New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has named former New York City mayoral hopeful Kathryn Garcia to a top job, continuing to fill her administration with women in the wake of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s sexual harassment scandal.
Hochul said Wednesday she was “honored” to appoint Garcia, a former New York City sanitation commissioner, to serve as director of state operations and Neysa Alsina to the role of special adviser on pandemic relief. The pair became the latest in a series of women appointed to fill top positions after Cuomo stepped down due to a report detailing allegations of sexual harassment from 11 women, most of them his current or former employees.
“They are tremendously accomplished and will be instrumental in making our State government work better for New Yorkers,” Hochul tweeted of Garcia and Alsina.
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Garcia tweeted she was “excited and honored to work for the people New York as Director of State Operations.”
“I’ve spent my career serving New Yorkers and I want to thank @GovKathyHochul for the opportunity to continue that service,” she added Wednesday. “Now, let’s go get things done.”
Garcia came in a close second beyond Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary. Because New York City employs ranked-choice voting, more than a dozen candidates were subjected to eight rounds of voting, during which the candidate who earned the fewest votes was eliminated and his or her votes were redistributed among remaining candidates in accordance with voters’ ranked preferences.
On July 6, Adams bested runner-up Garcia, who acknowledged in her concession speech that she had fallen short of becoming the city’s first female mayor.
“For 400 years, no woman has held the top seat at City Hall,” Garcia said. “This campaign has come closer than any other moment in history to breaking that glass ceiling in selecting New York City’s first female mayor. We cracked the hell out of it, and it’s ready to be broken, but we have not cracked that glass ceiling.”
Hochul, who ascended to the governorship after Cuomo’s resignation became effective on Aug. 24, has attempted to distance herself from the former administration despite serving as lieutenant governor, appointing at least two other women, Karen Persichilli Keogh and Elizabeth Fine, to top gubernatorial aide positions.
“Nobody named in that report doing anything unethical will remain in my administration,” Hochul said on Aug. 11, referencing an Aug. 3 report by Attorney General Letitia James that concluded that Cuomo sexually harassed at least 11 women and retaliated against former employees who publicly commented on his conduct.
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The former governor faced multiple scandals during the final months of his administration, including allegations that he sexually harassed several women, that he directed health officials to give special access to COVID-19 testing to his inner circle, and that he hid the state’s coronavirus death toll in nursing homes, among other charges.
Cuomo, who denied all charges of wrongdoing, signaled he will continue to defend his reputation against the allegation in his post-governorship, railing against James’s “unjust” report in his farewell address to the state.
