New York state's first female governor takes oath of office

ALBANY • Kathy Hochul, a former congresswoman from Buffalo, became the 57th governor of New York early yesterday, making history as the first woman to ascend to the state's highest office.

She was sworn in at the state Capitol by New York's chief judge Janet DiFiore, capping a whirlwind chain of events that followed a series of sexual harassment allegations against outgoing governor Andrew Cuomo.

Mrs Hochul, 62, takes office three weeks after an investigation concluded that Mr Cuomo had sexually harassed multiple women.

A week later, Mr Cuomo announced his resignation, bringing his 10-year reign to an abrupt end after he rose to national fame during the pandemic last year.

Mrs Hochul, a Democrat, has vowed to lead the state through a still surging pandemic and economic uncertainty, while ushering in a new era of civility and consensus in state government.

"I feel the weight of responsibility on my shoulders and I will tell New Yorkers I'm up for the task," Mrs Hochul told WGRZ-TV, a Buffalo-based news station, shortly after she was sworn in. "I thought about all the women that came before me, including my mother who was not there, but a lot of women through history, and I felt they passed the torch to me."

Almost immediately, she will have to juggle various pressing issues, from working with lawmakers to strengthen an eviction moratorium that expires later this month to deciding who to retain from Mr Cuomo's Cabinet.

She is still recruiting her top staff - she announced her top aide and legal counsel on Monday - and will announce her selection for lieutenant-governor later this week.

Mrs Hochul will have to act decisively to curb the rapid spread of the coronavirus' Delta variant. In doing so, she will have to determine how much to veer from Mr Cuomo's pandemic response, which local government leaders have often criticised for its lack of communication and coordination.

The new governor must also restore trust among public health experts, especially at the state Health Department where some senior executives felt betrayed by the Cuomo administration's bid to downplay the number of nursing home deaths during the pandemic.

And she will have to tackle divisive issues, such as the extent to which to mandate vaccines and masks in workplaces and schools.

In her 14-year trajectory from county clerk to congresswoman to the upper echelons of state government, Mrs Hochul has stood out for her affable personality, deftness in retail politicking and demanding travel schedule: She has made a point of visiting each of New York state's 62 counties.

Yet she is mostly an unknown quantity to most New Yorkers, having worked in Mr Cuomo's shadow during her nearly seven years as lieutenant-governor.

Mrs Hochul has already used her lack of a close relationship with Mr Cuomo as a way to distance herself from the former governor and the overlapping scandals that engulfed his administration.

NYTIMES