often in paid media this cycle than Biden. And among other potential future Democratic presidential candidates, only California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Ocasio-Cortez appear as Republican foils — and not as often as Harris or Biden.
Ocasio-Cortez is often mentioned by Republicans in the same sentence as Sanders, especially when the GOP seeks to tie Democrats in battleground races to the party’s progressive wing. In Michigan’s hotly contested Senate race, former public health official Abdul El-Sayed was endorsed by both — something his opponent Mike Rogers and GOP outside groups have seized on.
“El Sayed is endorsed by extreme liberals like AOC, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders,” one recent ad from the conservative super PAC Sentinel Action Fund says.
Some Republicans have sought to run against the progressives even when there are no such ties: One ad that ran earlier this year from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the state’s GOP comptroller promised to stand up to Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders and the “new radical left.” Neither Sanders nor Ocasio-Cortez have endorsed in either race.
Most often, the GOP has run ads seeking to tie Democratic candidates to socialism or communism — the concepts themselves — in dozens of House battleground races and nearly every major Senate race. Just this week, the Trump administration launched a national $20 million DHS-funded campaign-style ad spree that features Trump lambasting “communism, socialism, and Marxism.”
But when it comes to specific political figures — like Mamdani, New York City’s mayor — it gets complicated. Republicans once salivated at the prospect of Mamdani as a foil when he was first elected last year. But his first year in office has largely boosted his standing with voters, complicating efforts to turn his tenure into a negative for Democrats.
Trump’s surprising continued embrace of the New York City mayor — just last week, the president stood by Mamdani and said he hoped he would “be a great mayor” — has further complicated GOP efforts to paint him as a villain.
In a handful of swingy New York congressional districts, Republicans have still attempted to tie their opponents to Mamdani, while Democrats have pushed back on the connection. In New York’s 21st District, which Trump won by more than 20 points two years ago, Democratic dairy farmer Blake Gendebien ran an ad arguing that his Republican opponent wants voters to think he’s “running against Zohran Mamdani” but “that’s a load of bull.”
The GOP has characterized prominent Democrats as socialist for decades. As progressives won a series of contested primaries this year, some Democrats worried the rise of figures with ties to the Democratic Socialists of America would give Republicans easy ammunition for the general election.
But being called a “socialist” may not have the same shock value it once did.
“I don’t think just calling a candidate ‘socialist’ works that well for Republicans, particularly this late in the game,” said Matt Towery, a longtime GOP pollster. “If a candidate focuses on parts of the DSA’s platform and can authentically pin it on their opponent, that might work. But Republicans just assume people have a bad reaction to the term socialist, and the term doesn’t elicit the same reaction it used to.”
Politics
‘A slow-moving car crash:’ Republicans are wary of the $200 million-plus price tag to save Ken Paxton
Republicans know they have to spend big to save Ken Paxton. They’re increasingly worried MAGA Inc. won’t throw down in time.
In private conversations over recent weeks, senior Hill Republicans and GOP officials have nudged President Donald Trump’s team to start spending more on the Texas Senate race before it’s too late, according to three people with direct knowledge of those conversations, who were granted anonymity to discuss them.
Those fears escalated after audio leaked of Paxton privately trashing Trump’s midterm convention, with some worrying it could impact whether MAGA Inc. continues spending after a current wave of GOP ad bookings run out Oct. 12.
A Trump operative told Blue Light News that MAGA Inc. and its affiliates are expected to spend near $45 million on direct mail, TV, and digital advertising in Texas through Oct. 12, an increase from its previous $20 million to boost Paxton. But they said the team is still assessing how much more money to send in the final weeks, in consultation with Senate Republicans and their top super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund.
The Trump operative, who like others in this article was granted anonymity to speak candidly, would not commit to any plans when asked by Blue Light News.
With national Democrats starting to finally spend for their Senate nominee, James Talarico, after months of holding off, and as polling of the race tightens, Republicans expect the cost of salvaging Paxton’s campaign will only skyrocket. And, they’ve started to panic.
“It’s a five-alarm fire, no doubt,” one GOP senator said. “Can we put it out? I hope so.”
“This is a slow-moving car crash that we’re witnessing right now,” a Republican strategist in the state said. “And there’s a 75% chance that the ultimate result here will be catastrophic from a GOP Senate majority standpoint.”
A fourth Republican, a national operative, spoke to the urgency factor: “While it’s money we shouldn’t have needed to spend, it needs to be spent now,” said a national GOP operative, describing the state as more winnable than North Carolina, Georgia and potentially Ohio.
Even with a massive war chest, Texas is turning into a huge money sink for the GOP that senators worry could hurt them in other tight races as they work to defend deep-red states and try to flip blue seats in Michigan and New Hampshire.
Trump himself nodded to some of the concerns at a rally just across the Texas border in Oklahoma Thursday night, saying those voters aren’t the ones he’s concerned about.
“We’re worried about Michigan. We’re worried about Texas,” he told the crowd. “We’re worried about a few states.”The president is scheduled to visit Texas again next week for a rally in San Antonio next Wednesday.
SLF poured another $60 million into Texas on Wednesday, bringing its total expenditure there to a record-breaking $131 million. With the MAGA Inc. money and additional GOP ad reservations, the race is already on track to top $200 million from outside Republican groups hoping to save Paxton. Paxton’s own campaign recently announced a $20 million ad buy — one of the largest single media investments in a Texas Senate race.
Some Republicans want MAGA Inc. to take over spending for Paxton in Texas in the final few weeks, so SLF can focus its resources elsewhere. MAGA Inc. could also funnel money into SLF’s recently established Texas PAC. But, according to two people with direct knowledge of that matter, that hasn’t happened.
“At some point I think the people spending that money are going to have to make hard choices and figure out where the money can have the biggest impact, and certainly Texas is the most expensive,” Sen. John Cornyn, who lost to Trump-backed Paxton in the primary, recently told POLITICO.
SLF Executive Director Alex Latcham indicated to Blue Light News the group will keep spending in Texas: “Senate Leadership Fund’s investment through Texas PAC affirms our commitment to maintaining the Republican majority and defeating Far-Left liberals like James Talarico.”
But Republicans’ money concerns have been complicated by Paxton himself. A growing number of GOP senators and top operatives have been stunned by what they described as unforced errors by the Texas Senate nominee. For example, he crossed one of the brightest red lines with Trump, telling a group of donors that “everybody’s numbers dropped” after the president’s GOP convention in Dallas last month, according to the audio leak reported by The New York Times.
“There seems to be very little strategy there,” said another Republican senator, granted anonymity to candidly discuss the race. “Sometimes, I think [Paxton] wants to lose.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump, while on his way to Texas to tour a motor facility on Thursday, told reporters he hadn’t talked to Paxton about his convention comments. Later, he told a crowd in Texas that “Ken Paxton was at my side more than anybody, and I have to always remember that because he can be a pain in the ass sometimes. I’ll be honest.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told reporters this week that he hadn’t seen the audio of Paxton trashing Trump’s convention. He acknowledged the stakes in his home state were high — and that the influx of cash is key.
“The reason that it is a serious race and a close race right now is that for several months the Democrats were massively outspending us,” he said, “and I am glad now that we are seeing money invested in communicating with the voters.”
The White House has attempted to reassure concerned senators, with chief of staff Susie Wiles telling Senate Republicans this week that there will be enough money available for competitive races in the final stretch, according to two people with knowledge of the meeting.
GOP operatives in both Michigan and New Hampshire said they feel that some of the cash being shoveled toward Texas should be going to their states instead. Most polls show Republicans running narrowly behind or neck and neck in both states, even though they hold a spending advantage on the airwaves there.
“We’re focusing so much on ‘we’ve got to put this money into Texas.’ Why? We’ve never had a problem in Texas. Let’s focus on taking back a seat we haven’t had in years,” said an ally of former Sen. John E. Sununu, who’s in a tight race against Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas. “There are real chances in Michigan and New Hampshire,” said the person, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the dynamics.
Sununu’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Latcham, who heads SLF, said that “Texas PAC is a dedicated effort that will not take resources from our other ongoing investments across the Senate map.”
Recent polling still shows the Texas Senate race with a razor-thin margin. Most public polling over the past two months shows Talarico with an edge, though Paxton’s campaign released an internal poll Tuesday that shows Paxton leading by three points among likely voters, 48% to 45%.
“I don’t think the needle has moved in the last month,” said one Texas Republican elected official, granted anonymity to speak frankly. “Unless it’s the worst polling that’s ever been done in political history, all this spend hasn’t changed anything, and I think people have made their mind up.”
Lisa Kashinsky, Samuel Benson, Alex Gangitano and Kelsey Brugger contributed to this report.
RAPE LAW LOOPHOLE: Gov. Kathy Hochul vowed today to close a loophole embedded in state rape law around voluntary intoxification as she laced into Cornell University police and a local district attorney for their handling of a 2024 gang rape allegation.
Under current law, proving sexual assault is difficult if a victim voluntarily consumed alcohol or drugs. Individuals cannot consent “by reason of being mentally disabled or mentally incapacitated,” which generally applies to involuntary consumption of drugs or alcohol. Hochul said she would work with lawmakers “early” to change the law when they return to Albany in January.
“Voluntary intoxication is not a license for sexual assault or gang rape,” Hochul told reporters at her Midtown Manhattan office. “Period. I support closing this loophole and will work with the New York State Legislature to accomplish this.”
The State Senate has consistently attempted to do just that through legislation, but the Assembly has yet to bring the bill up for a vote.
Hochul also appointed New York Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor on the case. Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff has agreed to an independent review.
The plaintiff, a former Cornell student, alleged in a lawsuit that several men raped her at the Chi Phi house after coercing her into consuming drugs. The case attracted national attention after the student-run Cornell Daily Sun broke the story.
The woman, identified in court papers as Jane Doe, told the Cornell campus police that she was “100 percent confident that she had been raped,” according to a transcript of her conversation with investigators.
But that part of her account, Hochul noted, was omitted from the materials Cornell police sent to Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten, who declined to pursue charges without interviewing the woman.
“In what world would the police learn from the victim that she had been literally gang-raped while intoxicated by five men in a fraternity house and not elevate those allegations to the district attorney?” she said. “In what world does the district attorney not even interview her or anyone else involved, or even request the full transcript?”
Earlier this week, James expressed solidarity with Jane Doe on social media. When asked about her decision to affirm the allegation, she declined to comment.
Rebecca Valli, a Cornell spokesperson, said the university agrees with the governor’s decision.
“We fully support the appointment of a special prosecutor and efforts to change New York State’s rape law and are committed to an independent external review of all aspects of how Cornell has handled this case,” Valli said in a statement.
Van Houten, the Tompkins County prosecutor, said in a statement today that “we were not provided the full picture by the university.” — Madina Touré
MARK YOUR CALENDAR: Join Blue Light News’s New York Outlook: Affordability, Industry & The Economy on Oct. 14 for live conversations about the business and policy decisions being made today — from City Hall to the State Capitol — that will shape the city’s economic future. The lineup includes New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, New York City Economic Development Corp. CEO Anthony Shorris, Partnership for NYC CEO Steven Fulop, Citizens Budget Commission President Andrew Rein, Charles H. Revson Foundation President Maria Torres-Springer, and more. Register now to attend in person or watch the livestream.
From the Capitol
SPACE JAM: The fledgling United States Space Force is trying to find a home for its academy.
State Sen. James Skoufis wants to make it so in the Hudson Valley, proposing that the recently formed military branch select Stewart International Airport.
“New York Stewart International Airport would be an exceptional site for this project. It offers existing aerospace infrastructure — including one of the few runways in the country designated for space shuttle landings — alongside significant on-site development opportunities,” Skoufis wrote in a letter to Hochul this week.
The Democratic state lawmaker is seizing on a NASA-led effort seeking input from governors interested in hosting or sponsoring the academy in their state.
Skoufis wants to build interest in having the academy placed in New York, where some officials are trying to encourage growth in the space sector.
“We built the Apollo lunar landers and refined the optics for every major NASA telescope,” said Patrick Chase, co-founder of Empire Space, a non-profit promoting economic opportunities in space. “The Empire State is the best location for the United States Space Academy, continuing our bold legacy as a pioneer of the American Space Age.” — Nick Reisman
BLAKEMAN’S VAGUE VOWS: Republican Bruce Blakeman has spent this year’s gubernatorial campaign focused on attacks — leaving serious questions about what he’d actually do if elected governor.
With a month to go until Election Day, the Nassau County executive doesn’t have a policy section on his website. On the campaign trail, he’s opted against making detailed policy prescriptions in favor of going after Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
When asked in August about his plan to reign in housing costs — a top concern among New York voters — Blakeman pivoted immediately to ideology: “It’s not through socialism.”
“That’s a failed system,” he said at the time. “Mamdani the Commie and Comrade Kathy, they have this completely backwards because wherever they’ve instituted socialism it’s been making people miserable.”
Blakeman’s policy agenda has focused on two major issues — massive tax cuts and an immediate 50 percent reduction in utility bills on his first day in office. But neither plan has been backed up by accounting that might suggest they’re plausible. His campaign declined repeated requests to release a plan detailing the cuts needed for the tax breaks.
“It strikes me as very back-of-the-envelope,” said E.J. McMahon, who helped author former Republican Gov. George Pataki’s tax cut proposal. “A damp, coffee-stained envelope.”
George Marlin, a former Conservative Party mayoral nominee in New York City and ex-director of the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, took such criticism a step further, writing in a Times Union op-ed today that Blakeman’s record on Long Island suggests he is not “fiscally skilled enough to merit a promotion to the state’s top job.”
“As county executive, Blakeman has done nothing to restrain spending,” Marlin wrote. “Despite his misleading campaign rhetoric, he has never cut a penny in county taxes.”
Blakeman’s campaign did not respond to Marlin’s attacks.
Read more from Bill Mahoney in Blue Light News here.
TROOPER ONE’S SUIT: A federal judge this week dismissed one of the retaliation claims against ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a lawsuit filed by a former member of his State Police security detail.
U.S. District Court Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall determined that because the alleged retaliation occurred in February 2022 — after Cuomo resigned from office — it did not constitute acting “under color of state law.”
The woman, known in court documents as Trooper 1, alleged in the lawsuit that Cuomo sexually harassed her and that his former top aides subsequently retaliated against her. The former governor has denied any wrongdoing.
“We respectfully disagree with the Court’s decision,” said Valdi Licul, Trooper 1’s lawyer. “Multiple federal and state agencies found that Cuomo sexually harassed Trooper 1 and other women. We don’t believe his resignation in response to his proven misconduct permitted him to further violate the law by threatening one of his victims. We intend to appeal as soon as we are able.”
Azzopardi, Cuomo’s spokesperson, responded: “Despite what Trooper 1’s attorneys may think, New Yorkers aren’t stupid, they know Governor Cuomo never harassed nor retaliated against anyone and a simple review of the facts by the courts is why their case continues to crumble, the same way 5 DA’s review of those same ‘agency reviews’ found no there there and the two civil cases against him were ultimately dropped.” — Nick Reisman
FROM CITY HALL
FINAL FRONTIER FEAR: At least one of the artificial intelligence firms set to testify before the City Council is supportive of the lawmakers’ regulatory efforts.
Council Speaker Julie Menin plans to convene the entire body Monday for a hearing where leading AI companies will testify and provide input on a legislative package that would put guardrails around the emerging technology.
In a letter sent Thursday to Menin and her colleagues — and obtained by Playbook — an executive from OpenAI said the firm is broadly behind the Council’s push.
“We appreciate the Council’s focus on frontier safety, including transparency, third-party assessments, reporting of critical incidents and protecting whistleblowers, consumer protection, election-related deepfakes, and other key safety areas,” wrote Chan Park, head of U.S. and Canada policy and partnerships for OpenAI. “We also strongly support the Council’s goal of strengthening the City’s readiness to prevent and respond to AI-related cyber threats and emergencies.”
In his letter, Park noted the ways AI is contributing to advances in science and education, but acknowledged the concerns over frontier AI models raised by Menin and the company’s own executives as part of a broad unease over how rapidly the technology is advancing.
Park did not get into the particulars of each Council bill, but he noted OpenAI is also supportive of a state regulatory framework known as the RAISE Act and has been providing Albany with input on tweaks to the legislation and the state’s cybersecurity efforts.
“Our own safeguards are essential, but voluntary company commitments alone are not enough,” Park wrote. “Enforceable standards, independent scrutiny, and public accountability are necessary to ensure that increasingly capable AI is developed and used responsibly.” — Joe Anuta
IN OTHER NEWS
— FLUSHING’S FACELIFT: As plans for a new “town square” in Flushing move forward, residents have raised concerns about gentrification and displacement. (Gothamist)
— FOSTER CARE: Foster care agencies in New York are facing an unprecedented crisis of rapidly rising insurance costs, and they want state Democrats to approve a relief bill. (Times Union)
— HAMAS HELPERS: The NYPD helped catch two brothers from Louisiana allegedly involved in a Hamas fundraising scheme. (New York Post)
Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.
- Republicans don’t have a clear boogeyman for this year’s midterms
- Republicans tried to punt health care cuts until after the midterms. It didn’t work.
- Trump apparently shares Tom Cotton’s phone number in push to make Daylight Saving Time permanent
- ‘A slow-moving car crash:’ Republicans are wary of the $200 million-plus price tag to save Ken Paxton
- Trump rules out diesel export ban after Europe agrees to tap stockpiles
- Sanders to rally for Troy Jackson in Maine
- Hill: Trump’s ‘lack of favorability’ creating challenging politics
- Hochul eyes changes to state’s rape law amid Cornell crisis
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