Bruce Blakeman showed up to debate. Kathy Hochul brought Donald Trump.

I have a question for the people who watched New York’s gubernatorial debate Tuesday night. Did anybody happen to count how many times Kathy Hochul said the words Donald Trump?

I tried. I lost count. Somewhere along the way, I began to wonder whether Bruce Blakeman had wandered into the wrong debate.

Trump this. Trump that. Your friend Donald Trump. Your admiration for Donald Trump. Donald Trump and gasoline. Donald Trump and groceries. Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Donald Trump.

At one point, I thought perhaps the moderator should have checked backstage to see whether the president was waiting to make a surprise entrance.

There was just one problem.

Donald Trump wasn’t running for governor of New York. Bruce Blakeman was.

Now, I understand why Democrats want to talk about Trump. He’s the president. His policies affect the states. And if you’re running for office as a Democrat, attacking Donald Trump is apparently considered a complete campaign platform.

But New York has a governor. Her name is Kathy Hochul. She’s been in charge long enough that somebody ought to be allowed to ask her a question about New York without first getting a weather report from Washington.

And Blakeman had questions.

He challenged Hochul over the state’s sanctuary policies, the treatment of criminal suspects who are in the country illegally, and the families of New Yorkers who have suffered terrible crimes. He pressed her to apologize to victims’ families and asked whether she would speak with the parents of Sheridan Gorman.

Those are serious matters. They deserve serious answers.

Hochul responded by defending her public-safety record. She said her administration had spent $4 billion helping law enforcement and had brought shootings and murders down to historic lows.

That’s an argument a governor is entitled to make. Voters can examine the numbers and decide whether her policies deserve credit.

But then she pivoted to Blakeman’s position on fatal encounters involving federal immigration officers, accusing him of defending actions she considered reprehensible.

Now, those incidents deserve scrutiny, too. When somebody dies during an encounter with law enforcement, the facts matter, the investigation matters, and the law matters. Nobody should be declared guilty or innocent simply because a politician has decided which side of the argument is more convenient.

That includes federal agents. It also includes people who come into contact with them.

What struck me was the difference between debating a policy and using an entirely different controversy to avoid answering the question in front of you.

Blakeman wanted to talk about the consequences of New York’s immigration policies. Hochul wanted to talk about ICE, Trump and what Blakeman thought about them.

Fine. Let’s discuss federal immigration enforcement. But let’s also discuss what New York’s own government has done, what it costs, and whether the people paying the bills are getting the protection they deserve.

Blakeman made some striking claims about the amount of taxpayer money being spent on migrant services. Those figures need to be examined carefully, because government spending is not the same thing as handing an individual a check. But the underlying question is perfectly legitimate: How much is New York spending, and what are the results?

That’s not an unreasonable question. It’s the sort of question taxpayers generally like answered before somebody sends them another bill.

Meanwhile, New York City has been moving toward ending its horse-carriage industry in Central Park, a tradition that has been part of the city’s identity for generations.

Supporters of the ban raise animal-welfare and public-safety concerns. Those deserve to be heard.

But I couldn’t help noticing the contrast. New York’s political leaders seem capable of enormous determination when the subject is getting horses off the streets. Ask about criminal offenders, sanctuary policies or the safety of ordinary New Yorkers, and suddenly the conversation becomes considerably more complicated.

Apparently, a horse pulling tourists through Central Park is a problem government can solve. Everything else requires another speech about Donald Trump.

I’m not suggesting that the governor has no right to criticize the president. Of course she does. I’m suggesting that criticism of the president is not a substitute for accountability at home.

New Yorkers don’t need a governor who can win an argument with a man who isn’t in the room. They need one who can explain what she’s doing for the people who are.

There was a moment during the debate when Hochul appeared to lose her train of thought. She began, “Now, we’re not done yet,” then paused and told the audience they were going to hear “a lot of different opinions here this evening.”

Fair enough. Debates are supposed to contain different opinions. That’s why we have two candidates standing there.

I just wish we’d heard more about the state one of them is actually governing.

Bruce Blakeman showed up to debate Kathy Hochul. Kathy Hochul seemed determined to debate Donald Trump.

And somewhere in Washington, the president managed to become the star of a New York debate without even buying a ticket.

— Bo