A driver pulls his gray Toyota sedan up to a tollbooth and produces a stack of money. He pokes his head out the window and makes it rain, sending $10 bill after $10 bill flying into the air as a toll collector greedily rubs his hands together before snatching the whole stack.
That scene, part of a 30-second TV advertisement funded by the Republican-led town of Hempstead, aired briefly on Long Island in late May. And it was exactly what some Democratic political strategists had feared: the first of what was sure to be a barrage of attacks on congestion pricing, the years-in-the-making toll on drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street, which was set to take effect on June 30.
In the intervening weeks, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul blocked the $15 toll from taking effect at least until after Election Day, briefly upending Republicans’ plans to attack her party over the politically unpopular program designed to fund the MTA.
But that hasn’t stopped congressional candidates from both parties from claiming victory over the issue — or promising voters that they’ll keep the toll at bay. And while Hochul has said her congestion pricing pause wasn’t devised to save Democrats, the opposing party is still accusing her of playing politics.
That includes first-term Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, whose campaign is airing an ad claiming credit for bringing “Democrats and Republicans together to stop the MTA’s congestion pricing tax.” His opponent, former Democratic Rep. Mondaire Jones, disputes that claim.
Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, whose district is home to thousands of commuters in Hempstead and a handful of other Nassau County towns, is at the epicenter of the battle. He’s facing a challenge from former Hempstead Town Supervisor Laura Gillen, a Democrat who has called on Hochul to permanently ditch the congestion toll.
“Working families are facing a cost-of-living crisis and cannot afford another cost commuting to their jobs,” Gillen said in a statement last week. “That is why I am calling for a permanent end to state efforts to implement congestion pricing.”
D’Esposito is running on a more harshly worded version of the same point. “Governor Kathy Hochul has finally admitted that her faux pause on congestion pricing was merely a delay until after the election, because she knows this new tax on commuters … is deeply popular on Long Island,” he said at a rally in Hempstead last week.
Hochul has long denied that her decision to block congestion pricing was political. She said she came to the realization — with the help of Manhattan diner patrons who she said had voiced their displeasure about the tolls — that $15 was too much for drivers to bear, particularly amid high inflation.
But it’s undeniable that the governor’s pause had political implications.
Public polling has consistently shown that congestion pricing was unpopular with voters, especially in the handful of congressional districts up for grabs this November in New York City’s suburbs. Republicans performed well in the suburbs in 2022 and took a slim majority in the House.
Earlier this month, a Siena College poll found that 59% of voters wanted Hochul to scrap congestion pricing entirely. The rate was even higher in the suburbs, where 68% of voters said they wanted it to be scrapped.
“It is opposed in every region and with every demographic group,” said Siena pollster Steve Greenberg.
Still, Lawrence Levy, executive dean of Hofstra University’s National Center for Suburban Studies, said issues like immigration and the economy have been dominating suburban congressional races — not congestion pricing.
“[Congestion pricing] probably has a little less potency, which is why it’s not leading the charge or the biggest piece of the bundle, if you will, of the Republican efforts to tie Long Island Democrats to New York City,” Levy said.
In the Hudson Valley, Lawler — a Rockland County Republican and main target for national Democrats who want to flip his Democrat-heavy district — has sought to frame the toll as a toy for the political elite.
In his first TV ad, Lawler spoke over video showing a group of children engaged in a water balloon fight as he took credit for blocking congestion pricing.
“This is what it looks like when the Washington politicians are fighting with each other,” Lawler said. “I’d rather focus on getting things done. That’s why I brought Democrats and Republicans together to stop the MTA’s congestion pricing tax.”
Democrats have scoffed at Lawler’s ad, and a spokesperson for Jones, his opponent, accused him of lying.
Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan, a former Ulster County executive whose district includes Poughkeepsie and Middletown, also took credit for Hochul’s pause when she first announced it in June. His office issued a press release saying the governor’s decision was “in response to relentless pressure from Congressman Ryan.”
In an interview on Wednesday with WAMC, an Albany-based public radio station, Ryan was asked whether he had noticed any change in his race since Hochul announced her decision.
“I haven’t necessarily thought of it that way,” he said. “I think the governor’s decision to listen to the people she represents and folks like me that were also channeling what we were hearing. I think she should be commended for it. In my mind, that’s how government should work.”
Ryan’s opponent, former NYPD deputy inspector Alison Esposito, is also a congestion pricing opponent. She has said it “should never be implemented, and I will always fight to stop it.”
“Elections have consequences, and we must vote for those who will not allow this tax to be levied on hardworking New Yorkers,” she wrote on Instagram this week.
But Bronx Rep. Adriano Espaillat, a Democrat, said Hochul’s decision was “not a Republican victory at all.”
“With regards to the politics of congestion pricing, we will see at the end of this election cycle,” he said.