The debate happening in New York state over Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposals to show how tough Democrats are on crime mirrors the debate happening across the country and in Washington, D.C.
On the radical left, the debate is over: no bail, light sentences for everything except violent offenses, and don’t send too many black people to prison because … slavery, or something.
But Hochul is running for election in November after taking over when the serial sexual harasser and rapist, Andrew Cuomo, was forced to resign. She has to run in the real world where there are an awful lot of people scared witless about crime.
Not everyone in New York is a crazy, left-wing nut. The same holds true elsewhere in the United States. The facts are that releasing people without bail isn’t leading to more crime and more violent crime. Democrats like Hochul might recognize that but are still running scared.
Democrats, bracing for tough midterm elections, are striving to prove they’re responding, in some cases emphasizing efforts to provide more money to police departments while making scant mention of reforms they embraced a few years ago.
In Minnesota, Gov. Tim Walz is up for reelection and has been touring the state promoting his $300 million public safety plan. He has not focused on the reform measures he signed after police killed George Floyd in the state almost two years ago.
Wisconsin’s Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who is also running for reelection this year, has been hammered by Republicans over crime and like Hochul, is facing bipartisan pressure to toughen bail laws.
That’s one way to distract the voter: dangle shiny objects before them and then point somewhere else saying, “Look! Squirrel!”
A record-setting spate of homicides in Albuquerque has ratcheted up pressure on New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, including from some fellow Democrats. The first-term governor has joined efforts to ban pretrial release for certain violent crimes, though some legislators in her own party have balked at rolling back reforms that largely ended money bail.
President Joe Biden in his budget this week highlighted funding for police — for body cameras, crime prevention strategies, drug treatment, mental health and criminal justice reform.
If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.
The problem for these suddenly “law and order” Democrats is that their past statements about “bail reform” and “unfair incarceration” can’t be erased from the internet. Those statements are still there, archived on YouTube, Twitter, or some other social media site. They will make very fine videos for an opponent’s campaign ad.
New York’s Hochul is suffering the fate of all straddlers: she’s being accused of being unable to make up her mind.
Democrat Jumaane Williams, New York City’s public advocate who is also challenging Hochul in the governor’s race, said the governor “should show courage and leadership on this issue, or at the very least pick a side between fearmongering and facts.”
It’s unclear if Democrats controlling the statehouse will meet the governor somewhere in the middle as they continue negotiating, but the pressure has ratcheted up in recent days.
For Democrats, the spike in violent crime is real, as is the perception that the policies they promote are to blame. That perception — true or false — is what will motivate people to go to the polls.
People are mad and scared. Those emotions do not normally favor the status quo.