It’s the second fiddle no one wants to play.
Gov. Kathy Hochul is struggling to find a running mate as two prominent Democrats declined her offer for the thankless and low-profile lieutenant governor role, insiders said.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards and state Sen. Jamaal Bailey (D-Bronx) both recently turned down Hochul — who has had a bit of a cursed history with the role, sources said.
The governor even tried to ask Richards a second time, only again to be rebuffed, the sources said.
“So sad,” one source said about Hochul’s embarrassing back-to-back rejections from Richards.
The troubles landing a running mate — first reported by NY1 — come a week before Hochul is expected to be nominated by state Democrats as their party’s nominee in this year’s gubernatorial election.
Other pols in consideration to be Hochul’s No. 2 include Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez; Robert Rodriguez, the president of the state’s Dormitory Authority; state Assemblyman Brian Cunningham (D-Brooklyn) and New York’s Secretary of State Walter Mosley, sources confirmed.
Cunningham said he has not yet been asked.
“If asked, I would absolutely take the job,” he said.
Gonzalez remains in the running, but sources suggested Rodriguez could be a safer pick of the Latino candidates she’s considering because he won’t have a prosecutor’s record that could be harvested for potential campaign landmines such as botched prosecutions, questionable plea deals or lenient sentences.
Those potential problems for Rodriguez recently reared their head as he effectively pushed to free convicted pedophile Nechemya Weberman after pressure from some in the perv’s Hasidic religious community.
Weberman was poised to walk free, but only stayed behind bars after he pretended during his resentencing hearing Tuesday to forget the details of his sickening crimes. He could be out by 2028.
Sources said Gonzalez appeared dejected during “State of the State” events on Jan. 13. He had been confronted at that time by Asher Lovy — director of the Orthodox Jewish victims group Za’akah — over Weberman’s then-potential resentencing.
All the other potential lieutenant governor contenders either declined or didn’t return requests for comment.
When asked about the search, Hochul coughed up few details. She dodged answering whether Cunningham, Gonzalez and Mosley are in the running.
“I would just say that, you know, we cast a net for pre-vetting and we’re in the pre-vetting stage,” she said.
Hochul herself served as lieutenant governor under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo until he resigned in 2021 amid a sexual harassment scandal. Cuomo continues to deny the accusations.
After becoming governor, Hochul has had nothing but headaches with her two lieutenant governors.
Her first lieutenant governor — Brian Benjamin, a prominent Manhattan politician — himself stepped down after he was arrested over an alleged campaign finance scheme.
The feds dropped the case against Benjamin in 2025 after a key witness died before the trial. He denies the accusation.
Hochul then tapped Antonio Delgado, a former Hudson Valley congressman, to serve as lieutenant governor.
But the relationship between Hochul and Delgado soured so much over the years that he announced he wouldn’t run for re-election as her No. 2.
Delgado is now challenging his estranged boss in the Democratic primary, running against her from the left.
Whoever finally accepts Hochul’s offer would be her third lieutenant governor, if she’s re-elected.
Former Gov. David Paterson told The Post he believes the job has never been particularly glamorous and ambitious Democrats looking for higher office have far more clear pathways to higher office elsewhere.
Still, Paterson didn’t hesitate when he was tapped by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer to be his running mate — even though he was state senator when his Democratic party was a minority in the chamber.
“If Spitzer had asked me to jump out of a plane, I would’ve done it,” Paterson said.
— Additional reporting by Hannah Fierick
