In the lone televised Democratic primary debate for lieutenant governor, challenger Jumaane Williams attacked incumbent Kathy Hochul as a “rubber stamp” and ceremonial ribbon-cutter for Gov. Cuomo.
“I believe the job is to serve the people of the state of New York and not any governor,” Williams said during the Wednesday debate, which will only air in Manhattan on the Manhattan Neighborhood Network on Thursday.
Hochul shot back that Williams was denigrating her role, and argued that ribbon-cutting is actually a sign of progress and new facilities and factories.
“As a strong woman, I do not do what men tell me to do,” she said
However, when Hochul was asked to describe an issue where she’s changed Cuomo’s mind or disagreed with him over the past four years, she declined to specify any.
“We are in sync on many issues… I assure you if i have any disagreements with the governor, I share them with him,” she said.
Hochul also later denied she was shut out of conversations about reforming the state’s sexual harassment laws, which critics charge were negotiated behind closed doors by a handful of male politicians.
“I was very much involved in those conversations. I was used as a resource, as someone who has lived this experience personally – which is why I’m so passionate about standing up for women,” she said. “I was there helping chart the course that the state ended up adopting.”
Williams, a council member who has served Brooklyn for two terms, also jabbed Hochul for staying mum about several high-profile corruption convictions that enveloped the Cuomo administration this year.
That includes top Cuomo aide Joe Percoco, who was convicted in March of bribery and other charges.
More recently, a federal jury in Manhattan convicted Alain Kaloyeros — whom Cuomo hand-picked to oversee a $1.5 billion economic development program upstate — on charges related to bid-rigging.
Hochul noted that the transgressions involved just two economic development projects out of 6,100 statewide, and that justice had been served with the convictions.
She also claimed measures to prohibit similar corruption were already implemented, but only cited one change involving the posting of economic development financial information online.
“It is where it needs to be,” she said of the anti-corruption measures.
The debate didn’t touch on Williams’ troubled personal finances. A series of Post stories pointed out that the councilman defaulted on a mortgage on a house he owns in Canarsie, and a shuttered cafe he owned in Park Slope owes more than $10,000 in back state taxes and fees.
