Latest news with #AntonioDelgado
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Lt. Gov. Delgado pitches fundamental change as he challenges his boss for governor
Jun. 7—SCHENECTADY — Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado is pitching himself as a transformative leader who will make fundamental changes to how New York operates and will prioritize issues, blaming "current leaders" — his boss Gov. Kathleen C. Hochul — for failing to effectively respond to the core issues of our time. On Saturday, in a humid half-court YMCA gymnasium to a crowd of about 150 people in his hometown, Delgado spoke of family, of loyalty, of his commitment to representing the people of New York above all, and batted away criticism that he's proven a disloyal No. 2 to Hochul. "Some folks will talk about this idea of loyalty, since I announced my run for governor, loyalty," he said. "But I have to ask, loyal to who? Loyal to what?" "Loyalty to a broken system is why we're in this mess to begin with," he continued. "Don't talk to me about loyalty unless it's loyalty to the people." Delgado didn't name Hochul outright in his speech, but derided many of the policies the Hochul administration has overseen as fundamentally out of touch with good governance. "All New Yorkers, every single New Yorker, deserves better leadership," he said. He criticized programs that funnel public, taxpayer money into private enterprises, both to achieve economic growth and to deliver public benefits like healthcare and public housing. He questioned the financial viability of such programs, which he said have not done much to improve quality of life or boost economic performance. He said New York is the nation's third-largest economy, and would be eighth in the world if identified as its own nation — and with a $254 billion public state budget for the coming year. "Where is the money going?" he asked his supporters on Saturday. Delgado laid out a number of broad policy proposals — just a first look, he said. He called for efforts to address poverty, taking back public housing programs and increasing the income cap to qualify for New York's "Essential Plan" publicly-subsidized health insurance plan. He called for universal pre-school across the state and an increase in the statewide minimum wage "for everyone." He said the state should stand up it's own rental assistance programs, and make efforts to reach the estimated seven out of 10 eligible people who don't take advantage of that and other public benefit programs. He also called for universal childcare beyond universal pre-school as well, and said the state should establish a taxpayer-funded account to pay extra money to childcare workers as well. But when asked if he supported the extra spending that would come with those programs, Delgado said he wasn't backing the bills that currently exist in the state legislature that would enact many of these programs. "What I'm laying out is a vision," he said to gathered reporters after the campaign event. "Then you work with the legislative body to effectuate the vision and figure out what the best way forward is to get there. Delgado's message is one of change, of a departure from the way Hochul and recent governors before her have done things — and he said he has not been a significant part of that governance despite being the No. 2 most senior elected official in the state since 2022, when Hochul appointed him to replace then-Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin. "I've tried very hard to communicate all these things within the administration, I've tried to push to make sure that we take bolder steps," he said. "Now listen, to do that you have to be part of the decision-making process, right. To do that, you have to be included." He said he was not included in that process, despite promises from Hochul before he was appointed that she would take a different approach to governing and would include the lieutenant in more decisions. That's not historically how the job works — for years, the lieutenant governor position has been varying degrees of thankless and responsibility-free. The lieutenant is no longer even regularly handed control of state government when the governor leaves the state, thanks to modern communications technology and the governor's private planes and helicopters. Delgado broke with Hochul nearly a year ago — first by calling for President Joseph R. Biden to step aside from his reelection campaign after his poor debate performance in June of 2024, then on further and further issues. After telling reporters in a rare Capitol news conference that he was working toward a better relationship with the governor, Delgado announced he would step aside and not run for reelection with Hochul. She responded by stripping him of everything but the most basic essentials for his office — taking back his downstate and Capitol second floor office space, a significant amount of his staff, digital devices, executive email and vehicles. Delgado has been left with a skeleton crew for official staff and a rarely-used office off of the state Senate chambers mostly used for ceremonial purposes in typical times. She also took all the duties and initiatives she's assigned to him and his team — a program to boost civic engagement and any assignments to represent the Governor's office at events across the state. All that remains is his constitutional duty to preside over the Senate — another rarely used ceremonial role almost always delegated to the Senate Majority Leader by assigning them as President Pro Tempore. Delgado hasn't done that since the first day of session in January. Delgado has maintained for months, since he started to break with the governor, that his real job is to "get out there and connect with people," a phrase he's repeated often including on Saturday. He, in his capacity as Lieutenant, has held quasi-campaign rallies across the state framed as town hall events, meeting with those in the community who care to show up. Many of those events were filmed and cut together for his campaign announcement video. "As lieutenant governor, I can't control when somebody decides to take a look at my staff, I can't control someone taking my phone, I can't control that," he said. "What I can control is my connection to New Yorkers, and I'm going to continue to lean in on my connection to New Yorkers. New Yorkers, who, by the way, who independently elected me to serve in this capacity." Delgado went on to say that he didn't see that same approach from Hochul — and that's what made him decide to run against her. "I wasn't seeing the plan, on top of that you don't have visibility to where we're going, you don't know exactly what the plan is, what the vision is, this feels more reactive, that's the piece I want to make sure that I change," he said. Delgado's path to victory is far from simple — Hochul has the incumbency advantage, years of fundraising, the support of the state Democratic party and polls better than Delgado in statewide rankings. Shortly after Delgado dropped his announcement video on June 2, a coordinated effort by the state party to shore up local Democratic support resulted with over 40 out of 64 local county Democratic chairs endorsing Hochul. On Friday, three leading Schenectady County Democrats announced they're backing Hochul. Hochul's campaign declined to comment on the lieutenant governor's criticism, or his candidacy in general, but pointed to a handful of news reports detailing those county and local endorsements of her, plus a New York Post article from Saturday with the headline "'No Show' Delgado: NY's lieutenant governor does little to earn $220k paycheck, records show." But Delgado isn't without his support — a handful of Democratic chairs, including from Greene and Otsego counties were at his event on Saturday. They appeared in their personal capacities — many county committees don't endorse before a primary, and others haven't had meetings to decide if they want to endorse, and who to endorse, yet. Greene County Chair Lori Torgerson said her county committee hasn't met yet, but said that for her personally, Delgado represents a good leader with a clear vision. "Antonio has integrity, everything he said today I believe he delivers on, and in my experience he has never been a leader who says one thing and does another," she said. Otsego County chair Caitlin Ogden said her committee generally doesn't endorse a candidate if there's a primary, but said that since Delgado's time in Congress he's demonstrated an ability to flip Republican and Trump-loyal voters and could be the best pick to stop the shift to the right the electorate has demonstrated in recent elections "I feel that he's the one whose got a proven track record doing that, and he has a really good shot," she said.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Hochul's estranged lieutenant announces he will challenge her in NY governor's race
ALBANY – Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado is challenging his estranged boss, incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul, in next year's election. Delgado called for 'bold, decisive, transformational leadership' for New York in a video launching his campaign for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, released alongside an interview in The New York Times Monday afternoon. 'It's love of family, it's love of community, it's love of state, it's love of country — and I'm dedicated to that,' Delgado says in the spot. 'That's why I'm running for governor of New York.' The video and Times story were released moments after The Post reported that Delgado was telling allies that he would make his campaign plans public sometime this week. The former Hudson Valley congressman formally split from Hochul earlier this year following significant public disagreements between the two. Delgado first attracted the governor's ire last summer when he publicly called for President Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race. Hochul, at the time, was an outspoken voice in the chorus of Democrats still cheering on the dithering president despite clear evidence of his failing health. Delgado also got out in front of Hochul earlier this year when he called for Mayor Eric Adams to resign amid his swirling corruption scandals. While sources familiar with the two's declining relationship said they were heading towards a public breakup for months, Delgado made it 'social media official' on Feb. 24, suddenly announcing that he wouldn't run for re-election as her No. 2 next year. 'There are a lot of folks in politics who wake up every single day thinking about everything but the damn people,' Delgado told a room full of Democrats in his hometown of Schenectady a day later in what unmistakably resembled a campaign speech. The abrupt announcement prompted Hochul to take away many of Delgado's state perks, like his capitol office and even official email, according to the sources. Since then, Delgado has been using an email address set up for him by the state Senate, which he technically presides over as lieutenant governor, according to a source familiar with the situation. He has spent the last few weeks traipsing around all corners of the state hosting town hall events. A spokesperson for Governor's campaign declined to comment, but referred The Post to a statement from the Hochul-friendly Democratic Governors Association. 'The Governor knows how to take on big fights and win for New York families — and her agenda is overwhelmingly popular with New Yorkers on both sides of the aisle,' the statement from Democratic Governors Association Executive Director Meghan Meehan-Draper read. 'The Democratic Governors Association is 100 percent behind Governor Hochul as she continues to deliver for New York, take on Donald Trump, and build the operation it will take to beat Republicans up and down the ballot in 2026,' it continued. Delgado would no doubt struggle in an attempt to topple Hochul — who became governor in 2021 after Andrew Cuomo resigned in disgrace and who was elected to a full term the following year. She has an undeniable advantage in name recognition, a massive $15 million campaign war chest and the benefit of keeping New York's powerful unions and other special interests happy as the incumbent. According to Siena College polling's most recent survey, Delgado would currently receive just 12% of the vote in a matchup including him, Hochul and Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) who is also rumored to be considering a bid in the 2026 race. Hochul won in that simulation, though with only 46% of the vote. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY), who posed a bruising primary challenge against Hochul in 2022, was quick to pan Delgado's entry into the race. 'Antonio, you are a talented guy, with a great future. Based upon my experience this may not be the most well-thought out idea!,' Suozzi posted to X. Delgado was Hochul's second pick after her first lieutenant governor, Harlem state Sen. Brian Benjamin (D-Manhattan) resigned while facing charges he accepted bribes from a real estate developer — a case that was eventually dropped. She recently made a point to slam the door shut on any chance she may have to serve with Delgado for another four years by shoving a provision into the state budget that would change New York election law so governors and lieutenant governors run as a ticket during the primary, instead of separately as it worked previously. Hochul's detractors were quick to chime in on Delgado's entry as well. 'Her own Lieutenant Governor that she hand picked is now primarying her which shows she has lost support not just from Republicans and Independents, but Democrat New Yorkers as well,' North Country Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) wrote in a statement. 'Her first LG was indicted for public corruption. Her second LG has announced he's running against her. We can't wait to see who she picks as her third LG candidate,' Hudson Valley Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) snarked on X.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘No show' Delgado: NY's lieutenant governor does little to earn $220K paycheck, records show
He wants to be New York's next governor, but Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado has been all but a no-show since getting his $220,000-a-year post three years ago, according to records and Albany insiders. Since being sworn in as Gov. Kathy Hochul's No. 2 on May 25, 2022, the lefty pol has racked up at least 411 days in which he took off or had easy shifts with only one scheduled event or meeting — or none at all, public schedules The Post obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request show. That's a whopping 41% of his first 1,011 days on the job, through Feb. 28. And his schedule has gotten only lighter since he publicly broke from Hochul in late February and announced he won't be seeking re-election, insiders said. Delgado's schedules don't document vacations, but over the nearly three-year period, he racked up a whopping 135 weekdays with no reported work. That translates into 27 weeks of vacation for an average working stiff. If you include weekends — and many statewide pols attend public events on weekends — he reported blank work schedules for 318 days, or nearly 32% of the time. On dozens of other occasions, his shifts included one workday activity: a half-hour or hour-long call with staff. The former two-term Hudson County congressman has since been plotting his campaign, which he announced Monday, to challenge Hochul in next year's Democratic primary, while still collecting a paycheck as lieutenant governor. 'It's no secret that the lieutenant governor rarely showed up for a full day of work, and there were plenty of times he didn't show up at all – even for the few initiatives he claimed were his big accomplishments,' said an Albany source familiar with Delgado's work habits. 'When it comes to the last few months, it's hard to know if he's been doing his day job at all.' The state's Executive Chamber stopped providing administrative support to Delgado on Feb. 28, and the governor's office said it's 'our understanding' that since that time, Delgado 'has been utilizing state Senate systems for his calendar, email, and other [work] purposes.' However, Mike Murphy, a spokesman for the Senate's Democratic majority, told The Post the upper house 'has nothing to do' with Delgado's schedule, adding the lieutenant governor has not attended a Senate session since parting ways with Hochul in February. New York's lieutenant governor, by law, also serves as the Senate president, a largely ceremonial title that carries little weight beyond casting the tie-breaking vote in the rare case it's needed. Delgado's campaign fliers boast he's traveled 'over 60,000 miles to over 1,000 events' as lieutenant governor to 'hear from New Yorkers' – a claim that reads more like fiction based on his available public schedules and insider accounts. His campaign website also touts that his job duties include chairing New York's Hate and Bias Prevention Unit, the state's 10 regional economic development councils, and its Council on Community Justice – and that he 'oversaw the creation of the state's very first Office of Civic and Service Engagement.' However, his public schedule shows only 31 instances where Delgado attended meetings or conducted business via phone or in person related to the Hate and Bias Prevention Unit; 19 times for the regional economic development councils; 10 for the OSCE, and five for the COCJ. Much of Delgado's time was spent attending parades, ribbon cuttings, and heritage events. He sporadically met with top state government leaders and various elected officials. By comparison, Hochul earned a reputation as a workhorse during her nearly seven years as lieutenant governor under then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Her re-election campaign declined to comment. Robert Duffy, who served as lieutenant governor from 2011 through 2014 under Cuomo, said he was flabbergasted by Delgado's work ethic and The Post's findings. 'You can't be in one corner for a couple of days here and there, and then call it a week,' said Duffy, adding the job is not 'part-time.' 'It's at a minimum, five full days a week, but probably closer…to seven days a week to fulfill your responsibilities. But then, even at that schedule, you still feel like you're not accomplishing what you should. 'So the thought of having that many days off and for that length of time is shocking to me,' added Duffy. Duffy, for example, said he averaged attending about 20 regional economic development council meetings a month. As co-chair of the Finger Lakes REDC the past decade, Duffy said he knows first-hand Delgado never attended any of its meetings since becoming Hochul's No. 2. 'He's a very nice man, very smart, but I have to question his heart about wanting to take on a job like governor with a track record like that as lieutenant governor,' added Duffy. Delgado's campaign declined to provide The Post copies of his work schedules since the February break-up with Hochul, but it provided a link to one of his social media accounts that appears to show him attending at least 85 public events from March through May. The campaign also doubled down on its claim that Delgado has attended more than 1,000 events and traveled over 60,000 miles as lieutenant governor. 'Antonio is proud to serve the people of New York,' Delgado campaign spokesman Steven Ileka said. Ileka also pointed out that 'Hochul publicly praised Antonio for doing a 'phenomenal job' as recently as July – adding 'the only thing that's changed since then' was Delgado calling on then-President Joe Biden a week later to step down as the Democratic presidential nominee even as Hochul continued to campaign for Biden. 'We understand that challenging the status quo can be hard for some to handle, but New Yorkers deserve better leadership,' Ileka said. However, longtime Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf said he believes Delgado has no shot at unseating Hochul — mostly because too many New Yorkers 'don't even know Delgado's alive.' 'They have no idea what he does, who he is, and where is!' Sheinkopf said. 'He has no presence. The idea that he could be governor is ridiculous.'
Business Journals
5 days ago
- Business
- Business Journals
AI revolution: Navigating the promises and perils of a new era
At electronic health records innovator ModMed, its proprietary artificial intelligence application, ModMed Scribe, has been trained on millions of patient encounters. It is improving how doctors interact with, diagnose, and care for patients to improve office workflow. JM Family Enterprises use AI-powered tools to help create and test new applications. This is improving the quality of software development and reducing the time required to produce requirements and test cases by approximately 30%. A contact center platform with AI capabilities at BankUnited is exploring how sentiment analysis can help bankers and customers find the solutions that best fit a given situation. Miami Dade College, in collaboration with Microsoft, is applying the technology company's 365 Copilot AI-powered productivity tool atop its suite of applications to drive staff and faculty efficiency. Since implementation, nearly one year ago, adoption is over 90%, which is impressive, understanding that it's a brand-new tool, according to Antonio Delgado, the school's VP of Innovation and Technology Partnerships. This is simply some novel large language (LLM) model application; it's facilitating efficiencies across the school's technology suite. 'The results that we see even before getting to a full year of implementation is an enormous number of hours saved by leveraging the tool,' Delgado said. 'We see greater satisfaction. We see the productivity. And at the end, the outcomes with our students are better communication and better sense of belonging.' AI's promises and potential perils were explored during the recent AI Revolution Roundtable. Held at the Miami offices of the South Florida Business Journal and moderated by Andrew Duffell, president of the Research Park at Florida Atlantic University, leaders from some of the region's leading private and public sector employers discussed the challenges they're facing with artificial intelligence. Deploying AI in the workplace From the debut less than two years ago of generative AI applications like ChatGPT, companies today are turning to agentic AI. These systems can autonomously make decisions and act to achieve goals, often with minimal human intervention. Already, AI in all its forms is delivering a 'noticeable shift from prioritizing large, transformative use cases to simply understanding how to best integrate AI into routine tasks,' said John Damalas, group VP and CTO with JM Family Enterprises, the Deerfield Beach-based automotive distributor and services company. AI is creating an evolving narrative that positions it as a support tool for human-led activities, rather than a total replacement for cognitive work. JM Family's AI Center of Excellence has developed governance frameworks via its AI Council, a cross-functional team that promotes AI initiatives and ensures strategic alignment. It prioritizes responsible AI use with a 'formal process to review use cases for transparency and compliance with regulations, including monitoring proposed regulations in relevant jurisdictions,' Damalas said. Julio Jogaib, CIO with BankUnited, shared that employees must be trained on AI's best uses to advance their organization. This includes creating governance protocols to create standards and guardrails for proper AI usage by the workforce and organization. BankUnited's vendors are using AI in the applications they provide. Jogaib works to ensure the bank and its vendors 'have governance in place surrounding usage, data privacy, and other areas,' he said. It's especially important when client data is being used by vendors to train their systems. 'There is a lot of legal apparatus that needs to be in place and monitoring on what's being done by these platforms,' Jogaib said. 'They may say that they are not using our data. But you have to verify that.' As a health care technology company, ModMed works to ensure the company and its partners have the rights to use data or documents in the development of its platform, from widgets, chatbots, agents or generative AI. Daniel Cane, the company's co-founder and co-CEO, represented ModMed on the roundtable. 'They might have an asterisk by it now and say, 'if you use this new AI agent, we're collecting information to understand how our agent works and better train it in the future,'' Cane said. 'Be careful when you're using third party tools to understand how they're going to use your data.' Jogaib put it more fundamentally: 'You need to have people inside the company capable of thinking.' Training next-gen users Two cohorts of 'students' are emerging in the AI realm. One will be those traditional students in classrooms who are learning coursework to prepare them for future careers. Second are employees who are learning skills - including the use of AI - to serve their companies or future career opportunities. Technology has changed education delivery. Think back to the pandemic, when classrooms from grade school to higher education embraced portable devices and remote learning. AI is continuing that evolution. It's 'personalizing the education journey,' Delgado said. It can identify in-demand jobs, and the skills, degrees, or certificates needed to pursue them. The emergence of LLM applications, like ChatGPT, has students asking a question of the application, then copy/pasting the answer into their schoolwork. How do educators, or even employers, ensure students or workers actually learn and know the material? 'That's a big challenge that I see… the student is not doing the thinking anymore,' Delgado said. 'It's having the skills to embed AI in what you do and still add value, to defend the answer, to think about the abstract. We need to work on changing the way that academia is not only teaching but also assessing learning. Because if not, there is no learning happening.' JM Family invests in workforce development and views AI as an enhancement, not a replacement, for human capability. A critical part of its AI Center of Excellence is giving associates the tools and training needed to learn about AI and understand how to leverage it within their work. The roundtable's moderator, Andrew Duffell of Research Park at FAU, wondered how ModMed is encouraging employees to integrate their own knowledge with AI. Cane explained that the expectation is that employees are problem solvers and eager learners, and they arrive with a fundamental understanding of AI and its potential uses in the organization. Employees' natural curiosity must have them exploring how AI can be a tool to improve effectiveness, he emphasized. 'We are an employer that's using AI throughout our company, whether it's finance, accounting, marketing, software development,' Cane said. 'But we're also creating our AI to solve problems out in the wild.' AI's misperceptions, challenges and threats 'The belief that AI will automatically enhance processes and products can be inaccurate,' Damalas said. 'Similar to the digitization trend of the late 1990s and early 2000s, integrating AI into a business process with considerable inefficiencies may only heighten those inefficiencies, unless the process or product is carefully assessed concerning the specific outcomes or goals that AI is supposed to achieve within its context.' AI can create workplace challenges. According to Damalas, one involves managing change and promoting psychological safety for users as they adopt these technologies. He believes it is essential to address concerns that AI and other emerging technologies may replace jobs and instead encourage users to perceive them as enhancements to their skills and capabilities. Another will be how industries, such as health care, banking and financial services or education, for example, work with policy makers to enhance future regulations around AI. ModMed works with industry governing bodies to advocate for responsible AI applications and implementation. Internally, the company ensures its use of data complies with patient privacy laws, as well as emerging AI responsible-use and transparency guidelines. A company like ModMed's unique place as a developer and user of AI also gives it a role to play as advisor to governing bodies. 'Now is the time to be working with policy makers,' Cane said. 'It's essential that we bring policymakers and governing bodies up to speed on how this content and how this technology can be used in a way that can help people, and try to prevent people from getting hurt by it.' Where some may see regulators or governing bodies as 'the enemy,' Jogaib said the pace of industry innovation places developers and users in an important role as advisor. 'We call regulators our partners,' Jogaib said. 'We show them what they are doing, how we are doing it. We allow them to ask questions and through those questions they not only understand better how we are doing things, but they also take feedback. There must be this interaction, this exchange of experience.' As with any technology, strong internal policies can help thwart misuse and external threats. Companies must bolster and update their cybersecurity apparatus, Jogaib affirmed. Besides, as regulated industries, health care and banking, even education, face the prospect of government involvement - even suspension or revocation of licensure - should they not protect data or otherwise not meet regulations. Dispelling misperceptions Even as AI goes from headlines to frontline use in the workplace, developers and employers are still working to dispel fears and misperceptions that AI will replace workers. In physician practices, Cane said that AI won't replace doctors. Rather, its ModMed Scribe platform is helping doctors focus on practicing medicine, as opposed to rote tasks and administration 'and all of the back office overhead on billing and collecting and working on payers and all the things that happen in the middle where a doctor wants more than anything just to focus on the human being in front of them, the patient,' Cane said. 'It's not uncommon for doctors to spend two or three hours after work in what we call, 'pajama time,' catching up on their notes,' he said. His AI platform takes notes during the visit, writes prescriptions, orders and reviews labs, and handles other documentation - even following up with the patient to ensure compliance. From a more fundamental approach, Delgado noted that organizations need to educate their users - employees, customers, even students, in the case of educators - to ensure they're learning and using best practices. 'We need to really educate our constituents from that perspective about how to leverage it in a positive way, while still making sure they are open to including it as part of the journey,' he said. To Delgado, as business and society embrace agentic AI, or any AI applications for that matter, it still requires human intervention to supervise and hold AI accountable for its outcomes. 'Hallucinations' or incorrect responses remain a serious concern whose prevention requires human oversight. While future autonomous AI presents some dangers, the evolution brings tremendous promise. The embrace of AI 'is not an isolated event. It's a team sport,' Delgado said. 'Everybody, every function, no matter what type of company it is, has a place in the AI game, even if they don't know that yet.'
Epoch Times
03-06-2025
- Politics
- Epoch Times
New York Governor Faces Primary Challenge From Second in Command
New York Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado is running to replace his boss, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, setting up a battle between the two in the 2026 Democratic primary. 'What we need right here in New York is bold, decisive, transformational leadership,' he said in a campaign video
