Kathy C. Hochul for New York State governor

Kathy C. Hochul reports having filled 580,000 potholes on Long Island's state roads during her five years in office. While acknowledging many more bumps in the road need work, her attention to granular details of everyday life underscores how effective she can be meeting the region's problems small and large.

When Hochul became governor in 2021, the state was facing post-COVID crime problems and a lagging economy. She also needed to craft successful working relationships with the powerful Democratic majorities of the Assembly and State Senate; both had rebelled against her predecessor, Andrew M. Cuomo, whom she succeeded after his resignation.

Hochul won her first full term in 2022, defeating then-Rep. Lee Zeldin of Shirley, but she lost both Nassau and Suffolk counties, requiring a strengthening of ties with Long Island. After a rocky start, she smartly backed off an aggressive effort to build more housing, perceived as undermining local control, and now is incentivizing through state funding more construction where it is wanted by local communities. In Suffolk, she established a rapport with Republican County Executive Edward P. Romaine, based on their mutual interest in getting things done. Unfortunately, Hochul was shunned and blasted from the start by her current GOP challenger, Bruce A. Blakeman, the 71-year-old Nassau County executive.

Blakeman, of Atlantic Beach, set his eyes on a statehouse run soon after winning a second term in 2025, leaving the details of his day job to be handled by others.

In contrast, Hochul is an effective, pragmatic governor. With strong control over the state budget, Hochul has directed a lot of additional funding during the past five years to Long Island, an amount she puts at $5 billion. In her interview with the editorial board, Hochul cited increases in school aid to local districts of 53%, compared with 35% statewide. She created a $350 million Long Island Investment Fund to generate jobs in areas such as its burgeoning life sciences industry and innovation (think quantum computing). Hochul, specifically naming the Heartland project in Brentwood, promised significant additional funding for housing and economic development as municipalities do their part.

A huge priority awaits the winner of this election: delivering clean and less-expensive electric power to meet the growing needs of downstate and especially Long Island. On this challenge, Hochul appears to be gathering momentum. She told the editorial board that her plan includes building more nuclear generation upstate "than the entire country has in the last 30 years." Expanded hydropower is also key to her plan.

Hochul, 68, a product of Buffalo, candidly acknowledges that the planned $3.26 billion Propel NY Energy project partly developed by the New York Power Authority hasn't provided convincing information to communities about the proposed routes of the underground transmission lines. She vows improvement on that front.

Mitigating the ravages of extreme weather is another key challenge. Hochul has advanced billions of state and federal funding to harden Long Island's coastline while improving state parks here, especially at Jones Beach. The Trump administration — defended at every turn by Blakeman — obsessively opposes wind power, ending federal leases for offshore turbines and other green energy projects.

Hochul wisely pursues an all-of-the-above energy strategy, including natural gas, drawing some condemnation from environmentalists. The state has slowed down on an all-electric building mandate and gas reduction enforcement rules, and moved to amend methane emission timelines. Inflation and utility costs required flexibility on these goals.

During the yearlong moratorium she ordered on AI data centers, Hochul said the administration is preparing guidelines for community benefits and requirements that such centers — if housed in the state — must generate their own power or pay into the public grid. That, too, is a practical outline.

The governor implemented a widely demanded crackdown on kids using their cellphones in schools. She also overcame significant opposition in the State Legislature to enact new laws to fight auto insurance fraud. Insurers are mandated to use the savings to reduce consumer payments.

Her administration rightly moved to revamp and take responsibility for the troubled Nassau University Medical Center. Fresh thinking will provide the best shot at improving and rightsizing the facility. Blakeman foolishly has refused to make appointments to the hospital's board to help the turnaround and denounces the state's involvement.

Hochul has signed legislation aimed at addressing the disturbing growth of antisemitism. This includes establishing a new crime if a protester enters a buffer zone of 50 feet around a synagogue or other house of worship.

Hochul and Blakeman have opposing views on the Trump administration's aggressive push to deport all immigrants without documentation. Blakeman signed an agreement to have county police assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, while Hochul signed a law banning such pacts.

Where Hochul cites positive specifics as a rationale for reelection, Blakeman often declines to spell out the details of his limited list of proposals. He has said he will cut electric costs in half on Day One, but it's unclear how that could begin to happen. His vague answer includes allowing fracking for natural gas in New York.

Evaluating Blakeman's ability to run the state requires a review of his tenure in Nassau.

Blakeman never reformed the troubled property tax assessment system as he promised. He withheld dedicated opioid settlement funds to balance the county budget. His development efforts such as luring a casino to the Nassau Hub failed spectacularly. His announcement of a new NYU Langone Health hospital on the Nassau Community College campus ended rancorously. The facility is now planned for Suffolk.

In the tradition of public service, Newsday's editorial board meets with candidates each election year to offer readers our guidance on who would be the better choice on issues that matter to Long Island. We make our evaluations based on a candidate's skills, record of service and plans for governing. This year we have interviewed 107 candidates running for local, state and federal offices.

Blakeman did not meet with the editorial board. His campaign sent a statement citing dislike of Newsday's coverage and a federal lawsuit the news organization filed last year against him and the Nassau County Legislature. In the pending lawsuit, Newsday says the county interfered with the news organization's First Amendment rights to cover the county.

Hochul is the better choice for Long Island and to lead the state. She has made admirable progress on a series of difficult issues and deserves another term to continue that work.

Newsday Opinion endorses Hochul.