Day: January 18, 2022

With Mayor Bill de Blasio off to stump for Hillary Clinton in Iowa, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul is set to replace him for the annual Groundhog Day ceremony at the Staten Island Zoo, sources told POLITICO New York.

The annual morning event is a New York version of the famous shadow check done by Punxsutawney Phil, the famous Pennsylvania varmint. At 7:30 a.m., the zoo's famous groundhog Staten Island Chuck will emerge to see if he (or she) sees his shadow, superstitiously predicting either an early spring or six more weeks of winter drudgery.

The mayor, by tradition, presides, but what should be a harmless photo-op actually became a to-do for de Blasio. In 2014 — his first year in office — the mayor dropped the groundhog, causing internal injuries that led to her death. In 2015 the ceremony was amended so the mayor would not actually touch the animal.