Hochul urges NY Dems to embrace moderation, despite left-leaning policy drivers

New York Democrats should “just try to be moderate,” Gov. Hochul pleaded at an Aspen Institute gathering last week.

Good luck with that, Kat.

She was answering a question about how to win in areas that went for Donald Trump in 2020, and it’s damning that the best she could advise was to try.

In fact, even the Dems who know better have largely given up on seeking centrism because the radical lefties are in control: They’d rather defeat you in a primary, even if a Republican winds up winning the odd seat.

Hochul herself doesn’t do much more: She talks moderate, especially since her 2022 close call against ex-Rep. Lee Zeldin in 2022 and the loss of several House seats that flipped control to Republicans, but she’s stymied by the extremists who run the Legislature; they wouldn’t even let her install a non-lefty as the new state chief judge.

With control of the House at stake again this fall, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries would love nothing more than to have centrists like Long Island Rep. Tom Suozzi and Westchester County Executive George Latimer (who ousted the Squad’s Rep. Jamal Bowman in a June primary) be the face of the party.

But the tide’s still against them. Right after Bowman’s defeat, Working Families Party co-executive director Ana Maria Archila declared: “The left wasn’t defeated. We grew our ranks.”

True — Archilla’s WFP is adding three more lefties to a socialist bloc that will make it harder for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and upstate moderates to block terrible moves on housing, criminal justice and taxes.

Heck, primary night also ousted Albany District Attorney David Soares — a crime-fighting moderate, who has sounded the alarm on the disastrous no-bail, burdensome discovery and Raise the Age criminal-justice reforms — in favor of a “progressive” public defender.

Ex-Gov. George Pataki predicts that Republicans can elect the next New York City mayor if Democrats continue their leftward swing, and he may prove right (if the GOP can find a real candidate, anyway).

Hochul’s “be moderate” advice may be sound, but she’s whistling past the Democratic moderates graveyard.

The left’s not afraid to let Republicans win if they can defeat moderate Dems: Until the centrists start openly taking the same risks to beat back the radicals, they’re headed for extinction.