Kathy Hochul sticking to wait-and-see approach to bail reform despite close election

Gov. Kathy Hochul says she is in no rush to clean up New York by changing controversial bail laws, despite suggesting she would address the issue early next year during her race against Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin.

“I will take the time with my team, and people in Criminal Justice Services, my advisors and my legal team to come up with any way we think we can improve public safety,” Hochul said Thursday in Puerto Rico where she is attending an annual conference of New York Democrats.

She did not offer a timeline for when she would announce whether she would pursue changes to controversial criminal justice reforms despite saying in the campaign that the issue might be on the table once state lawmakers returned to Albany in January for their regularly scheduled session.

The incumbent Democrat pointed Thursday to a national rise in crime, while deflecting a question from The Post about when she would specifically get serious about making changes.

“It’s a national phenomenon, I get that,” Hochul said.

“And I’m not gonna be worried about us compared to other states. All I care about is the state of New York. And I want to make sure that everybody who lives here has that sense of safety that they deserve,” she added.

Hochul did not offer a timeline for when she might make changes to New York's criminal justice reform laws.
Gov. Kathy Hochul did not offer a timeline for when she might make changes to New York’s criminal justice reform laws.
James Keivom for New York Post
Lee Zeldin had campaigned largely on a public safety platform.
Lee Zeldin had campaigned largely on a public safety platform.
Corbis via Getty Images

Zeldin fell short by just a few points of becoming the first Republican governor elected in two decades while assailing, bail reform before receiving more than 2.6 million votes against Hochul.

State lawmakers approved some changes to state bail laws following a push by Hochul last spring, but she has claimed since then that there was not enough data available to judge the success of those efforts despite high-profile incidents showing how current laws were allow repeat offenders to roam free despite their risk of reoffending.

A handful of Democrats representing Assembly and state Senate seats in the outer-boroughs and New York City suburbs lost their bids for reelection this week in areas where opposition to bail reform runs especially high.

Promises to address New York's bail laws helped propel Zeldin to a close race with Hochul.
Promises to address New York’s bail laws helped propel Zeldin to a close race with Hochul.
Pacific Press/Shutterstock

The remaining Democratic majorities in the Assembly and state Senate will lean more left now that some swing districts are now held by Republicans, a dynamic that could embolden progressives to resist any efforts to change bail reform again.

A lack of moderate lawmakers pushing for rollbacks appears to be fine by Hochul considering her ongoing wait-and-see approach to bail reform that is emphasizing talk over action for now.

“I’m willing to go back and have these conversations with everybody anytime about how we can improve people’s safety,” she said

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