So we enter the Season of Mush, i.e., the re-election campaign of Gov. Kathy Hochul. Recently she waxed poetic in interviews with The New York Times, which barely bothered to quote her verbatim, and with Politico, which at least let her ramble in a Q&A. To tug at our heartstrings she alluded to her financial struggles as a young mother, then added, "It was hard, and those experiences have really focused me on my priorities, have driven my priorities because I know that those priorities will help New Yorkers."

Priorities. Somehow this word doesn't strike me as campaign gold. In fact, what are her priorities? At a time when progressive candidates have skyrocketed to prominence by making bold promises that fly in the face of flabby campaign BS. Zohran Mamdani: Freeze the rent, free the bus, fund child care. Abdul El-Sayed: money out of politics, money in your pocket, Medicare for all. (Both know the Rule of Three.) But Hochul blathers on as if being a chatty mom is a winning strategy. She'd like to tell us she's "hardwired to drive for change" and doesn't mind conflict because of "my impatience and my desire to shake up the status quo," but what exactly is this change and who is she if not the status quo, a self-professed "Biden Democrat" staunchly opposed to "Tax the Rich" calls at buoyant campaign rallies. Unlike Mamdani and El-Sayed, she's not funded by thousands of small donors. Her wealthy backers probably like her toothless rhetoric.

Sadly, the liveliest portions of this Q&A are her grudges. They've been against her from early on. Before she won a special election in a Republican congressional district in 2011 after serving as the Erie County clerk, she recalls, "My predecessor literally sent someone to Buffalo, my home in Hamburg, to tell me not to run" because the state Democratic party wouldn't support her, nor would the national Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. (Was this unnamed predecessor Andrew Cuomo, who later chose her to be his lieutenant governor because of her appeal to upstate Republicans?) More recently, her own lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado, betrayed her in his failed campaign against her from the left. "I didn't know him very well. I did not know that loyalty was such a problem for him," she explains. As for Nancy Pelosi, who chided her after the Democrats lost five key House races in New York State in 2022 when Republican candidate Lee Zeldin did surprisingly well against Hochul in her first re-election campaign, she said, "Forgot about it. Don't even think about it." (Lord help us if she loses her currently shrinking lead against a Long Island Trumpian.)

Needless to say, I'm not a fan. Nowhere in her Q&A do I sense any sympathy for the thousands of citizen activists who work long and hard to push reforms through the hidebound machinations of Albany. Rather I hear a governor who takes pride in bullying the state legislature to get her way. The 2019 climate law passed under Cuomo? Didn't like it. (Hasn't followed it, either, as a judge noted in ruling against her.) So she tied up the spring legislative session for almost two months to roll it back. She'd rather we wait to build five new nuclear plants upstate. (Or fewer than five if we make them really powerful.)

Let me propose a campaign strategy I'd rather see. By the end of its session in early June, the legislature had passed almost 760 bills, of which Hochul has signed a third into law. What remains? Well, all kinds of things. A "Good Food" act to allow public entities to pick locally grown produce over the lowest bidder. A "Baby Food and Infant Formula Safety" act (sponsored by our state Sen. Michelle Hinchey) to require manufactures to test periodically for heavy metals. A "One Fair Price" act to prevent companies from using "surveillance pricing" on us, i.e., data mining us to see how much we'll fork over. Or how about a "Fair News" act to require news outlets to label material generated by AI. (Full disclosure: I use ChatGPT for research, but still type my own words. I like writing too much to give it up.) Our state legislature doesn't lack for smart ideas.

In recent months, Mayor Mamdani has been all over my YouTube in his ubiquitous dark suit (how many pairs of these suits does he have?) lending a hand to city workers and programs, be it filling a pothole or wielding a paint brush at a playground, kicking around a soccer ball with kids or jumping into a swimming pool to start the summer season. His point? The city government has much to offer in our daily lives. Delay, delay, delay is no longer standard government operating procedure.

My advice to Gov. Hochul: Sign some of these bills. Campaign on the fact that you're getting real things done. Don't presume that the vagaries you espouse in your Politico Q&A will persuade anyone you're not the leader of a lumbering, out-of-touch Albany government. Don't wait until after the November election to sign (or veto) the hundreds of bills you fear might stir some controversy, as has been your practice every year until now. You think Big Ag won't like your local food bill? Have at 'em in your campaign. Don't be so afraid.

Here's my particular issue: balcony solar. I first read about this technology a year ago in a Mother Jones article by Bill McKibben. Now I find it everywhere. In Germany in the past decade these smaller solar panels that basically plug into a wall socket have gone from being a guerrilla technology to a national phenomenon with full government support. More than a million hang from apartment balconies across the country. They're modest. They can power a refrigerator, laptop, and TV, but not necessarily an electric stove or a microwave. But they definitely cut down on bills and give renters the means to join the solar revolution. (That's me.)

This has been the year for balcony solar to storm the United States. Six states have passed laws to allow balcony solar sales already. Two more will start by the end of the year. Our neighbor, Vermont, enacted its law on June 16. Not that New York has been slack. Our state legislature passed a balcony solar bill, called the "SUNNY Act," on May 28th. (The Senate voted for it 59-1.)

On May 29, Gov. Hochul could have signed this bill into law. Or any day thereafter. But three months later, not a peep. Instead, advocates, like supplicants, must lobby her just as they did their state legislators. More e-mails, more phone calls. On July 30, New York City leaders (comptroller, city council speaker plus 26 council members, et al.) rallied at City Hall. As PV Magazine reported the rally organizers followed the speeches by setting up a balcony solar panel to run a blender to make "solar-powered milkshakes." (I'm a little surprised I didn't see Mayor Mamdani drinking one.) As the Kingston Wire reported, our own County Executive Jen Metzger joined with others from the State Association of Counties in a letter asking Hochul to sign the bill because these panels "are easy to install on decks, balconies, patios, or backyards at a fraction of the cost a full rooftop array, and can save hundreds of dollars annually on electricity."

What gives, Governor Hochul? Dithering shouldn't be your campaign strategy.