Zeldin or Hochul, definite firsts
Rep. Lee Zeldin, left, and Gov. Kathy Hochul. Credit: AP
No matter who wins New York’s gubernatorial race, there will be a “first.”
Kathy Hochul would become the first woman to be elected governor in the state’s history. She, of course, is serving in that office already, having ascended from the lieutenant governor post after Andrew M. Cuomo’s implosion last year.
And Lee Zeldin would be the state’s first governor born and raised on Long Island.
Multiple governors have had Long Island connections at one time or another. Hugh Carey had a summer home on Shelter Island. Nineteenth-century politician Roswell Flower died in Eastport. Teddy Roosevelt owned land in Oyster Bay and lived there for 10 years before he was elected governor, returning to make Sagamore Hill his summer White House while he served as president.
The Red Book, a long-standing repository of information about New York State, does not list a governor whose residence was Suffolk County. And no New York governor yet had been born on Long Island.
Various government sites say Zeldin was born in Nassau’s East Meadow. He was raised in Suffolk County and currently lives in Shirley, a solid and long-standing claim to LI compared to the rest.
Hochul’s incumbency is record-breaking on the gender front already. She is one of nine women governors currently serving, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers’ Eagleton Institute of Politics.
— Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano
