As Blakeman, Hochul trade attacks, 2 other New Yorkers are frequent targets: Mamdani and Trump

ALBANY — If you listen to the candidates for New York governor, you might get the wrong impression of who they are running against.

You might think Gov. Kathy Hochul’s opponent is President Donald Trump.

You might think Republican Bruce Blakeman is running against New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Call it a proxy campaign. Call it finding a bogeyman. It’s not new to politics, but it’s reached a more pronounced level in the 2026 New York campaign because the proxies involved are among the best-known political figures around, analysts said.

"These proxies, or foils as I like to call them, are so deeply etched in people’s minds, politically, that there is no danger of confusing someone or not being clear of the criticism you are trying to make," Grant Reeher, a Syracuse University political scientist, said.

"Every campaign wants to define their opponent before they can define themselves" to the public, Reeher said.

In this race, Hochul and Blakeman are trying to tie each other to instantly recognizable figures and get the public to link them together.

"Invoke them and the cognitive work is already done," Reeher said, referring to invoking Trump and Mamdani.

Lines of attack

Hochul, in her State of the State address, presented New York as a bulwark against unpopular Trump actions and policies. She vowed to set up state vaccination standards in the wake of a federal rollback, promised to boost child care funding when Trump has tried to freeze New York’s payments, offered direct aid to farmers hurt by tariffs and pushed for a law creating a right to sue federal officers for constitutional violations, citing confrontations with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

"I need to level with you: This moment carries real threats from Donald Trump and his enablers in Congress," the governor said during the speech.

And she frequently notes Blakeman aligns with Trump and has said he’d never publicly disagree with the president.

"Gov. Hochul blasted Bruce Blakeman for putting his loyalty to Donald Trump ahead of New Yorkers" begins a recent Hochul campaign release.

"Donald Trump saying [Blakeman is] 100% MAGA. Pretty much the kiss of death here in New York," Hochul herself said in a recent television interview.

Blakeman, for his part, keeps trying to tie Hochul to Mamdani, the freshly elected democratic socialist mayor. It’s not new: he used Mamdani as a foil in his 2025 reelection campaign for Nassau County executive.

"When you see what’s going on in the city of New York, they’re basically in turmoil right now with an administration that is antithetical to the values that we have here on Long Island," Blakeman said not long after his reelection in November.

"Hochul-Mamdani Agenda Is a Direct Attack on Asian American Values," blares one Blakeman news release. In a recent interview about someone who had been detained by immigration officials on Long Island, Blakeman said: "Nobody except for Kathy Hochul and Zohran Mamdani are talking about this individual who was here illegally."

Seeking a bogeyman

It’s not surprising, one analyst said.

"The campaigns are trying to run against the people with the highest negativity [ratings] possible. You are looking for the biggest bogeyman you can get," Michael Dawidziak, a Long Island-based Republican strategist, said.

In each case, the campaign foil is someone with a high name recognition. It’s also about revving up your base with scare tactics, he said.

"Blakeman’s name recognition is not that high yet. To run against him is a waste of money" for Hochul, Dawidziak said.

On the other side, "Hochul’s negativity ratings aren’t as high as Trump," so Blakeman is trying to tie her to the left wing of the Democratic Party, hoping it will hurt her in suburbia, Dawidziak said.

He added that in his experience, "guilt by association doesn’t work most of the time in political communication."

"It rarely works because I think you are asking voters to connect the dots and they don’t always connect the dots the way you want them to," Dawidziak said.

Lawrence Levy, dean of suburban studies at Hofstra University, said Blakeman effectively used Mamdani as a bogeyman in 2025 but it is unclear if the strategy will hold this year — especially with Trump meeting and being friendly with Mamdani.

"The political winds have shifted sharply in the last few months with Mamdani getting good reviews for most of his early moves, including from Trump himself," Levy said.

Even if using a foil works, Reeher said, in the end "the problem is the loser in all this is the voters."

"To the degree you are swayed by this approach, you are motivated to vote against someone who isn’t even the person you are voting against," Reeher said. "You [campaigns] are trying to get them to vote in a very low information way."

By Yancey Roy

yancey.roy@newsday.com@yanceyroy