Welcome the new candidates in NY governor's race 

The latest entries into Long Island and statewide races for elected office offer a measure of hope that a wider range of views about policy and governing will be heard — and that productive debate will break through predictable slogans and attacks.

Look past the horse race. Every candidacy offers someone a chance to air their perspectives. Even a run that falls short has the potential to convey concrete proposals or messages that may catch fire and be adopted by those who will govern.

Or, put it this way: Unless fresh proposals and insights bloom, the primaries and general election can become a dreary exercise in the marketing of two parties and several personalities.

Businessman Harry Wilson entered the GOP primary for governor Tuesday. He touts the "moderate" label key to electing Republicans to statewide office in the past, including George Pataki. Wilson, who can spend millions of his own dollars, made a formidable run for state comptroller in 2010. Unlike the presumed front-runner for this nomination, Rep. Lee Zeldin, Wilson has been outside the fray during ex-President Donald Trump’s domination of the party. Any nominee’s message will need to resound outside the deepest-red regions of this blue state, so this is a chance to road-test their appeals.

Voters should demand specific solutions to the state’s many problems — upstate’s chronic population exodus, for example — and consider how Wilson’s answers compare to those of GOP candidates Zeldin, Rob Astorino and Andrew Giuliani.

Across the aisle, there are choices of vision and policy in the Democratic field. Even as candidates Gov. Kathy Hochul and Rep. Tom Suozzi occupy the more centrist "lane" of the party, Suozzi’s critique of Hochul’s policies on housing, crime and taxes and her responses should inspire an honest consideration of how the two might perform differently in office.

The same chance for a clear exchange should extend to Jumaane Williams, the NYC public advocate, who unabashedly runs in the "left" lane and should get the chance to define for a wide swath of voters what his views offer if he’s elected.

A good slice of the narrative in these primary campaigns ought to be about ideas. Fortunately, those ideas will come from a broader ethnic and gender mix than we saw with past fields of candidates.

On the lieutenant governor front, Suozzi ally Diana Reyna of Brooklyn strives to become the first Latino in the job; Hochul’s choice, Brian Benjamin of Harlem, represents that neighborhood’s long-standing Black power base. And Zeldin Wednesday announced that Alison Esposito, a veteran deputy inspector at the NYPD’s 70th Precinct in Brooklyn, was the person he wanted on the ticket.

Choices of ideology and background also grow elsewhere for primary voters as many candidates raise their hands to run in Suozzi’s redrawn CD3 and Zeldin’s redrawn CD1.

For the good of the public, it is encouraging to see vigorous competition ahead.