"The indictment of Benjamin is also a reminder that Williams, the public advocate, should have probably swallowed his ego and made a second bid for lieutenant governor." You really have been saying this for months but I've never even seen him asked about this in the few interviews I've seen on NY1.
I will say, I remember seeing Benjamin on a NY1 debate for comptroller and being really unimpressed. His answers were beyond vague, even as is typical for a politician trying to not answer a question, and was surprised he was the pick for her long after there'd been questions about potential conflicts. The cynicism was in picking him thinking all we needed as voters was a Black politician from NYC without regard for literally anything else in his political portfolio.
"All of this was avoidable because Benjamin was always a terrible pick for lieutenant governor..."
That's pretty easy to say in hindsight. In practice, it's not that easy. None of the reasons you list him as being a terrible pick correlate to being arrested on federal charges.
Look at the indictment... Benjamin is no mastermind. This was not some flashy ploy, there is no exotic intrigue here. Just the same old straw donations and promises to enrich somebody in exchange.
He wasn't a great pick but your implication that this was easily avoidable is - well if you know the next NY officials to be indicted please let us know! Otherwise your thesis is basically that Benjamin seemed shady therefore WTF, Hochul? But lol shady is about half of the electeds in this state. The number of which there are rumors about campaign fraud is quite long and the odds of any of them ever being charged with anything is exceedingly low.
"The indictment of Benjamin is also a reminder that Williams, the public advocate, should have probably swallowed his ego and made a second bid for lieutenant governor." You really have been saying this for months but I've never even seen him asked about this in the few interviews I've seen on NY1.
I will say, I remember seeing Benjamin on a NY1 debate for comptroller and being really unimpressed. His answers were beyond vague, even as is typical for a politician trying to not answer a question, and was surprised he was the pick for her long after there'd been questions about potential conflicts. The cynicism was in picking him thinking all we needed as voters was a Black politician from NYC without regard for literally anything else in his political portfolio.
"All of this was avoidable because Benjamin was always a terrible pick for lieutenant governor..."
That's pretty easy to say in hindsight. In practice, it's not that easy. None of the reasons you list him as being a terrible pick correlate to being arrested on federal charges.
Look at the indictment... Benjamin is no mastermind. This was not some flashy ploy, there is no exotic intrigue here. Just the same old straw donations and promises to enrich somebody in exchange.
He wasn't a great pick but your implication that this was easily avoidable is - well if you know the next NY officials to be indicted please let us know! Otherwise your thesis is basically that Benjamin seemed shady therefore WTF, Hochul? But lol shady is about half of the electeds in this state. The number of which there are rumors about campaign fraud is quite long and the odds of any of them ever being charged with anything is exceedingly low.
Thanks for covering this in such detail so quickly. We appreciate it.
How terribly disgusting!!! What a disgrace!!!