Watch for Kathy Hochul to sprint to the left as lawmakers return to Albany

With a new legislative season about to kick off and a socialist mayor taking office, Gov. Kathy Hochul will find herself under enormous pressure from left-wing Democrats as she vies for reelection.

Yet if she totally caves, it could backfire come November.

For starters, incoming mayor Zohran Mamdani and his far-left minions will demand her help in turning his lavish, pricey campaign promises into reality.

That could spell bad news for the city and state, but Hochul will also face a dilemma of her own: If she knuckles under too much to the Mamdani camp, she may alienate independents and moderates, who make up a large part of the electorate upstate.

And that could cost her the reelection, on top of doing a heap of damage to the city and state.

The new mayor will look for her support on spending, taxing, policing and other public-policy issues.  

Affordability and the economy, energy, housing, public safety and criminal justice — as well as managing cuts in federal funding — can all ignite fateful battles.

Mamdani will push Hochul hard to fulfill his free-stuff and affordability agenda; he’ll want his tax hikes on corporations and high-income earners to cover the costs, which he himself admits will run as much as $10 billion, or more.

Incumbent Democratic lawmakers worried about their own left flank are likely to join him in pressing Hochul to jack up taxes and ship billions to the city for Mamdani’s free buses, universal day care and other goodies.

Already, after taking fire from her left flank (notably her turncoat Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado) and thinking that backing socialist Mamdani will win over his voters, the gov has suggested she’s open to hiking at least business taxes.

But doing that will leave her vulnerable to attacks from GOP gubernatorial challenger Bruce Blakeman, who’ll flag her hostility to businesses, if not to the wealthy as well.

Blakeman would be on solid ground, considering that companies have already been hemorrhaging jobs to Florida and Texas and tax hikes would only accelerate that trend. 

The left will also hammer her for appearing to slow down in rolling out the state’s onerous climate law, including by delaying implementation of the All-Electric Buildings Act that bans gas stoves in new construction.

Hochul seems to have noticed growing voter anger over how that law has goosed the cost of electricity in the state, reducing “affordability,” and has also hurt reliability, with predictions of possible blackouts this summer.

Her move was a nod to reality: The law’s mandates and timelines are just too costly — and large corporations won’t relocate to New York unless there’s a guarantee of reliable sources of energy.

Still, under pressure from the left, who knows which way the gov will turn?

Meanwhile, the city has made great progress this year in curbing shootings and murders.

Yet Mamdani’s anti-police agenda could reverse that. Will Hochul have a hand in that, making herself vulnerable to attacks by Blakeman on crime? That issue almost lost her the election in 2022.

The next six months of Hochul’s tenure will be defined by how much she surrenders to Mamdani and the left at the state’s expense.

If she gives too much, Republican Bruce Blakeman may just be New York’s next governor.