Vetted coverage of Governor Hochul's administration, grouped by day. Every item names its publication and carries a source-credibility tier — Tier 1 primary/wire, Tier 2 established outlet, Tier 3 secondary. No spin; each story links to its original source.
The ad runs on cable, broadcast, digital and streaming through Nov. 3. It argues the moratorium on permits for large data centers will hold down utility bills and ties Blakeman to Trump over data center support.
On Sunday, Sept. 20, Rochester's NBC affiliate aired a special edition of its public-affairs show Rochester in Focus built around a sit-down with Bruce Blakeman. Host Lynette Adams covered his 100-day plan, cutting taxes and utility bills, agriculture and green energy, the state food supply, immigration, electricity bills, law-enforcement investment, crime and affordability. WHEC says it invited both Blakeman and Hochul to appear in person or by Zoom; Blakeman accepted, and Hochul's campaign told the station last week it is working on a date. This follows Blakeman's Sept. 18 Greece stop where he pledged to lift the fracking ban by emergency order. No transcript or new policy specifics were published in the station's write-up.
Implementation step on the FY27 budget's Ratepayer Protection Plan. The PSC's Sept. 17 initiating order gives interim guidance: each utility's index = median annual residential electric or gas spend divided by State Median Income (Area Median Income for Con Ed and National Grid downstate). Utilities must use it in upcoming rate cases and in first annual affordability filings due Feb. 1, 2027; the Commission's first annual affordability report is due July 1, 2027. Above the 6% threshold the PSC may appoint an Affordability Monitor to review cost drivers; the index will also feed performance incentives in utility executive compensation. Timing note: the announcement landed the same week as the $1B POWER rebate checks and the EAP enrollment drive, and two days after Blakeman's "peanuts" attack on the rebates. Nothing in the order lowers a bill before the election; the first measurable outputs arrive in 2027.
Rush transcript posted 9:53 p.m. Sept. 15. On the POWER rebate checks (8.2M households, $100-$200, mailing from Sept. 21), Errol Louis played Blakeman's "buying votes" attack; Hochul said "I don't know what he's talking about," that the checks were negotiated in the spring budget passed in May, and that Tax and Finance had to finish STAR checks first. On energy costs she blamed an aging grid, the Indian Point closure ("25 percent of New York City's power") and the Trump administration halting offshore wind, and said she is "leaning hard into nuclear." Asked about Blakeman's call to tap the Marcellus Shale, she said "hydrofracking is illegal under state law. I plan on following state laws." On the sheriffs' 287(g) suit and Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt's press-conference claim she is anti-police, she said "it's actually false," citing "$4 billion" spent on public safety, and said Blakeman has Nassau police "going after teenagers and people going to their job at the Home Depot." She said the EO 62 Community Investment Framework is "not a modification of the moratorium," takes effect "a year from now" only for communities that want a data center, and that she has "30 applications for hyperscale data centers." She confirmed attending the Bills home opener Thursday and Belmont's opening Friday, said she last spoke with Trump "over a month" ago about Penn Station, nuclear and Haitian TPS, would not weigh in on renaming Penn Station, and listed House targets (Conley in NY-17, Gendebien in NY-21, NY-1). Balance note: the transcript is the governor's own release; Blakeman's side of the rebate and fracking arguments is captured in the Sept. 13 NY Post and Sept. 14 POWER-checks rows.
Empire State Development published the Host Community Investment Framework directed by Executive Order 62 (July 14, 2026). It is voluntary guidance for localities: $1M per MW of utility demand as a community-investment benchmark, a locally administered fund, Good Neighbor commitments on water/noise/lighting, prevailing wage, local-hiring engagement, and annual reporting once operating. NDAs should be limited to FOIL-exempt trade secrets. The framework does not replace SEQRA or permitting. The moratorium remains until DPS completes the GEIS (up to a year from July 14). Hochul also restated plans for a Grid Acceleration Fund and legislation repealing sales-tax exemptions for large data centers. Blakeman opposes the moratorium.
DPS will run targeted ads, direct mail, email and texts, with social-services agencies cross-referencing enrollees in SNAP, Medicaid, SSI and other programs, which are EAP-eligible but not auto-enrolled because of privacy rules. Eligibility expanded in January 2026 to households below state median income (or area median income in NYC, Westchester and Nassau). State cites $6.6B in direct utility-bill relief since 2021 plus the $1B POWER checks mailing from Sept 21. Announced one week before the POWER checks and seven weeks before the election.
Blakeman visited the Otsego County fire training center in Milford (Oneonta area) on Tuesday, Aug. 25, meeting emergency services personnel and filming a campaign video. He was joined by running mate Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood and comptroller candidate Joseph Hernandez, and repeated his pledge to "open up the Marcellus Shale to bring down energy costs." Notable: Hood is simultaneously a named plaintiff in Bourgault v. Hochul, the sheriffs' suit against the 287(g) ban.
Sen. Kristen Gonzalez on Aug 27 urged Hochul to sign the data-center moratorium bill (S10642/A11560), which advocates say fills gaps in the one-year moratorium Hochul imposed by executive order in July (EO 62). Blakeman opposes any statewide moratorium and says local governments should be free to strike their own deals with tech companies for data-center projects — a clean policy contrast in the governor's race.
Blakeman spoke for nearly 30 minutes to more than 120 people at the Avon Inn on Monday evening (reported Aug 19), hosted by the Livingston County Republican Committee alongside Rep. Claudia Tenney, Sen. Pamela Helming and Assemblywoman Andrea Bailey. He tied Hochul to Mayor Mamdani ("Comrade Kathy"), called New York 50th of 50 in economic outlook and "the most overtaxed state," said electric bills run 70 percent above the national average because of a "green energy scam," and called the ban on extracting Southern Tier natural gas "a crime," recounting Trump telling him "drill, baby, drill." He also criticized cashless bail, sanctuary policies, and S.9316's gender-neutral parentage language. The reporter noted Blakeman never used the word "affordable" though it was printed on his podium sign.
At an Aug 16 GLOW-region stop at the Cornell Cooperative Extension Ag Education Center in Batavia (reported Aug 19), Blakeman called utility-scale solar on farmland "a total scam," alleging out-of-state and foreign developers collect subsidies while donating to Hochul, and said New York should extract its own natural gas reserves instead. He also claimed New York electric bills run 70 percent above the national average across 48 rate increases under Hochul, and that the state spends about $8 billion on services for people in the country illegally, roughly $81,000 per person. Both figures are fact-checked separately. He pledged not to forget upstate regions and pointed to his 12-point 2025 Nassau reelection in a county where Democrats outnumber Republicans by about 110,000.
Blakeman rallied at Forestburgh town hall (Jul 30) against RWE's proposed Town Line Solar project — 200MW solar plus 100MW battery storage across 1,200+ acres in Thompson and Forestburgh — calling state renewable siting "Kathy Hochul's scam on all the ratepayers" and pledging "I will end the green energy scam" as governor. Joined by Sen. Peter Oberacker and Assemblymember Chris Tague. He attacked ORES as state "big-footing" of local communities. RWE spokesperson countered that the project meets growing electricity demand and brings tens of millions in local tax revenue. Backfilled from Jul 31 Radio Catskill report; makes utility-scale solar siting an explicit general-election issue.
Blakeman called Jul 23 for an immediate statewide halt to battery storage facilities until regulators can guarantee safety, tying it to an East Hampton battery fire and alleging PFAS-contaminated runoff reached groundwater. His campaign release asserted independent testing found PFAS but published no test results. He accused the Hochul administration of withholding information about the incident, cited Niagara County radioactive waste and the Bethpage Grumman plume as state failures, and repeated his pledge to cut utility bills in half without explaining how.
Hochul's campaign rolled out endorsements from nearly 100 Albany County elected officials Friday, including Albany Mayor Dorcey Applyrs and County Executive Dan McCoy, at an event tying Blakeman to Trump — Rep. Paul Tonko called him a "mini-Trump" and cited his tariff support and White House Rose Garden appearance. Blakeman, who appeared with construction leaders earlier in the week, countered that Hochul's energy mandates force families to pay "up to 70% more for electricity" and pledged to "scrap this green energy scam" and bring back natural gas. Hochul appears with AG Letitia James and union leaders in Manhattan Saturday.
Blakeman escalated his opposition to EO 62 from criticism to a concrete campaign pledge: he would rescind the one-year hyperscale data-center moratorium, calling it "crazy" and arguing data centers keep New York competitive in the AI race. He says local governments should be free to strike their own deals with tech companies. Trump also attacked the order on Truth Social this week, making the moratorium an early general-election fault line.
A day after Hochul's EO 62 moratorium on hyperscale data centers, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said the order does not signal a veto of the Responsible Data Center Development Act, which covers projects above 20 MW (vs. the EO's 50 MW) and adds rate classes and public hearings. Hochul has until year-end to sign, veto, or seek amendments.
A day after Hochul signed EO 62 — the nation's first statewide moratorium on new hyperscale data centers (50+ MW, up to one year) — President Trump attacked the move on Truth Social, writing "New York State has made a terrible decision" and calling data centers "Money Machines" whose taxes and jobs "amount to LIQUID GOLD!" The clash adds a federal front to the moratorium fight; Blakeman had already said localities should cut their own deals.