Buffalo, NY (WBEN) Long Island Republican Bruce Blakeman has thrown his hat into the race for governor, but with one Republican already in the campaign, has he thrown a wrench in plans to unseat Kathy Hochul?
"On a avoidance scale of one to 10, 10 being the most avoidance, it would be a 10," says GOP strategist Carl Calabrese. He says Blakeman would be an attractive candidate had Elise Stefanik not already thrown her hat into the ring. "The last thing the Republican Party needs in a state where it's down over 3 million votes is a divisive, expensive primary. So this is not a welcome development at all," adds Calabrese.
Calabrese says primaries can get nasty. "People get upset, they get mad, they hold grudges, and they say, 'Well, I'm not going to vote for the winner,' and that usually dissipates by election time. But again, a party that's down 3 million votes, this is not something it needs at all," says Calabrese, He adds the GOP is behind the eight ball for another reason. "Republicans are going to have a tough, tough situation, even with a united party and the non-primary situation in beating an incumbent governor with huge amounts of money," says Calabrese. "(Hochul)'s already got over $10 million in the bank, and should probably double that easily. So it's a tough road to hoe when everything lines up for Republicans and this is one curve ball the party does not need," adds Calabrese.
Calabrese says it's tough raising money against an incumbent governor in New York, because an incumbent governor has so much power to help friends and punish enemies, and so it's tough raising money against an incumbent. "Any money you spend during a primary is money you can't spend in a general election. And so, there's only a finite amount of money out there for a challenger in New York, and dollars spent in the primaries, those dollars are probably not going to get spent in November," adds Calabrese.
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Hochul will seek a second full term as governor in 2026