New York's first female governor sworn in

Kathy Hochul became the first female governor of New York early Tuesday, taking over exactly two minutes after Andrew Cuomo left office amid sexual harassment allegations and a move to impeach him.

Cuomo left office at 11:59 pm Monday, and the 62-year-old Democrat who had served as lieutenant governor since 2015 was sworn in at a private ceremony as the state's 57th governor at the state Capitol in Albany by the Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals Janet DiFiore.

"I want people to believe in their government again," Hochul said during a brief news conference shortly after she was sworn in.

At a ceremonial swearing-in later Tuesday morning, Hochul promised a "fresh, collaborative approach" in state government. She said she had already begun speaking with other Democratic leaders who have, for years, complained about being shut out of key decisions and of being bullied by Cuomo, including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, The Associated Press reported. "There'll be no blindsiding; there'll just be full cooperation," she said.

In a televised address Tuesday afternoon to New Yorkers, Hochul said she was immediately making masks mandatory for anyone entering schools and would work to implement a requirement that all school staff either be vaccinated or undergo weekly coronavirus testing. She said the state would launch a back-to-school testing program to make testing for students and staff more convenient.

"None of us want a rerun of last year's horrors with COVID-19," Hochul said. "We will take proactive steps to prevent that from happening."

Her announcement about vaccinations for school staff came a day after de Blasio announced that New York City would require all Education Department employees — including teachers and principals — to receive at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine by Sept 27. 

She promised to get the state ready to distribute vaccine booster shots when they become widely available, including reopening mass inoculation sites that had closed. She also said New Yorkers "can expect new vaccine requirements", though she didn't specify what they might be. 

Hochul also pledged quick action to end an application bottleneck that has kept federal aid money from flowing to renters who suffered financially because of the pandemic. 

With Hochul becoming governor, for the first time a majority of the most powerful figures in the New York state government will be women, including state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Attorney General Letitia James and the chief judge, DiFiore. The state Assembly is led by Speaker Carl Heastie.

Hochul became the ninth woman currently serving as a governor. That ties a record that was set in 2004 and matched in 2007 and 2019.

She assumed office three weeks after a state attorney general investigation concluded that Cuomo sexually harassed 11 women. Cuomo has denied he touched anybody inappropriately and said he stepped aside to prevent the government from being distracted.

He announced his resignation a week after the investigation, bringing his 10-year reign to an abrupt end after he had risen to national prominence during the pandemic last year.

On his final day in office, Cuomo released a recorded farewell address in which he defended his record over a decade as governor and portrayed himself as the victim of a "media frenzy".

"The attorney general's report was designed to be a political firecracker on an explosive topic, and it worked," Cuomo said in the address, which was recorded in the Executive Mansion in Albany.