Hochul signs bill aimed at removing Benjamin from ticket

ALBANY — The Democratic-led majorities of both legislative houses voted Monday to change state election law to allow Gov. Kathy Hochul to shed former Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin from her ticket now that he faces corruption allegations.

Hochul signed the legislation into law Monday night.

Republicans and some Democrats, including U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi of Glen Cove, who is running in the June primary against Hochul for the Democratic nomination for governor, said it was outrageous for Hochul and legislative leaders to change the law so she can get out of a dicey spot.

“This is the same old insiders’ game,” Suozzi said.

On Monday, the Democrat-controlled Senate approved the measure 33-29 and the Democrat-controlled Assembly passed it by a 82-57 vote — both mostly along party lines.

Benjamin, a former state senator from Harlem, was arrested April 12 by federal authorities on charges of bribery, fraud and falsifying records in connection with an alleged scheme centered around illegal campaign donations. He resigned hours later.

Benjamin has denied the allegations.

Earlier Monday, Hochul thanked the legislature for granting with her request for the legislation. Hochul said she will appoint a new lieutenant governor this week to fill Benjamin’s term, which ends Dec. 31, and become her new running mate in June’s Democratic primary and, if she wins, in November’s general election.

The new measure changes election law that has allowed only three ways — death, moving from the state, or nomination to a different post — for a person to be removed from ballots after the February deadline. The new measure allows a candidate “to decline the nomination when the person has been arrested or charged with one or more misdemeanors or felonies.”

The new measure states, “Democracy demands that voters should be entitled to vote for candidates who can properly assume office” and failure to adopt it “deprives voters of a fair choice during an election and dilutes the democratic process.”

On Monday, Benjamin tweeted that he had agreed to leave the ballot as he fights the charges.

Most Democrats said the measure is a common-sense and long-overdue improvement to election law.

Assemb. Michael Lawler (R-Pearl River), however, called it the “Brian Benjamin removal act” to take action “at record speed to … clean up the governor’s mess.”

Said Sen. Daniel Stec (R-Queensbury): “This bill stinks to high heaven."

The damage from the episode will be played out in the coming elections, Democrats and Republicans said.

“We have been hijacked by this issue when we could be protecting tenants, immigrants and all these other pending issues that we put aside because we are trying to rig the election for one person,” said Assemb. Ron Kim (D-Queens). “And that’s wrong.”

Political science professor Craig Burnett of Hofstra University said the new measure “feeds the narrative that Democrats should not have unified control in Albany … While changing the rules at the last minute may not be corruption, it reeks the same.”

Two other Democrats are also running for the party's nomination for lieutenant governor in the June primary. They are Diana Reyna, a former New York City Council member and deputy Brooklyn borough president, who is running with Suozzi; and civil rights activist Ana Maria Archila, who is running with New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.

Reyna said the new law will be explosive in Republican campaigns against Democrats: “We are giving them ammunition that will rip us apart … and provide more fear and mistrust.”

Archila said: “The legislation that the governor is forcing through today only benefits one person and her name is Kathy Hochul. Everyone else loses.”

Some experts, however, say this latest legislative action, following another corruption arrest in Albany, may not register much with voters in the current polarized state of politics.

“I'd expect this to be of interest really only to people who already follow politics like other people follow sports, and virtually all of those people are committed partisans whose votes are in the bag,” said James Coleman Battista, a political-science professor at the University at Buffalo.

By Michael Gormley

michael.gormley@newsday.com@GormleyAlbany

Michael Gormley has worked for Newsday since 2013, covering state government, politics and issues. He has covered Albany since 2001.