New York's Business Community Shouldn't Fear Democratic Dominance

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning. Well, with us today is Jay Jacobs, and he’s the chairman of the New York State Democratic Committee, and they had a big win this week, and Jay Jacobs, congratulations, and you are now the big chairman.

0:19 Speaker 2 Well, thank you. Thanks, and we’ll see how long that lasts, but I do appreciate it.

0:24 Speaker 1 Well, tell us how you won big in the You won big in the state senate. You made it veto-proof, which I don’t know if it’s good or bad because it reduces, I guess, the governor’s ability to veto something if she doesn’t like it. You tell us, give us the pulse of what people are talking about in the

0:53 Democratic Party about going forward.

0:56 Speaker 2 Well, first of all, let’s understand something. The governor has worked very collaboratively with the leadership and the membership in the Assembly and the State Senate. So I don’t foresee a circumstance where you would have to be dealing with a veto or an override of a veto. Secondly, even if you did, remember something. The vote of the Assembly

1:18 and the Senate is not going to be monolithic. It’s not going to be just one block. There are going to be members who agree or disagree with any different piece of legislation. So you can’t predict how anything in that circumstance would come out, but I don’t even foresee that would ever arise. I think one of the benefits

1:34 of having such a strong delegation is that no small faction– of our caucus in either the Assembly or the Senate can hold the body hostage. So these fears that the socialists will have so much sway on policy, I think, is misguided. I think they’re going to have, look, everybody gets the right to have their say. Everybody has a

1:55 seat at the table, as they should. They’re elected. But at the end of the day, I think moderation will prevail and common sense will prevail. And I’m confident of that. And I think we have the votes to ensure that.

2:09 Speaker 1 Well, I would hope so. And among all your, I guess, Senate and Assembly, you feel that common sense will prevail.

2:23 Speaker 2 Yes, I do. I do. Listen, there are members, no question, who have different agendas. We have to respect it. We have to listen to them. We have to see where we can work together. But at the end of the day, leadership is going to have sufficient votes to move legislation, and you don’t get held up. This is not a situation,

2:43 for instance, like Mike Johnson in the House of Representatives found himself in, where he couldn’t afford to lose votes. more than two or three of his members or he’d be, you know, in trouble. They’d be deadlocked. So we don’t have that. We have enough members to make action possible.

3:01 Speaker 1 Understood. Anything else you want to tell the warm New Yorkers that want to feel comfortable that they’re going to feel safe? Is it safe in New York City, New York State? Are you going to feel that business-wise they’ll be accommodated, et cetera, et cetera?

3:22 Speaker 2 Remember, I’m a moderate. Governor Hochul is a moderate. What that means is we do believe in making progress. We do believe in dealing with issues that are of importance to people. Affordability is very important. But we understand this is a capitalist system. The city of New York is the financial capital. of the country, maybe the world. And

3:44 we want to keep it that way. And we want to keep business flourishing. And that means keeping the city streets safe, as you’ve seen. Governor Hochul has gone to great lengths to ensure that. I think the city is safe.

3:56 Jessica Tisch has done a great job And, you know, everybody’s fear mongering about how terrible it’s going to be when Mamdani became the mayor. You know, that hasn’t come to pass. You know, I disagree with some of the things he says. But in terms of the running of the city, I think we’ve done pretty well. So I

4:17 think people can feel comfortable that the ship is going to stay on course and everybody’s going to be safe. And we’re going to keep this economy as best we can do it moving.

4:28 Speaker 1 Understood. Thank you for coming on today, and God bless you, and God bless America. May we have a great holiday period of time, a great Thanksgiving, and let’s catch up again soon.

4:41 Speaker 2 Same to you. I look forward to talking to you again soon. Thanks. Bye-bye now.