Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman brought his campaign for governor to the Oneonta area Tuesday, Aug. 25.
At the Otsego County fire training center in the town of Milford, Blakeman spoke with county emergency services personnel and filmed a campaign video.
He said he was visiting to talk to firefighters and EMTs about “funding for all kinds of things that they need, projects to make them better firefighters and make it safer for them and safer for our communities,” he said.
Blakeman was joined by running mate Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood and state comptroller candidate Joseph Hernandez. Also in attendance were Congressional District 19 candidate state Sen. Peter Oberacker, R-Schenevus, Otsego County Board of Representatives Chairperson Edwin Frazier Jr., R-District 1, and county Board Representative Daniel Wilber, R-District 10.
Blakeman said his vision for upstate New York includes addressing how “we are the most overtaxed state in the United States of America.”
He also pointed to high electricity bills and called Gov. Kathy Hochul, his opponent, the worst and “most pro-criminal governor in the United States,” criticizing funding she has provided to support “illegal immigrants.”
“People in upstate New York want economic opportunity,” Blakeman said. “They want jobs. They want job creation. My goal is to open up the Marcellus Shale to bring down energy costs and provide jobs and prosperity for that part of the region.”
Hochul campaign spokesperson Ryan Radulovacki responded Tuesday in a statement, saying that Hochul has delivered financial relief and backed safety investments, while Blakeman has raised taxes, overseen increased crime and embraced President Donald Trump’s policies locally.
“The difference in this race is crystal clear: Governor Hochul has put money back in New Yorkers’ pockets at every opportunity, from energy rebate checks to inflation refunds, while investing billions in public safety and standing up to Donald Trump’s attacks,” he said. “‘MAGA all the way’ Bruce Blakeman jacked up property taxes, let violent crime spike to decade highs on his watch, and lets Trump’s rogue ICE agents abuse their power in his backyard.”
Expanding fossil fuel use
The call for expanding fossil fuel energy production upstate has been paired with one for abolishing the state’s Office of Renewable Energy Siting and Transmission, responsible for siting large renewable energy projects and endowed with the authority to overrule local municipalities to do so. Opposition to the office created during the Gov. Andrew Cuomo administration has become a focal point of state Republicans’ advocacy this year.
“It’s gone on Day 1,” Blakeman said of the office. “We are not going to force solar farms on people in communities. We are not going to do wind turbines. We can do some of that stuff, but it’s not going to be forced.”
Blakeman called it “completely insane” that “we’re now buying gas from Pennsylvania” when New York has “one of the largest natural gas reserves in the world.”
Asked whether the Constitution Pipeline should need to receive approvals from every planning board jurisdiction it passes through to proceed, Blakeman said “I think it’s important to work with local government.”
“I think we can work that out with the local governments to give them a benefit and make it worth their while,” he said. “Maybe give them some of that gas. Maybe give them some kind of community impact fee.”
He added that he would work with local governments to “make sure that whatever we did wasn’t contrary to what the local people want in their communities.”
Frazier, who serves also as chairperson of the Otsego County Republican Committee, said he was “thrilled” that a potential state official “is interested in Otsego and Delaware County.”
The Blakeman team “contacted us, said ‘what can we do for you,’ and we said ‘well, we’ve been trying to get this training center built for our EMS firefighters and EMS providers,'” Frazier said. He added that the most important thing a state official could do was offer more funding to Otsego County.
Frazier has said that Otsego County faces roughly $5 million in lost funding as a result of federal cuts during this year’s budget cycle.
Hernandez said that the Blakeman campaign invited him along for the upstate trip, and that he is using the opportunity to speak with local businesses.
He highlighted his proposal to create a $10 billion Empire Opportunity Fund using the state’s pension fund. He previously announced that the fund would be used to promote industries including “manufacturing, artificial intelligence, life sciences, semiconductors, aerospace, and logistics.”
“As those companies succeed here and we get more employment in these regions, higher-paying jobs, these companies will also rise,” Hernandez said Tuesday.