Hochul cancels appearance at Dems fundraiser on LI; Tish James to attend

The miserable cold and allergy season has Gov. Kathy Hochul under the weather, forcing her to cancel her appearance at a Democratic fundraiser in Woodbury Tuesday night for Nassau County executive nominee Seth Koslow and county legislative candidates. That leaves Attorney General Tish James as the headliner to kick off the Nassau Democrats’ 2025 activities.

Jay Jacobs, the county and state party chair, told The Point that he had raised $400,000 from sponsors paying $10,000 for a table of 10 or individuals buying a $650 ticket. Jacobs said 900 tickets have been sold for the event at the Crest Hollow County Club, not counting possible walk-ins.

"The governor tends to come to the Nassau County dinners because she recognizes how important Nassau County and all of Long Island is," said Jacobs. Hochul was in Albany earlier in the day finalizing the long-overdue state budget and called him late Tuesday afternoon to send her regrets. He said she “sounded terrible.”

Nassau Democrats have an uphill fight this year as Republicans dominate countywide office in Nassau, and in its three towns and two cities. President Donald Trump won Nassau by 4 percentage points over Kamala Harris in 2024. The only Democrats in the upper levels of elected office are its two House members, Tom Suozzi and Laura Gillen.

Hochul held a news conference in the rain in Copiague Monday with LI business leaders to announce that there would be money in the state budget to pay off $6 billion in COVID-era debt to the federal government.

Hochul is planning to visit LI next week as part of a budget victory lap. Maybe the heavy rain will have dealt with this year’s copious tree pollen by then.

— Rita Ciolli rita.ciolli@newsday.com

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