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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.

2 items

Sep 18, 2026

1
WXXI News (Beth Adams)TIER 2High

Blakeman in Greece (Rochester): says he would sign an "emergency order" lifting the fracking ban to cut utility rates in half, calls the POWER checks "an election year trick," and says he opposes large-scale solar on farmland and offshore wind

Second day of the same message, new mechanism on record: at a Sept. 18 campaign stop in Greece, Monroe County, Blakeman said Hochul's $100-$200 POWER checks are "a scheme, and it's election year trick" after utility bills rose "700 to $1,000 or more" a year (campaign figure, unverified here). He vowed to cut utility rates in half by signing an emergency order to lift the state's fracking ban, and said he opposes large-scale solar arrays on agricultural land and offshore wind projects. WXXI notes NYISO attributes rate pressure to natural-gas prices, aging infrastructure and tightening supply, and that the fracking ban was codified in state law in 2020 after a DEC review. See fact check on whether an executive order can lift a statutory ban.

Sep 16, 2026

1
City & State New York (Rebecca C. Lewis)TIER 2

City & State: Hochul called Trump's promised $5,000-per-adult checks "a trillion-dollar campaign bribe" last week, then announced $1B in POWER rebate checks mailing before Election Day; her office says the September-October timing reflects Tax and Finance's STAR-season capacity, the same explanation given for last fall's inflation refund checks

Published Sept. 14. For the second straight year Hochul is mailing checks to 8.2 million New Yorkers (income $300K or less) in the weeks before a November election; this year's POWER checks ($100-$200, about $1B) follow last fall's inflation refunds of up to $400. On Sept. 10 Hochul had posted on X that Trump's pledge of $5,000 checks if Republicans hold the House was "a trillion-dollar campaign bribe." Spokesperson Jen Goodman said there is no comparison: "Instead of bribing the American people for votes, Trump should follow the Governor's lead and deliver immediate relief." Hochul's office attributes the timing to the Department of Taxation and Finance's pause from STAR mailings in October-November. The article notes the checks originated as an Assembly proposal (up to $500 for 5.4M households at $2.6B) that Hochul's budget broadened and cheapened, that Sen. James Skoufis's 2025 bill to bar the governor's name on checks never advanced, and that Hochul's signature is not on either year's checks. Gothamist first reported the pre-election timing in late July. Useful for a fact-check on the "buying votes" claim from both directions.