Blakeman courts right-wing voters at state Conservative Party convention

The state Conservative Party met for its annual conference in Albany on Monday, where Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman accepted the third party’s ballot line in the gubernatorial election. Blakeman, who is also the likely Republican nominee, used his time at the convention to tout his connection to President Donald Trump, his continued support for federal immigration agents and his opposition to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s environmental agenda as he sought to court conservatives who had initially backed Rep. Elise Stefanik. 

Blakeman started his speech to gathered Conservative Party members by recounting his morning – which of course included a call from Trump. “The President said, ‘How's it going Bruce, how's the campaign? We need you to do this,’” Blakeman recounted. “And I said, ‘Well Mr. President, in two hours, I am going to speak to the conservatives of New York state who supported you 1,000% every time you ran.” He paused at the first mention of Trump, apparently waiting for applause that didn’t immediately come until he encouraged a bigger response. 

Although Blakeman had already received the endorsement of the Conservative Party, making the nominating process a formality, he did not come by it immediately. The party had originally backed Stefanik, and had done so fairly quickly after she officially announced her campaign in November. Although the state Republican Party immediately shifted gears to Blakeman after Stefanik dropped out, it took Conservative Party Chair Gerry Kassar more than two weeks to finally throw his support behind Blakeman after initially saying he was “disappointed” that Stefanik dropped out.

Courting right-wing voters will be important for Blakeman, whose comparatively moderate stances on issues like gun control and abortion have put off the most conservative New Yorkers. While moderation helped him in the traditionally purple Nassau County, it stands to harm him with the very base he’ll need to turn out if he has any hope of besting Hochul. “I've said it many, many times: The Conservative Party is the conscience of the Republican Party,” Blakeman said during his speech to conference-goers. “The Conservative Party makes sure we stay on the right track.” 

Blakeman made energy affordability a keynote of his conference appearance, joining state lawmakers for a press conference attacking Hochul on the issue and blaming higher energy bills on environmental mandates to shift to green energy. “Gov. Hochul spends money, billions of dollars, on what I call the ‘green energy scam,’” he said. “What we need is an energy policy that makes sense.” For Blakeman, that means stopping offshore wind projects on the coast of Long Island, reversing clean energy mandates and returning to more natural gas and “clean coal” usage. 

Affordability will likely represent a key point of attack for Blakeman against Hochul, even as the governor has made the issue a cornerstone of her agendas for the past few years. And while Hochul will hammer her own efforts to ease costs for New Yorkers, she has also made it clear that she will target Blakeman for his support of Immigration and Customs Enforcement amid growing unrest over federal agents’ killing of protesters in Minneapolis. Her campaign on Friday released a new attack ad focused on Blakeman’s repeated praise for ICE soon after Hochul announced a new proposal to ban formal agreements between local law enforcement and immigration officials. 

Speaking to reporters, Blakeman continued to defend ICE and the agreements between federal immigration authorities and local law enforcement – such as the ones that Nassau County has signed – that Hochul now seeks to outlaw. “She's not serious about backing law enforcement,” he said. “And she's using ICE as an excuse to basically attack law enforcement, whether it's federal agents or local police forces or sheriffs.” Blakeman charged that the agreement with ICE has prevented situations like those in Minneapolis, and defended the death of a man in ICE custody in Nassau as an unfortunate health outcome that had nothing to do with his detention.

Still, Blakeman hasn’t been able to completely shake concerns from the right that he is too moderate, even as he has gone all-in on Trump. Asked about conservatives’ worries about his pro-choice stance, Blakeman said his administration would have “no litmus test” and would employ both pro-choice and pro-life people. “I completely respect that (pro-life) position,” he said. “I think what we need to do is talk about not where we disagree, but where we can agree.”