‘Better than watching any movie’: Journalist Karen DeWitt reflects on storied career

Jun 14, 2024

Journalist Karen DeWitt by her desk in the state Capitol.

Longtime Albany journalist Karen DeWitt is retiring. | Jason Beeferman/POLITICO

SAYING BYE TO DEWITT: In 1986 Karen DeWitt walked into the New York State Capitol for the first time as a journalist. She was only one of about five women in the capitol’s press corp.

Thirty-eight years later, the familiar voice of Albany’s airwaves is walking out after a long, storied ride.

“I never wanted to leave,” DeWitt, the Capitol bureau chief for the New York Public News Network, told Playbook ahead of her retirement next week. “It was just such a parade of characters that came through here: the political machinations, the shocking events and twists of fate to witness. It was better than watching any movie.”

DeWitt, whose voice has played on the state public radio network since 1990, leaves behind a career envied by any journalist worth their salt. She began her career as a stringer for 1010 WINS, before moving full time to public radio. There she covered everything from the mundane to the monumental in New York politics.

Among the biggest moments: the resignation of former Gov. Elliot Spitzer, the 2009 state Senate coup, the COVID pandemic and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s resignation.

But Capitol journalists and Albany insiders will also remember DeWitt’s reporting for its significance to women in the news business.

“You not only survived in this tough, man-driven world when you first started, but you thrived in that world,” Gov. Kathy Hochul told DeWitt during remarks at her retirement party earlier this month. “And that sets you apart among so many. You are a treasure.”

DeWitt remembers joining Albany’s press corp in the ‘80s when the first women in the Legislative Correspondents Association — the group of journalists working at the Capitol — were about 10 years her senior. They were tough and “hard edged,” perhaps because they had to be, she said. But their presence also gave her the ability to be herself in the Capitol.

“They were more hard asses than me,” she told Playbook. “I felt like I had the opportunity since I wasn't the first to be a little bit nicer about everything and maybe a little more nurturing to the people who are coming up. I definitely credit them for paving the way for that.”

Today women in the LCA and the state Legislature say they see DeWitt as paving the way for them.

“I hadn't really thought of it that way,” she said. “Yeah, I guess I was because I kind of stuck it out when there were very few women in the LCA.”

On her way out, the biggest players in Albany have wished her farewell. DeWitt’s retirement party included a video tribute to her with messages from Hochul, former Gov. David Paterson, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins.

“She’s always been from the time I got here someone that was inspirational for women in the field,” Stewart-Cousins told Playbook.

But it likely won’t be the end of the Karen DeWitt byline forever. After taking some well-earned rest, she says she’ll be hoping to do some freelance pieces.

“I really felt for a while like I should move on from this job, but today I'm feeling like, ‘What am I doing? Why am I doing this?’” Karen said from her desk on the Capitol’s third floor.

“1994 of November, I was 34 years old covering Mario Cuomo down in New York City at his election night,” she added. “I saw him go down in flames trying for his fourth term and I just thought that's never going to be me. When I leave this job or any job, I want to quit while I'm ahead.” — Jason Beeferman

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From the Capitol

Governor Hochul announces funding to expand Bronx maternal health care center and takes action to increase access to doulas.

After Gov. Kathy Hochul paused congestion pricing, environmental advocates are worried she may back away from a cap-and-trade program to achieve the state's climate law mandates. | Susan Watts/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul

COULD ‘CAP AND INVEST’ BE CAPPED LIKE CONGEST?: Environmental advocates are worried about the future of one of Hochul’s signature policies, following her suspension of congestion pricing.

Hochul has touted a cap-and-trade program, dubbed “cap and invest,” to limit emissions and achieve the state’s climate goals. But she’s previously raised concerns about the program’s costs, fueling environmental advocates’ wariness about her commitment to a policy she could unilaterally delay.

"This sends a signal that the governor won't support measures that cost people money, and 'cap and invest' will inevitably cost a lot of people a fair amount of money,” said Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University in New York.

Katy Zielinski, a spokesperson for the governor, said state agencies continue working on the program. But the timeline for draft regulations may already be getting pushed back. A spokesperson for DEC declined to commit to a previous “this summer” target that would roll out cost details before the election in November, instead saying only that they’d be available “this year.” That puts into question the planned 2025 start date for the program.

The program would limit emissions to align with the state’s goal of a 40 percent reduction in greenhouse gasses by 2040. Allowances to pollute would be auctioned off to fossil fuel sellers and large polluters for the carbon they spew into the atmosphere. — Marie J. French

CUOMO AND COVID: A long-awaited report on the state’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic takes a dim view of how then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo took command of the crisis during its initial weeks.

The Hochul-ordered 262-page taxpayer-funded study from the Olson Group released this morning details how Cuomo, an admitted control freak, assumed command over the public health crisis and centered the state’s response in his office.

The report concluded that “was a significant and unnecessary mistake” that created confusion.

People interviewed for the study said Cuomo decided to take firm control over the situation in early 2020 after a top official in the state Department of Health did not know who controlled a cache of personal protective equipment.

Cuomo’s response to the pandemic has come under renewed scrutiny earlier this week when he testified to a House panel investigating the state’s handling of the crisis, his lucrative book deal about Covid and his order that nursing homes not return away Covid-positive patients.

But the report issued today takes a broader condemnation of Cuomo’s hands-on management of the pandemic that ultimately failed to provide sufficient communication and ignored plans in place for such events.

“Although his decisive actions were widely praised during the early stages of the pandemic, his failure to shift to full incorporation of the state’s established institutions in coordinating the ongoing response operation resulted in unnecessary confusion at a time when New Yorkers needed clarity,” the report found.

Cuomo became a national star for his early press briefings, largely seen in contrast to former President Donald Trump’s public pronouncements. He would later resign in 2021 after allegations of inappropriate behavior and sexual harassment, all of which Cuomo has denied.

Rich Azzopardi, Cuomo’s longtime spokesperson, defended the efforts to address the pandemic by the administration for bringing the “unified force of government to bear” in order to provide hospital and health care space across the state.

“We all lived through this and no rational person can believe that a coordinated centralized response is inferior to having decisions made by a gaggle of faceless bureaucrats,” he said. — Nick Reisman

In Other News

Mike Lawler walks on Capitol Hill.

Rep. Mike Lawler has $3.3 million in campaign funds for his reelection bid. | Francis Chung/POLITICO

HOU$E HAUL$: Updated campaign finance filings are in for House candidates.

And the cash is flowing in the sure-to-be contentious general election between Rep. Mike Lawler and Mondaire Jones in the lower Hudson Valley.

Jones, the Democratic ex-Congress member who drew the shortest straw in the 2022 redistricting process, had $3.6 million in cash on hand as of last week, according to his filings.

Lawler, a vulnerable Republican freshman, had $3.3 million in his campaign war chest.

In a statement on his fundraising, Jones castigated his opponent as a Donald Trump apologist, adding, “People are horrified by the extreme voting record of Mike Lawler and his incompetent Republican majority.”

Lawler campaign spokesperson Chris Russell noted Jones’ fundraising has slowed “drastically” compared to previous quarters.

“That’s what happens when you cut and run on your friends in a failed attempt to shed your radical record,” Russell said. (Jones’ endorsement of House challenger George Latimer over his former colleague Rep. Jamaal Bowman came as the financial reporting period ended.)

The Federal Election Commission filings also included new numbers for Democratic rivals Bowman and Latimer in Westchester County and the Bronx.

Latimer had two and half times as much cash on hand as Bowman: $2.5 million to $1 million. — Emily Ngo

RESTORING A CONFEDERATE MONUMENT: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is calling out a trio of freshman New York Republicans for voting to restore a monument to confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.

“What is the rationale, in a time when America is facing a dangerous world with challenges all across the globe, to decide you want to restore a confederate monument to Arlington National Cemetery,” the incredulous House Minority Leader said at a press conference this morning.

“What tradition are extreme MAGA republicans — including Rep. D’Esposito, Rep. Molinaro and Rep. Williams — upholding? What confederate tradition are you upholding? Is it slavery, rape, Jim Crow, lynching, racial oppression, or all of the above?”

The members voted Thursday to relocate The Confederate Memorial, which pays homage to confederate soldiers who died in battle, back to the burial grounds after it had been ordered to be removed last year. Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde spearheaded the effort and penned an op-ed explaining his reasoning.

Jeffries launched the accusations as the three Republicans face hotly-contested reelections swing districts in the state, something Rep. Marc Molinaro — who faces Democrat Josh Riley in an already bitter upstate rematch — took note of.

“President Obama had a wreath placed at this monument when he was president,” Molinaro said in a statement. “This was voted on last year and Jeffries didn’t bring it up. This is dishonest election year politics by someone who wants to be the speaker of the house.”

Rep. Brandon Williams also defended his vote.

“As a Navy veteran, I recognize that Arlington Cemetery has served as a sacred memorial of mourning and reconciliation since the Civil War,” he wrote in a statement. “We must remember the past, lest we repeat it.”

New York Republican Reps. Mike Lawler, Nick LaLota and Andrew Garbarino all voted against the GOP-led measure. — Jason Beeferman

— LEFT ON READ: Eric Adams’ mayoral campaign stopped replying to emailed requests from the New York City Campaign Finance Board about whether contributions from small donors were in compliance. (Gothamist)

— CAN WE DO BIG THINGS? It’s tough to get things done in New York’s rocky political terrain, and congestion pricing was just the latest ambitious proposal to be shelved. (The New York Times)

— DEBATE NIGHT: For all you New York local politics debate fanatics, we’ve got another one tonight fresh off of the Latimer-Bowman duel on Wednesday. This one is for the incredibly crowded race to fill Assemblymember Pat Fahy’s Albany seat. Fahy is now running for state Senate. (Spectrum News)

Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? Read it here.

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