Nassau County Executive and gubernatorial hopeful Bruce Blakeman took a shot at Gov. Kathy Hochulduring his State of the County address Monday while touting his anti-crime and pro-ICE policies.
Blakeman,a Trump ally set to face off against Hochul in November, boasted that Nassau is “not a sanctuary county” where local law enforcement limits its cooperation with federal immigration authorities, while crowing about joint area operations with federal agents that he said helped remove thousands of “criminal” migrants from the streets.
He presented his administration’s hardline stance on immigration and public safety as the model he would adopt statewide if elected to replace the Democratic Hochulas New York’s top pol.
“I have made it a priority to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not used to support migrant programs in Nassau, and I have repeatedly called on Gov. Hochul to cancel over $6 billion in state taxpayer funds that have been wasted on people who haven’t earned a thing,” Blakeman told the county legislature, referring to funding spent to provide housing, food, schooling and other services to migrants and their families.
He also highlighted the local drop in crime and thousands of new police hires in the county.
Blakeman detailed that Nassau’s major crime rate fell by about 7% and that overdoses have dropped around 10%, according to data from county police.
He said cooperation with ICE has resulted in the removal of more than 2,000 undocumented migrants since the start of last year.
Blakeman claimed many of those migrants had been accused of crimes such as attempted murder, rape, robbery and human trafficking.
He insisted that the law-enforcement effort is narrowly focused on individuals accused of committing crimes — although data from the feds revealed about 60% of ICE detainees in Nassau have no criminal record.
“As your county executive, ensuring the safety of every resident is always my top priority,” Blakeman said in his speech.
Beyond immigration and public safety, Blakeman defended the county’s ban on transgender athletes competing in girls’ sports and praised efforts to preserve Native American-themed school mascots in local communities such as Massapequa and Wantagh.
“I have been a staunch ally in the fight to keep Massapequa the Chiefs and Wantagh the Warriors, resisting Albany’s efforts to erase our history,” he said.
The exec also highlighted what he described as the county’s broader success fiscally, noting that his administration has not raised property taxes in four years, received multiple bond rating upgrades and even eliminated planned tax hikes from the previous admininstration.
“Our county continues to prosper economically due to our fiscally conservative decisions,” Blakeman said.
“Even [Democratic] State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli acknowledges that Nassau County is under no fiscal stress,” he added.
But Nassau Democrats blasted Blakeman’s address as political theater and accused the county executive of failing to deliver on key promises while prioritizing his gubernatorial ambitions.
“Tonight, we all heard a polished speech with a lot of promises,” Nassau County Legislature Minority Leader Delia DeRiggi-Whitton said in a rebuttal after the address.
“During Mr. Blakeman’s last campaign, he promised that his only focus was serving the people of Nassau County,” the foe said.
:Literally the day after being re-elected, he began talking about running for governor,” DeRiggi-Whitton said, adding that Blakeman is “one of the most partisan elected officials I have ever dealt with.”
DeRiggi-Whitton criticized Blakeman’s budget decisions and claimed requests from the Democratic caucus to meet on key infrastructure issues such as aging roads, sewers and parks have largely gone ignored because of partisanship.
Some Democratic-led districts have meanwhile struggled to receive already approved public-safety grants that she said first responders are waiting on.
“We are all very proud that, under [Democratic previous] County Executive Laura Curran, Nassau became the safest county in America — and we need to make sure that it stays that way for the future,” DeRiggi-Whitton said.
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