Blakeman taps upstate sheriff as running mate, just not the one he asked first

With the party atmosphere at the kickoff rally for the state GOP nominating convention on Long Island, you’d have never known the lieutenant governor candidate who appeared on the stage was not the one meant to be there even 24 hours earlier.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, the likely Republican nominee for governor, announced Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood as his running mate on Monday. “Nobody’s gonna mess with this guy,” Blakeman said to Republican faithful who gathered at the Garden City Hotel for the rally. He went on to criticize Gov. Kathy Hochul’s two lieutenant governors so far, referencing former Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin’s criminal indictment that forced him from office (though federal prosecutors later dropped the charges) and current Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, who is now running against the governor in the Democratic primary.

Blakeman didn’t mention Hochul’s reportedly rocky road to her new pick of former New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams to appear on her ticket. But Republican party leaders had. When reports emerged late last month Hochul had offered the position to a couple potential candidates who turned her down, the state Republican Party didn’t pull punches. “Kathy Hochul's own Lieutenant Governor quit his job to primary her – why would anyone else give up their career to play second banana to the Worst Governor in America?” state GOP spokesperson David Laska said in a statement at the time.

Pot, meet kettle. Blakeman would have had a tough time making a similar statement when he brought Hood to the stage because the man he offered the job to had publicly declined the position the very same morning. The news that Blakeman had landed on Fulton County Sheriff Richard Giardino leaked on Sunday, and the pair were meant to appear together for the first time at the state GOP convention opening rally. By Sunday evening, though, reports suggested Republicans had privately begun expressing concern over the choice, particularly after a post from right-wing provocateur Laura Loomer questioned Giardino’s loyalty to President Donald Trump. Come Monday morning, Giardino told reporters he had decided not to run for lieutenant governor, citing the fact that full-time campaigning would interfere too much with his sheriff duties.