Office of Gov. Kathy Hochul
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced State Sen. Brian Benjamin as her lieutenant governor.
Hochul announced Thursday that she would be tapping state Sen. Brian Benjamin, who represents a number of Manhattan neighborhoods including Harlem, for the role of lieutenant governor. Benjamin is the third big pick to recently join the Hochul administration.
Health advocates point to a spike in overdose and opioid deaths during the pandemic, saying the pilot program to launch five Overdose Prevention Centers—four of them in the city, where people can use drugs under supervision would save lives—would save lives.
The former lieutenant governor took the oath of office at midnight Tuesday, becoming the state’s 57th executive leader and the first woman to hold the post. She is expected to make her first address to the public later in the day.
The third-term Democratic governor delivered his farewell speech to New Yorkers Monday, his last day in office after resigning in the wake of sexual harassment allegations. ‘We didn’t always get it quite right but I want you to know from the bottom of my heart that everyday I worked my hardest,’ Cuomo said.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said the inquiry was no longer necessary since the governor plans to resign later this month, and also questioned whether lawmakers have the authority under state rules to impeach an official who no longer holds office.
Cuomo, embroiled for the last few months in several high-profile scandals—including sexual misconduct accusations by nearly a dozen women—announced Tuesday that he was resigning from the state’s highest office, effective in two weeks.
With Cuomo unlikely to leave voluntarily—at least if his defiant response to James’ report is any indication—it will be up to state lawmakers to serve as the ultimate arbiters of his fate.
State Attorney General Letitia James’ civil investigation into the allegations against Cuomo found that the governor’s actions over the course of seven years “violated multiple state and federal laws, as well as the Executive Chamber’s own written policies.”
The city’s Board of Elections released updated preliminary votes counts Tuesday—now including absentee ballots—which show the Brooklyn Borough President leading over former Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia with 50.5 percent of votes after eight elimination rounds of Ranked Choice Voting.
The Board of Elections released new preliminary numbers in the Democratic mayoral primary Wednesday, its second try at calculating ranked choice voting results for ballots that were cast in person last week. More than 124,000 absentee votes have yet to be tallied.
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