Upstate New Yorkers will doom themselves to misery if they give Gov. Kathy Hochul another term in office.
That was one of the big takeaways from Tuesday night’s gubernatorial debate, a stunning victory for GOP challenger Bruce Blakeman.
The upstate counties are mired in deep economic distress, struggling with some of the most tragic child poverty rates in the entire nation.
This poverty is not due to weather or an act of God.
It’s due to a succession of cynically bad decisions made by politicians, chief among them Hochul and her predecessor, Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Blakeman came out swinging Tuesday, attacking Democrats for “taking away upstate people’s right” to benefit from high-growth industries like fracking and AI data centers.
In 2014, Cuomo robbed the Southern Tier counties of their chance at a booming economy and low energy costs when he banned fracking completely, even though New York state is blessed with one of the largest natural-gas deposits in the world.
Hochul doubled down on that mistake by extending Cuomo’s foolishness — and now she’s sabotaging the region’s second chance at prosperity by putting a stranglehold on AI data centers, America’s single largest generator of blue-collar jobs.
Hochul is ahead in the polls statewide, but upstate Blakeman leads her 51% to 43%, according to the latest Marist survey.
His lead there ought to be a lot larger, considering the pain Democrats have inflicted on the region.
Childhood poverty tops 40% in Syracuse, Troy and Binghamton — higher than in The Bronx, and nearly the highest in the nation; in Rochester it’s almost as severe.
Rural counties like Cattaraugus and Chautauqua along the Pennsylvania border are also in deep distress, according to US Census poverty figures.
Yet immediately to their south, where hydraulic fracking is permitted, it’s boom time.
For over a decade New Yorkers have missed out on fracking jobs that pay $150,000 on average.
And overall the fracking ban has made every Southern Tier household $27,000 poorer, the Heritage Foundation has found.
Blakeman vows to reverse the Democrats’ energy destruction.
“In Pennsylvania, they’re getting jobs. They’re prosperous,” he told Hochul on Tuesday.
“On the Pennsylvania side of the border, they’re driving brand-new Cadillac Escalades. On the New York side of the border, they’re driving around 25-year-old rusted-out pickup trucks — because of your policies.”
Hochul made matters worse in July when she signed a one-year moratorium on large data-center projects for New York, along with a stiff set of renewable-energy requirements that will make it all but impossible for these centers to ever operate here.
“If we’re saying to them they can’t use natural gas, they’re not going to come here, period,” said Assemblyman Phil Palmesano (R-Schuyler).
Hochul told Blakeman she’s “proud” of her moratorium.
She should tell that to upstate New Yorkers desperate for economic opportunities.
To them, it’s a wrecking ball: Data centers that were proposed in Erie County, Chautauqua County and Genesee County — all areas of severe economic depression — are now on hold, maybe forever.
Data centers are now the biggest source of new blue-collar jobs across the United States, far outpacing hiring for housing, manufacturing or health care, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In the Midwest, some trade unions are abandoning Democratic candidates who oppose AI data centers in favor of their GOP rivals.
Blakeman calls Hochul’s ban “crazy,” and he’s right.
The Democrats’ plan to solve upstate poverty relies on government handouts, not jobs.
In 2021 the Legislature passed the Child Poverty Reduction Act, which established (yet another) government council tasked with cutting the state’s child poverty rate in half over a decade.
The panel’s pathetic suggestions: more housing assistance, more food assistance and more cash assistance to the poor “regardless of where they were born.”
In other words, government cash to buy votes by making more New Yorkers dependent on the Democratic Party — perpetuating child poverty for another generation.
A morally reprehensible alternative to opening upstate to growth industries like fracking and AI.
Upstaters can turn this election around, and chart a new course for themselves, by voting for Blakeman.
Go for the green — money in your bank account and a brighter future for your kids.
In fact, that message should resonate with voters in every region.
Blakeman cited the depressing fact that New York ranks 50th out of the 50 states in economic outlook, per the “Rich States, Poor States” report: dead last.
Blame high taxes, over-regulation — and the governor’s distinctly hostile attitude toward business.
Hochul is crisscrossing the state with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the socialist jobs-killer who put the kibosh on an Amazon headquarters in Long Island City.
Blakeman offers voters a stark alternative: He’ll declare New York open for business — and restore opportunity to a state in dire need of it.
Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York.