‘I Am Fully Prepared’: Hochul Says Transition to Governor Has Begun

ALBANY, N.Y. — Speaking publicly for the first time since Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced his resignation, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, the state’s governor-in-waiting, quickly distanced herself Wednesday from Mr. Cuomo and signaled she would shift the political tone and workplace culture in the state capital.

Ms. Hochul, who is set to take office in two weeks, said that she had not been aware of the behavior that was described in a damning report released last week from the New York State attorney general. The report found that Mr. Cuomo had sexually harassed 11 women, most of them current or former state employees.

“I think it’s very clear that the governor and I have not been close, physically or otherwise, in terms of much time,” said Ms. Hochul, a Democrat who has held a mostly ceremonial role in the Cuomo administration. “I’ve been traveling the state and do not spend much time in his presence or in the presence of many in the state capital.”

She suggested that she would change the culture in the Executive Chamber — the heart of the governor’s office — which the report portrayed as hostile, retaliatory and driven by loyalty to Mr. Cuomo at all cost. She stated bluntly there would be “turnover,” and she would move to jettison Cuomo staffers who were named “doing anything unethical in that report.”

“At the end of my term, whenever it ends, no one will ever describe my administration as a toxic work environment,” Ms. Hochul said.

Mr. Cuomo resigned from office on Tuesday, a week after the attorney general’s report came out. The governor said he took “full responsibility” for his actions as he denied ever touching anyone inappropriately and sought to frame the allegations as stemming from generational differences.

When she is sworn in, Ms. Hochul will inherit a state confronting the resurgence of a pandemic, an economic downturn and important decisions over how to spend billions of dollars in federal stimulus funds.

She said she would spend the next two weeks traveling the state to hear from voters as she puts together her agenda, which she said she would lay out in a formal address. She said she had already spoken with the Democratic legislative leaders and would continue to speak with Mr. Cuomo’s cabinet officials as she assembles her team and recruits senior staff.

“People will soon learn that my style is to listen first and then take decisive action,” she said. “I will fight like hell for you every single day, like I always have and always will.”

Mr. Cuomo and Ms. Hochul’s staff have spoken in the last day, with Mr. Cuomo promising a smooth transition, according to a person familiar with the matter. The governor has also instructed state agencies to draft transition memos for Ms. Hochul and her staff. Ms. Hochul said on Wednesday that President Biden had tried to reach her, and that she had spoken with Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, as well as Hillary Clinton.

Ms. Hochul’s genial demeanor will mark a sharp departure of tone and atmosphere in Albany, where Mr. Cuomo exerted outsize power for over a decade through a bellicose and confrontational style. The governor’s overbearing presence and strong-arm tactics rankled and alienated many lawmakers from both parties, whose relationships with Mr. Cuomo were mostly transactional, and definitely not harmonious.

“The relationship between the executive and the Legislature couldn’t get any worse than it was with Andrew Cuomo, so we’re expecting a more cooperative and collaborative approach,” said State Senator Michael Gianaris, a Democrat from Queens and the deputy majority leader. “Kathy Hochul’s open hand will be more effective than Andrew Cuomo’s clenched fist was.”

Mr. Gianaris, a vocal critic of the governor, said Ms. Hochul visited him in Astoria, Queens, for drinks last month to get his thoughts on a potential transition.

Ms. Hochul, 62, joined Mr. Cuomo’s ticket during his 2014 re-election campaign, as he was courting western New York. A Buffalo-area native, Ms. Hochul spent her formative years in the town of Hamburg, before attending college at Syracuse University and law school at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

After briefly working in private practice, she got a job as a staffer on Capitol Hill, first for Representative John J. LaFalce and then U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

She ultimately returned to western New York and joined the local political fray, serving 14 years on the Hamburg town board and then serving as Erie County clerk, where she earned headlines for her staunch opposition to Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s plan to issue driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants.

In 2011, she aimed higher, running in a special election to replace Representative Christopher Lee, a Republican who resigned after a shirtless photo he had sent to a woman ended up on the internet.

The district was one of the most conservative in the state, and became even more so after redistricting. The next year, Ms. Hochul lost her re-election bid to Chris Collins, a Republican and early supporter of Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign. Mr. Collins would himself ultimately resign in disgrace, and plead guilty to lying to the F.B.I. and conspiring to commit securities fraud.