The Phantom Candidate: Where On Earth Is Bruce Blakeman?

The book on successful challengers in New York gubernatorial campaigns has tended to require that candidates become veritable forces of nature. They must morph into constant, unavoidable presences demanding accountability from the incumbents and offering muscular alternatives to the status quo.

Yet as New Yorkers navigate the Mamdani fiscal frolics under the not so watchful eye of Governor Kathy Hochul, the presumed Republican savior Bruce Blakeman is conspicuously missing in action. Where is Bruce Blakeman?

When the Nassau County Executive launched his campaign for the governor’s mansion, he was billed as the ultimate pragmatic counterweight to the profligate, progressive left. He pointed to his record of freezing property taxes, hiring police officers, and defying Albany mandates on Long Island. With an endorsement from President Trump securing his right flank and effectively clearing his path to the nomination, the stage seemed to be set for Blakeman to take the fight directly to Hochul. Unfortunately, he seems to have retreated into a bunker of his own making, running what amounts to a “rose garden” campaign – consisting mostly of political commentary – from the safety of Mineola.

Alarmingly, though, recent polling perfectly illustrates the peril of this phantom strategy. Eight months out from Election Day, a staggering 61 percent of New York voters still say they have either never heard of Blakeman or do not know enough about him to form an opinion. So, he is trailing a historically vulnerable Kathy Hochul by 20 points.

In fact, you cannot unseat an incumbent governor by acting as a localized commentator on the evening news, as Blakeman seems to believe, and he is forfeiting the opportunity to define himself to the millions of upstate and suburban voters he desperately needs. Voters are looking for a governor, not a pundit. They want a leader who is actively in the trenches, aggressively barnstorming the state and forcing Hochul to defend her complicity in the city’s deterioration.

In sum, it’s time for Blakeman to actually start running for the office he claims to want.