New York's LG race: Upstart challengers trying to prevent a ‘coronation’

In New York, the name of the lieutenant governor isn’t on the tip of most voters’ tongues – until, suddenly, it is.

It’s easy to understand why. The state’s No. 2 office holds little constitutional responsibility, aside from the big one: being ready to serve should the governor resign or become incapacitated. In the last 14 years, that very thing has happened twice, when the governor resigned, elevating the lieutenant governor to the top role.

Now, Democratic primary voters will get a chance to weigh in on the next potential lieutenant governor on June 28th, when brand new Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado will face a challenge for a full, four-year term from progressive activist Ana Maria Archila and former New York City Councilmember Diana Reyna.

It’s a race that was upended two months ago by the abrupt resignation of now-former Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin, who was charged with bribery just six months after Gov. Kathy Hochul – herself a former lieutenant governor elevated to the top spot after Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s resignation in August – appointed him to the role.

Since then, Delgado, a former congressman who once represented the Hudson Valley, became first in line to the governor’s office should something happen to Hochul. And now, he’s got just two weeks left to sell himself to the Democratic electorate ahead of the June 28th primary, all while being pulled in different directions by Archila, running on his left, and Reyna, running on his right.

For Hochul, a Delgado victory is important to ensure she has an ally in the lieutenant governor’s office and not a thorn in her side. But Reyna and Archila supporters are hoping the unrest following Benjamin’s legal trouble has created an opening for victory in what is expected to be a low-turnout primary —  especially as Delgado isn’t well known statewide.

On Wednesday, Democratic voters will get their first – and at this point, only – chance to hear all three candidates at once when they meet for a debate at 7 p.m. on Spectrum News affiliates across the state.

“I have tried very, very hard in this new role to get my arms wrapped around this position,” Delgado told reporters at the Capitol last week. “It’s a massive state — a lot of communities to engage with.”

How New York elects a lieutenant governor

The state has a unique system for electing lieutenant governors.

Unlike the federal system where presidential nominees pick their own running mate, New York holds separate primaries for governor and lieutenant governor. From there, the winners from each party are joined up as a single ballot line in the November election – whether they want to run together as a ticket or not.

It’s a system that has, on occasion, led to awkward partnerships.

In 1982, Mario Cuomo was locked in a heated Democratic gubernatorial primary with New York City Mayor Ed Koch, who was running with his preferred pick for lieutenant governor, then-Westchester County Executive Alfred DelBello. Cuomo, meanwhile, endorsed Carl McCall, a former state senator, late in the campaign.

When the results came in on Primary Day, Cuomo had defeated Koch. But DelBello bested McCall for lieutenant governor, setting up an unwanted partnership that barely lasted two years before DelBello quit halfway into Cuomo’s first term.

McCall was the first African American to win statewide office in New York after being elected comptroller in 1994. But he said there’s a lesson current gubernatorial candidates can learn from his 1982 race: Don’t forget about supporting your lieutenant governor pick.

“My relationship with Mario Cuomo was very tenuous – actually, worse than tenuous,” McCall, who is supporting Delgado this year, said in an interview. “They did nothing for me. You know, I was on my own. They gave me no money, no support.”

This year, Delgado is running as Hochul’s preferred candidate, while Reyna is running with Long Island Rep. Tom Suozzi and Archila is running alongside New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.

On the Republican side, only one candidate is seeking the office: NYPD veteran Alison Esposito, who is running with Long Island Rep. Lee Zeldin but will wind up as the running mate of whomever wins the four-way GOP gubernatorial primary.

Hochul is the clear frontrunner in the Democratic gubernatorial contest, having vastly out-raised her opponents and showing a strong lead in the polls. But in the past two election cycles, the Democratic lieutenant governor primary has been closer than the governor primary – giving Delgado’s challengers hope of pulling an upset, particularly given his short time in office.

In 2018, Cuomo defeated Democratic challenger Cynthia Nixon by 32 percentage points. By comparison, Hochul – then the lieutenant governor – held off a challenge from Williams by just seven points.

Hochul appears to be leaving little to chance. On Tuesday, she tapped into her $18 million campaign war chest to begin airing a television advertisement featuring her and Delgado walking together underneath the Brooklyn Bridge.

Is a split ticket possible?

So far, Reyna has been resistant to acknowledging the possibility that she or Archila could find themselves paired with Hochul, instead focusing on her ongoing partnership with Suozzi.

A former Brooklyn deputy borough president under now-Mayor Eric Adams, she and Suozzi have touted a tough-on-crime message they hope resonates with voters concerned about quality-of-life issues. They’ve positioned themselves as moderate Democrats, and have criticized Hochul for her selection of Benjamin and the deal she struck to spend $600 million on a new stadium for the Buffalo Bills.

If Reyna is elected, she would become the first Dominican American to hold statewide office.

“Tom Suozzi and I have demonstrated how we are common sense, lifelong Democrats, and we want to change the direction of our state,” told Gothamist. “We want to provide leadership. We want to demonstrate our proven record. We want to be able to bridge-build, right? We have to be able to work together.”

In an interview, Archila, also of Brooklyn, said the lieutenant governor race should be just that – a race, not “a coronation.” She is the co-founder of Make The Road NY, an immigrant advocacy group. In 2018, she confronted Jeff Flake, the Republican senator, in an elevator during the hearings to approve Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. She recounted her own history with sexual assault while questioning why Flake supported a man accused of sexual misconduct.

This year, Archila has focused her campaign on bolstering affordable housing options and providing health care for all.

“What is good for democracy is that people know that their votes matter,” she said. “When elections feel more like coronations, the communities that lose are the communities that always get left behind – Black and brown and immigrant communities, the working class and middle-class families.”

Archila would be the first openly LGBTQ person and first Colombian to hold statewide office if elected.

Should the system change?

The state constitution lays out few responsibilities for lieutenant governors, aside from the big one – being willing and able to serve should the governor resign or otherwise become unable to serve.

Speak to former lieutenant governors about their old jobs, and many of them have a go-to quip about the rigors of the work.

When David Paterson was the state’s No. 2, he claimed he used to call Spitzer first thing in the morning. When he heard Spitzer’s voice – and therefore knew the governor was alive – he would go back to bed. Paterson would later become governor after Spitzer resigned amid a sex scandal.

Robert Duffy was Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s first lieutenant governor, serving from 2011 through 2014. From there, Hochul took over until Cuomo’s resignation in 2021.

Under Cuomo, Duffy and later Hochul criss-crossed the state in SUVs to attend events as the governor’s representative. Back then, Hochul would often boast of the thousands of miles she logged every year, while Duffy – who stands at 6-foot-5 – said his extended time on the road helped lead to blood clots in his legs.

“My line was: Governors fly, and lieutenant governors drive,” said Duffy, whom Cuomo tasked with overseeing the state’s regional economic development program. “And boy, do we drive.”

Duffy says the state should change its election system to match the federal one, allowing gubernatorial candidates to handpick their running mate. Having a situation where a governor and lieutenant governor are forced into a partnership doesn’t help anyone, especially when the governor controls your budget and portfolio of work, he said.

“You may want to be that quote-unquote activist LG, having press conferences and saying what you want to say,” Duffy said. “But after about four weeks, nobody would probably listen any longer and you'd be in there by yourself.”

Others see it differently.

State Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris, a Queens Democrat, is one of a number of progressive-leaning lawmakers who have endorsed Archila’s campaign, even if they haven’t weighed in on the governor’s race. Gianaris said he thinks having a lieutenant governor who isn’t beholden to the governor could be a good thing.

“A lot of people have made noise about how the governor should have a partner,” he said. “I think the governor should have someone who pushes her to be better.”

Archila, meanwhile, said she would work with whomever wins the gubernatorial primary, should she win her own race. Their first task is defeating the Republican candidate, she said.

“I do not want to risk for one second New York being governed by an (Andrew) Giuliani or Lee Zeldin,” she said. “That would be so dangerous for the state of New York.”