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High hopes from Hochul's Hamburg hometown connection

Town Supervisor Shaw recalls Kathy Hochul's early political career.

HAMBURG, N.Y. — With Kathy Hochul moving into the State's Executive Chambers in Albany,   2 On Your Side took a look back at her Hamburg connection and spoke with someone who knew her back then during her early days in politics. 

He discussed how it may have helped shape her as she becomes governor. 

It is really where her formal government career began at Hamburg Town Hall. They were able to find in the basement a town government class picture with Kathleen Courtney Hochul following her 1994 appointment to a vacant council seat and her time there for over a decade before she became county clerk, a member of Congress, and Lt. Governor.

Hochul had interned and worked in Democratic party positions. But Hamburg is where she showed certain traits like persistence and focus but also tact according to Town Supervisor James Shaw. He had actually run to be Chairman of the Erie County Democratic Committee in the 1990s and made this observation of Hochul, "If she disagrees with you - she's not disagreeable in the process of disagreeing. She's a pretty straight shooter. She'll tell you if she can or can't do something and she'll try to leave you with a good state of mind."

And in Hamburg, Shaw says she had her causes like carefully planned town growth and development as a new Walmart came to town. Shaw says Hochul "insisted that the Walmart design be compatible with a design that was more residential in its facade."

He also says she pushed for shoreline revitalization like the Seaway Trail and just like a 1998 letter to the Buffalo News editor, the councilmember wanted to see Thruway tolls eliminated for Hamburg area commuters. 

Shaw admits she had a mixed record as Erie County Clerk with some good and bad reviews for policies before her brief time in Congress. But he has some ideas on how she might function as the state's chief executive. "She's a good conciliator. She mediates different points of view and will unlike Governor Cuomo - she'll be more inclined to govern by consensus as opposed to the edict."

Shaw also had these comments regarding Hochul: "She is very bright. She is very, very pleasant and level in her demeanor. She doesn't get angry. She doesn't get withdrawn. She takes things as they come. I was very impressed by her demeanor and her quick intelligence. So yeah I saw some great qualities in her."

He added, "She always struck me as a person who really was persistent in the pursuit of her objective, Very pleasant in the process but nonetheless focused on the end result."

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