BUFFALO, N.Y. — A moving van was at the governor's mansion in Albany on Friday, and workers were seen carrying out boxes and artwork as Gov. Andrew Cuomo prepared for his last day in office.
Local political analyst Carl Calabrese told 2 On Your Side he anticipates a smooth transition of power.
"I think it's in everybody's advantage to make it as smooth as possible, as smooth as possible, and have Andrew Cuomo move on the Kathy Hochul move-in, so to speak," Calabrese said.
Cuomo has still been doing some work in his last days. For example, we've gotten multiple notifications of him signing legislation.
"I'm not surprised that he's signing legislation that was passed in both houses and sent to his office. The way Albany works is if he did not sign that legislation, those bills have to start all over again from scratch in January," Calabrese said.
However, Calabrese was surprised by Gov. Cuomo's outside counsel, Rita Glavin, holding a virtual briefing Friday afternoon, requesting the New York State Attorney General's office to correct and supplement its report into allegations of sexual harassment against the governor.
"It is incumbent upon the chief legal officer of our state to make corrections, include material omissions, and supplement the record with information that bears directly on a number of the findings that were included in that report," Glavin said in the video.
A spokesperson for the attorney general responded with a statement saying in part, "That investigation was exhaustive, thorough, and without outside influence, period."
The statement also read, “We cannot allow survivors of sexual harassment to be further traumatized by these continued attacks, lies, and conspiracy theories.”
As for Kathy Hochul stepping in as governor, Calabrese said we can expect her to make new appointments for who will serve in her cabinet. For the time being, he believes she's likely doing some cleaning up after Cuomo.
"There's no secret that he bullied and verbally abused a lot of people in the legislature and in government, and that is not her style, so she's probably mending some of the bridges that he damaged," Calabrese said.
According to Hochul's public schedule, on Tuesday at 12:01 a.m., she'll be sworn in as governor.
At 3 p.m. Tuesday, she's expected to deliver a virtual address to the people of New York State.
