Kathy Hochul endorsed a Democratic Socialist for mayor of New York City. Now one of her own donors is hosting a fundraiser for the Republican trying to take her job.
Bonnie Englebardt Lautenberg — widow of late New Jersey Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg, philanthropist, and one of the most reliable Democratic checkbooks in the Northeast — confirmed this week that she is holding a fundraiser for Bruce Blakeman, the Nassau County Executive and Trump-endorsed Republican running for governor against Hochul.
"It's the talk of the Hamptons," one stunned Democrat told the New York Post.
They should be stunned. Campaign finance records show Lautenberg donated to Hochul's own re-election campaign just last year. Before that, she wrote checks for Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, Cory Booker, Mark Kelly, Jon Ossoff, and Democratic state parties from coast to coast. For the better part of a decade, Bonnie Lautenberg was exactly the kind of deep-pocketed donor that New York's ruling party counted on.
She just walked out the door.
When asked why she is backing Blakeman, Lautenberg kept it brief. "Bruce is a longtime friend and neighbor," she told the Post. "He's a great guy." Blakeman — a conservative who counts President Trump as a personal friend and carries his endorsement into November — welcomed it. "I am honored to have the support of Bonnie Lautenberg in my campaign for governor," he said.
The defection reflects something Hochul would rather not address. Jewish Democrats across New York have grown increasingly uncomfortable with the direction their party has taken on Israel — and with the socialist candidates the party establishment has moved to embrace. Hochul endorsed DSA-aligned socialist Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York City, a candidate whose positions on Israel put him well outside the mainstream of the Jewish Democratic community.
Lautenberg's artwork has long reflected a deep personal connection to Israel. The decision to host a fundraiser for a Republican — while a Hochul donation receipt is still in the records — is a statement, and everyone in the Hamptons knows it.
Hochul's campaign responded with a boilerplate line about $20 average online donations from across all 62 counties. It was the answer of a campaign that didn't have a better one.
Blakeman faces a real resource gap and a state that hasn't sent a Republican to the governor's mansion in over two decades. Republican Lee Zeldin came within six points of Hochul in 2022 in a race most had written off before it was run. One fundraiser in the Hamptons doesn't close the gap on its own.
But this is more than a fundraiser. It is a signal — from someone whose name carries real weight in Democratic politics, in a setting where the entire donor class is watching — that the coalition holding New York's governorship together has a crack running through it.
Frank Lautenberg's widow is raising money for the Republican. In the Hamptons. In August.
The Democrats have a problem.
