Knicks owner James Dolan-backed Super PAC dunks on Hochul in ‘Get Outta Town’ ad to boost Bruce Blakeman

James Dolan spending real money to knock Kathy Hochul is the kind of story that tells you more than the ad itself ever could. This isn't some outer-borough donor with a grudge. This is the guy who owns Madison Square Garden and the Knicks, a man who has spent years in New York's business world watching the state get run into the ground, deciding it's worth writing checks against the sitting governor. That's not a small thing. Money like that doesn't move unless someone genuinely believes the current direction is bad for business, bad for the city, bad for the state.

"Get Outta Town" is a blunt title, and it's supposed to be. Blakeman has built his brand as the guy who says the quiet part out loud, and Hochul has spent her tenure trying to look moderate while presiding over the same tax-and-spend drift that's been driving people and businesses out of New York for a decade. An ad like this works because it's not subtle. It's aimed at people who are already frustrated and just needed someone to say it plainly.

What's notable here isn't really the ad copy. It's who's paying for it. When a figure as entrenched in New York's establishment as Dolan starts backing a Republican challenger, that's a signal the political class in Albany should be paying attention to, whether they admit it or not.