Mike Lawler

Several New York Democrats running in competitive House races are putting distance between themselves and Gov. Kathy Hochul weeks before Election Day. Rep. Tom Suozzi skipped a Hochul campaign stop on Long Island, citing a scheduling conflict, while Rep. Laura Gillen attended. In New York's 17th District, challenger Cait Conley was caught on video agreeing with GOP Rep. Mike Lawler that "Hochul has got to go," later calling Hochul to smooth things over. Blake Gendebien, running in the 21st District, declined to say if he'd support Hochul. Recent Siena polling shows Hochul's favorability underwater and her lead over Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman narrowing in suburban and upstate areas, reviving concerns about coattail effects seen in 2022.

The Rockland County Republican Committee received a $138,000 contribution from businessman Jack Goldenberg this year, the largest single donation in the committee's records over two decades, according to state campaign finance filings. The donation lands in a pivotal election cycle, as Rockland County anchors one of the nation's most closely watched House races between Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, who also chairs the county GOP, and Democratic challenger Cait Conley.

Goldenberg has limited political giving history but previously donated six figures to national Republican committees. His business dealings have drawn legal scrutiny, including a 2020 wrongful-termination ruling against his company and a Portuguese investigation into alleged market manipulation tied to his pharmaceutical firm, Chartwell Pharmaceuticals. A local Democratic candidate has also tied Goldenberg to a contested warehouse development, which he denies involvement in.

The flap underscores escalating money battles in the Lawler-Conley contest, where Conley reported raising $5 million last quarter and outside groups have already spent more than $20 million on advertising, with Republicans currently holding the spending edge.

Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), a retiring moderate who has often broken with his party, endorsed Republican Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) in a Monday op-ed published in The Journal News. Lawler is facing a competitive reelection race against Democrat Cait Conley in a swing district considered pivotal to Democrats' chances of retaking the House majority in November.

Golden praised Lawler for backing legislation that benefits Maine's lobster industry by delaying certain environmental regulations, despite the bill offering Lawler no political upside with his own constituents. Golden framed the endorsement as a statement about the value of bipartisanship, urging voters everywhere to support lawmakers willing to work across party lines. The cross-party endorsement is notable given the high stakes of the House battle, where control could hinge on a handful of competitive districts like Lawler's.

New York political leaders are calling on the federal government to act quickly on artificial intelligence oversight, following warnings from AI lab CEOs about potential risks from unchecked development. Mayor Zohran Mamdani called recent AI warnings "incredibly alarming" and said the city would explore protective measures, while Gov. Kathy Hochul urged Washington to set national standards prioritizing public safety over the race to build more powerful AI systems. President Trump has dismissed such concerns as a "hoax" and opposes new regulation, citing competition with China.

New York City and State have already taken steps, including the RAISE Act, a one-year data center moratorium, and a ban on AI chatbots for young students, but a state comptroller audit and a city public advocate report both found more oversight is needed. The debate has also become a flashpoint in competitive congressional races, with data center policy emerging as an attack line, and Assemblymember Alex Bores launching a multimillion-dollar push to unify Democrats around AI regulation.

A delegation of Hasidic Jewish community leaders from New York and New Jersey met with President Trump and Vice President JD Vance in the Oval Office on Thursday, marking the first such gathering at the White House in nearly five decades. The visit, organized by the White House Faith Office under Paula White-Cain, included representatives from the Satmar communities in Kiryas Joel, Lakewood and Williamsburg, along with Rep. Mike Lawler, who represents Orthodox and Hasidic communities in Rockland County. Grand Rebbe Aaron Teitelbaum of Kiryas Joel recited a traditional blessing reserved for kings and presented Trump with a leather-embossed copy of the prayer.

The meeting underscores Trump's strong standing among Orthodox Jewish voters, who backed him at the highest rate for a Republican since the 1980s in 2024. Several senior administration officials are Jewish, and Trump has closely aligned with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on countering Iran. The Satmar movement's theological opposition to Jewish sovereignty before the Messiah's arrival added a notable undertone to the encounter with a president who calls himself the most pro-Israel in US history.