Joint Blakeman-Lawler appearance offers look at what might have been

Rep. Mike Lawler recently told City & State he’s open to launching a bid for governor in a different political climate, after having positioned himself for a run last year before abandoning it to run for reelection instead.  

But as he appeared with Republican gubernatorial nominee and Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman on a windy Tuesday morning in Chappaqua, it was difficult to see a reason for Lawler to have waited. Watching the member of Congress rail against the state’s recent ban on formal cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration enforcement, juxtaposed with a relatively quiet Blakeman, offered a window into what might have been this gubernatorial election.  

Seeing Lawler and Blakeman appear as a united front, the former backing the latter in his race for governor, was somewhat jarring: Lawler contemplated and teased running for governor several times, at one point confidently stating he was best positioned to defeat Hochul. But he ended up choosing to run for reelection to the House, a decision pushed for by President Donald Trump and other congressional allies. (Lawler, however, says he came to this decision himself.) And after another strong contender for the GOP nomination, Rep. Elise Stefanik, unexpectedly dropped out too, Blakeman had a clear path to the Republican line. He didn’t even face a primary.  

But that doesn’t mean Blakeman’s run for governor has been an easy road. While Lawler, a two-term member of Congress, is in a tough fight to hold on to his House seat against Democrat Cait Conley, Blakeman has a much steeper hill to climb as he faces an incumbent Democratic governor in blue New York in a year not expected to favor Republicans. Blakeman’s campaign also seems to be in a bit of a financial tizzy – a disclosure filed on Friday by his team shows only $178,000 in the bank, and as Politico New York reported Monday, he may actually be in the red once he returns over-the-limit contributions. 

It’s true that Lawler has made a name for himself as an unapologetic, commanding voice in New York politics. It’s also true the event was on Lawler’s home turf; throughout his campaign, Blakeman has had to work to expand his name recognition beyond Long Island. But Lawler’s sharp tongue, impossible to overlook, makes him stand out next to the gubernatorial nominee. Tuesday’s appearance was no exception: He was literally uncensored as he condemned the ban on 287(g) agreements, calling the governor “too fucking stupid” to solve the problem of crimes committed by undocumented people.

“Nobody in their right mind can stand here and look these families in the face and say that refusing to turn over murderers and rapists is good public policy,” Lawler said, referring to the families of Sheridan Gorman and Laken Riley, young women killed in Chicago and Georgia, respectively. The men charged and convicted with the respective killings are both undocumented immigrants. 

Despite being at the top of the ticket, Blakeman said little throughout the majority of the press conference, nor was he particularly animated. But on immigration, he agreed with Lawler, who was once seen as his potential opponent in the Republican primary. 

Blakeman spoke highly of his own record as county executive, referring to Nassau police’s collaboration with ICE as “the most comprehensive agreement with ICE in America” prior to the ban. Like Lawler, he took the opportunity to criticize the governor’s record on immigration.

“Kathy Hochul talks about atrocities committed by ICE. She is a liar. There have been no atrocities committed by ICE in New York state,” he said. Later, he added, “We didn’t raid one church, we didn’t raid one school, we didn’t raid one daycare center.”

At an unrelated event Tuesday, Hochul reiterated that there’s nothing stopping law enforcement from working with federal immigration officials in investigating a crime; most immigration cases are civil ones. 

In response to the duo’s comments on the governor, state Democratic Party spokesperson Addison Dick said in a statement, “Mike Lawler and Bruce Blakeman would rather shill for Donald Trump than keep New Yorkers safe: while Governor Hochul invested $4 billion in public safety, got 26,000 illegal guns off New York streets, and brought crime to record lows, Mike Lawler was voting to defund police and Bruce Blakeman was defending ICE killing American citizens.”