Katie Hochul Was Pretty at New York Fashion Week, Then Albany Crashed the Party

Gov. Kathy Hochul may get front-row seats with Anna Wintour at Fashion Week, but she’s treated worse in Albany than a Vogue intern.

The state’s first female governor was spotted at a Michael Kors show on Thursday elbowing the infamous editor, while in Albany, 150 miles away, her chosen candidate for the state’s highest courts was about to be stripped like last year’s clothes. .

State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins ​​(D-Yonkers) revealed that the devil didn’t need to wear Prada to make a brutal move, as she united her house’s conference of Democrats to formally reject Hole’s nomination for Judge Hector in an unprecedented move. LaSalle will head the Court of Appeal.

With her political future tangled up as a runway rookie model, the governor had a big smile on her face as she interacted with a host of bold names at the closing of New York Fashion Week, including feminist icon Gloria Steinem and celebrities like Keith Hudson. , Katie Holmes and Alan Cumming.

It was a far cry from LaSalle’s expression a couple of hours later as he sat alone on the floor of the State Senate, watching progressive Democrats tear at his average judicial record – and it left Albany observers stunned by Hole’s bad behavior. optics.

“I think she’s rushing from idea to idea and from error to error,” said Republican political consultant Chapin Fei.

“It’s better to be friends with donors in New York than to be embarrassed in Albany.”

In the run-up to the afternoon vote, Hochul tried to put on a manly air, talking about the devastating political blow.

“I think it’s a good result to at least let him make it to the Senate floor,” Hochul told reporters as Democrats prepared to make her the first governor to be defeated in court, let alone a chief. judges.

“My position is this: they call me an iron fist in a velvet glove. Sometimes the glove is removed, sometimes it is not necessary. We can handle Albany,” she said after speaking at the seasonal fashion show.

Some observers were stunned that the governor allowed LaSalle to sit in the hall alone, without sending anyone to escort her candidate—or maybe launching her helicopter so she could return to Albany herself to support him.

“Do you mean, [she] Could you send two staff members to them?” complained the seated judge. “I think that says more about her than him because he’s a manly man of character who sat there and took what he was given with his head held high.”

A 39-20 vote against his confirmation, which came just hours after Senate Democrats told the Hohul administration that a floor vote could take place on Wednesday, ended a nearly two-month standoff between Hochul and leaders of her own Albany party over LaSalle. , largely based on several past cases involving topics such as trade union rights and abortion.

Meanwhile, Hochul, who also touted economic development funding at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan on Wednesday afternoon, did not return to Albany as the senators prepared to hold another Judiciary Committee meeting to nominate the full Senate nominee.

Critics point out that she also didn’t send any deputies to support LaSalle as the debate went on, and didn’t even make any public effort to build support among senators ahead of Wednesday’s surprise vote.

“It was sad to see Judge LaSalle alone in the gallery—apparently abandoned by the governor and her staff,” State Senator George Borello (R-Jamestown), who voted for LaSalle, told The Post.

LaSalle would have been the first Hispanic woman ever confirmed to be a Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals, a historic achievement that Hochul has touted repeatedly since she presented her judicial choice in late December to fierce opposition from the left.

Hochul refused to withdraw the nomination despite the State Senate Judiciary Committee voting against LaSalle in January, while she did very little publicly in the weeks that followed, except to say she was keeping her options open, insisting on voting for his candidacy.

However, a lawsuit filed last week by Republican Senator Anthony Palumbo (R-Suffolk) ultimately pushed Stewart-Cousins, who said weeks ago that Hochul did not have enough votes to approve LaSalle, to suddenly announce on Wednesday that her chamber will nominate the candidate for consideration. floor to end the ongoing “distraction” ahead of the April 1 state budget deadline.

“But for Senate Republicans, but for Senator Palumbo and his lawsuit, that’s not happening today,” Senate Minority Leader Robert Ortt (R-Lockport) told reporters after the vote.

“Governor Hochul did nothing to make this happen. She pulled it out and was obviously ready to let it spin with the wind.”

The floor vote marked the end of the line for LaSalle and his efforts to move away from his current role as presiding officer of the Brooklyn Appellate Division of the Second Department.

Hochul may nominate another person for Chief Justice as soon as the state committee completes its review of the new list of seven candidates.

The process could end as early as the end of March, based on recent court history, if the state Court of Appeals formally notifies them in the coming days of the Chief Justice’s vacancy.

It must be at least another 15 days before Hochul can formally announce his choice, and the State Senate must vote within 30 days after that, though the entire process could theoretically take more than four months, according to the commission’s rules.

A spokesperson for Hochul did not immediately comment on why the governor did not return to Albany ahead of the floor vote.

While her political critics say she flopped the LaSalle nomination, some say it was logical that Hochul would rather hang out with Wintour, Stein and other fashionistas and celebrities than return to Albany to fight for her doomed candidate.

Faye said: “She’s still trying to figure out the levers of running the state, unlike [disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo] who grew up in it and lived and ate and breathed it and knew how to do what it needed to do.”