ALBANY, N.Y. — Less than 12 hours after New York lawmakers approved a month-late state budget, Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday was promoting her biggest victory: legislation toughening the state’s bail laws.
She blitzed the New York City morning shows. She promoted the policy with prosecutors and Mayor Eric Adams, a former cop. And she immediately linked the issue to 2024 — a preemptive strike on the GOP.
“Individuals running next year for Congress on down can talk about how Democrats take public safety very seriously,” the Democratic governor told reporters. “This is not a Republican-owned issue. It’s something that we’re the ones leading on. We’re the ones solving the problems and not just standing on the sidelines taking potshots.”
The move marks an early attempt to gain the high ground after Republicans last year seized on the state’s bail laws as evidence Democrats are weak on crime, fueling embarrassing losses for House Democrats in New York. The governor’s new strategy could shape next year’s House races, and maybe even control of Congress. But it could also prove a tough and complicated sell to voters.
The new law will give judges greater authority to decide whether an individual can be held on bail. The tweaks mark, to the dismay of liberals, a third round of rollbacks of progressive bail laws Democrats passed in 2019.
Hochul’s team realized too late in the midterm cycle that public safety and the economy — not abortion rights — were animating New York voters. The result was the closest governor’s race since 1994, and Democrats were swept out of all four House seats on Long Island, as well as battleground races in the Hudson Valley.
The blame landed squarely on New York Democrats and especially Hochul, a messaging mishap that even former Speaker Nancy Pelosi said state leaders should have recognized earlier.
Last year’s race for governor in New York between Republican Lee Zeldin and Democrat Kathy Hochul focused heavily on the state’s bail laws and crime, helping Republicans up and down the ballot.