By Joseph T. Burns
July 7, 2025, 5:10 PM

While it received little fanfare, New York State’s FY2025 budget contained a significant – yet underdiscussed – change to the state’s electoral process. Going forward, candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor are required to run as a ticket in the primary election. This amendment to the Election Law might seem minor to novice politicos, but it carries far-reaching implications for how the game of politics is played in the Empire State.

For decades, New York has required joint gubernatorial-Lt. Governor tickets in the general election, but not in party primaries. Until now, candidates for each office competed separately in party primaries, occasionally leading to intra-party mismatches that strained political alliances and even  governance itself. This decoupling has, over the last four decades, produced several moments of real constitutional and political consequence.

Consider 1982: then–Lieutenant Governor Mario Cuomo and New York City Mayor Ed Koch faced off in a hotly contested Democratic primary for Governor. Their preferred running mates—H. Carl McCall for Cuomo and Alfred DelBello for Koch—competed separately in the Democratic primary for Lieutenant Governor. While Cuomo triumphed in the gubernatorial primary, Koch’s ally DelBello won the Lt. Governor nod. This pairing—Cuomo and DelBello—went on to victory in the general election. Yet, the awkward alliance proved unstable. DelBello soon complained publicly of his role within the Cuomo Administration, and in 1985, he resigned mid-term. The disjointed nomination process effectively produced an unhappy political marriage between Cuomo and DelBello that ended in a problematic – and very public – political divorce.

A similar situation arose in 2002, this time involving a third party. Governor George Pataki, seeking re-election, was challenged for the Independence Party nomination by Rochester businessman Tom Golisano. In the Independence Party’s primary, Golisano narrowly defeated Pataki for the gubernatorial nomination, but Pataki’s running mate, Lt. Governor Mary Donohue, won her primary against Golisano’s preferred candidate. As a result, Donohue appeared on the general election ballot as the running mate for both Pataki (on the Republican and Conservative lines) and Golisano (on the Independence line). Had Golisano won the general election, the pairing of an independent Governor and a Republican Lt. Governor would have led to a potentially unworkable political and governmental partnership.

The risks of mismatched primary winners became apparent once again in 2018. Then–Governor Andrew Cuomo and Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul faced progressive challengers Cynthia Nixon and Jumaane Williams in the Democratic primary. Cuomo defeated Nixon handily, but Hochul only narrowly fended off Williams. A small number of votes swinging the other way would have resulted in a Cuomo–Williams ticket in the general election. Had that ticket prevailed in November, Williams would have ascended to the governorship when Cuomo resigned in 2021 amid scandal. Instead, it was Hochul who succeeded him, reshaping New York politics to this day.

The budget bill’s electoral reform, enacted via amendment to the New York Election Law, closes the door on such mismatches. Moving forward, candidates for Governor must designate a running mate at the outset of their campaigns. Petitions lacking a named candidate for Lieutenant Governor are deemed invalid, and the same requirement applies to independent nominating petitions. This change also governs party designating conventions, where gubernatorial and Lt. Governor designations must now be voted upon by state committee members jointly.

This reform has received relatively little public attention, perhaps because it lacks the headline appeal of other budget items. But New York’s recent political history makes clear that the Lieutenant Governor doesn’t just preside over the State Senate, attend ribbon cuttings, and shake hands at county fairs. David Paterson and Kathy Hochul both assumed the governorship unexpectedly. Who occupies the office of Lt. Governor matters.

It remains to be seen how this change will alter campaign strategy and intra-party dynamics in the years to come. But what is clear is this: a relatively unnoticed procedural revision may prove one of the most consequential changes to New York’s electoral process in recent memory.