Here’s something Albany insiders don’t want you to hear: for decades, Long Island hasn’t been treated like a community of families, small businesses, and taxpayers who deserve respect. We’ve been treated like a piggy bank. Every year, they come back for more—more taxes, more fees, more regulations—and in return we get lectures, mandates, and neglect. They tax us, regulate us, and talk down to us, then forget we exist the moment the budget is passed.
No one represents that failure of leadership more clearly than Gov. Kathy Hochul. She’s had three and a half years to prove she could turn this state around—three and a half years to make our streets safer, lower taxes, and make New York affordable again. That’s not a short trial run; that’s a full opportunity to lead. Yet what do we have to show for it? Higher crime. Higher costs. Higher taxes. And a growing sense of disorder.
You don’t need a thick policy report to understand what’s happening. Just fill your gas tank. Pay your property tax bill. Walk through a train station late at night and ask yourself whether things feel safer than they did a few years ago. Real life is the report card, and right now New Yorkers are flunking under Albany’s leadership.
Hochul’s tenure has been a masterclass in how not to govern. She defended disastrous bail policies while repeat offenders cycled in and out of the system, leaving law-abiding citizens to deal with the consequences. She signed off on bloated budgets that drove spending through the roof and pushed families and small businesses out of the state. She allowed Albany bureaucrats to bully the suburbs with one-size-fits-all mandates while catering almost exclusively to New York City’s political machines.
Now, as if to make her priorities unmistakable, she’s cozying up to the most radical voices in city politics—the same crowd that thinks defunding the police is “progress,” believes every problem can be solved with higher taxes, and treats the suburbs as an afterthought or, worse, an obstacle. If that’s who’s cheering for you, it says everything. You’re not governing for Nassau or Suffolk, for upstate towns, or for middle-class families trying to stay afloat. You’re governing for activists, consultants, and social media trends. That’s not leadership; that’s surrender.
Here’s the part Albany insiders don’t like: for the first time in a long time, Long Island has a real fighter stepping forward to take on the status quo. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman isn’t a career insider cutting backroom deals. He isn’t auditioning for Manhattan cocktail parties or cable news hits. He’s one of us. He understands what it means to live here, pay these taxes, worry about safety, and raise a family without feeling like the state is working against you.
As county executive, Blakeman focused on the basics that Albany forgot: public safety, lower taxes, local control, and common sense. While others chased headlines, he did the work. While Albany politicians argued over slogans, he backed law enforcement. While they kept raising spending, he looked for waste to cut. While they ignored the suburbs, he stood up for them.
Blakeman understands something Hochul never has: New York does not begin and end at the city line. Farmers matter. Suburban families matter. Small businesses matter. Long Island matters. The people who commute every day, coach Little League, run diners and hardware stores, and pay the bulk of this state’s bills matter too.
For years, though, we’ve been told to sit down, shut up, and pay up. Every budget cycle, Albany treats Long Island like an ATM they can tap whenever they need more cash. Don’t complain. Don’t question. Just keep sending the checks.
This race is our chance to say enough. Enough being the financial engine of the state while getting scraps in return. Enough being lectured by politicians who’ve never set foot in Levittown or Ronkonkoma. Enough being represented by leaders who take marching orders from the far-left city crowd instead of listening to the communities that fund this state.
Hochul had her opportunity. She’s had years to deliver results. Instead, crime is worse, affordability is worse, and trust in government is worse. That’s not spin—it’s what families feel every day when they balance their checkbooks and look over their shoulders.
The choice is simple. We can stick with the same Albany machine politics that got us into this mess, or we can finally put a real Long Island voice at the table. We can keep rewarding failure, or we can demand accountability.
It’s time Albany feared Long Island voters a little more and ignored us a lot less. This time, we don’t just send another check and hope things magically improve. This time, we send a message—and that message is Long Island First.