NY Democrats call sudden vote, shoot down Hochul judge pick Hector LaSalle
State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins engineered a historic takedown of Gov. Hochul’s pick to be New York’s top judge in a surprise power play Wednesday that thrust Albany dysfunction back into the spotlight.
The hastily called 39-20 vote against Justice Hector LaSalle, a respected centrist Democrat, took the legs out from under Hochul politically, just weeks into her first full term — and as she prepares for crucial budget negotiations with Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-The Bronx).
It also marked the first time the Senate has rejected a New York governor’s nominee for the Court of Appeals, let alone to be its chief judge.
Only two senators in the overwhelmingly Democratic chamber — Sen. Monica Martinez (D-Suffolk), and GOP Sen. Mario Mattera (R-Huntington) — crossed party lines. Three Democrats and one Republican were absent.
Stewart-Cousins unexpectedly called the vote in the wake of a lawsuit filed last week by Sen. Anthony Palumbo (R-Suffolk) — and tacitly supported by Hochul — to force the full Senate to address LaSalle’s nomination.
The majority leader also appeared, once again, to have stacked the deck against LaSalle — and fellow Democrat Hochul — because two of the judge’s supporters, Sen. Luis Sepulveda (D-The Bronx) and Sen. Kevin Thomas (D-Long Island), weren’t in Albany.
In January, Senate Democrats expanded the Judiciary Committee from 15 to 19 members and packed it with progressives to ensure LaSalle wouldn’t win committee approval.
When the plan narrowly succeeded, 10-9, Stewart-Cousins said LaSalle wouldn’t get an up-or-down vote in the chamber.
“The Senate is panicking. They know they screwed up. They know they’re gonna lose the lawsuit,” said a source familiar with the matter said before Wednesday’s vote. “So, now they’re trying to force a vote when two yes votes are out of Albany. The fix is in.”
In a desperate attempt at spin, Hochul, who had been pushing for a full Senate vote and had tacitly supported a GOP-led lawsuit against the majority leader blocking one — issued a statement that Stewart-Cousins “had finally acquiesced to a vote” and called it “an important victory for the constitution.”
“She’s like the Monty Python sketch with that knight who claims he’s winning after all his limbs have been chopped off,” a labor union source said of Hochul.
LaSalle took a seat alone in the upstairs gallery of the Senate chamber in Albany to watch the pre-voting debate on the floor. He declined to speak with reporters as he rushed out after the vote against him.
At one point during the debate, Palumbo fumed: “This is once again a manipulation of the process.”
State Sen. George Borrello (R-Jamestown) also told the chamber’s Democrats, “You shredded the constitution and today we bring it back.”
Palumbo and Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt (R-Lockport) later vowed to continue pressing the suit to resolve the question of whether the Judiciary Committee can block nominations from reaching the Senate floor.
“It’s not a matter of rules or whims or necessity or distraction or, ‘Today, we felt like it,'” Ortt said. “It’s because [the] constitution demands a full Senate vote. That’s the goal.”
Stewart-Cousins abruptly scheduled Wednesday’s vote as Mayor Eric Adams was seeking additional funding for the Big Apple during a joint legislative budget hearing known as “Tin Cup Day.”
The move cut short the mayor’s testimony, with several senators getting up and leaving without warning.
“Unfortunately, there’s so much other things going on right at the moment that I’m the only representative from the Senate left,” Sen. Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) said as the drama unfolded.
Adams said afterward that he wasn’t worried about not getting to finish testifying “because I have an amazing State Legislative Affairs Committee up here.”
“I personally believe that it got cut short because they believe I’m doing a great job in the city,” he joked.
During an unrelated news conference in Manhattan before the vote, Hochul all but accused the Senate leader of flexing her muscles over LaSalle’s nomination.
“I’ve said all along, as recently as Monday, that I believe that the constitution requires this to go to the full Senate for a vote. That was disputed up until today,” she said.
Despite widespread expectations that LaSalle would be rejected, Hochul claimed the vote was “a good outcome, to at least let it get to the floor of the Senate.”
The governor also tried to play tough when asked about a joke made earlier by state Krueger (D-Manhattan), who said that “nice doesn’t play in Albany.”
Hochul — who last month signed off on pay raises for the very Legislature that turned against her — paused before answering with a sly smile.
“My position is this: I’ve been called an iron fist inside of a velvet glove. Sometimes the glove comes off, sometimes it doesn’t have to. We can handle Albany,” she said.
In her statement later, Hochul said the Senate’s action “was not a vote on the merits of Justice LaSalle, who is an overwhelmingly qualified and talented jurist.”
“Now that the full Senate has taken a vote, I will work toward making a new nomination,” she said. “I remain committed to selecting a qualified candidate to lead the court and deliver justice. That is what New Yorkers deserve.”
Veteran Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf said the vote would prove to be “another way for the downstate, progressive Democrat-controlled state Senate to again pump themselves up.”
“It’s all about proving who’s in charge,” he added.
Republican consultant Bill O’Reilly also said Hochul “wasn’t just out-voted, she was out-maneuvered, and that’s a significant public embarrassment.”
“But more importantly, today’s vote shows just how deep the rift in the New York Democratic Party has become,” he added. “She’s going to have to find a way to put a check on the crazy progressives because they’re really feeling their oats around now. It could be a very long session for Mrs. Hochul.”
Asked after the vote whether its hasty scheduling was fair, especially to his absent supporters, Stewart-Cousins replied: “Both of them had an opportunity during the [committee] hearing, which as far as we’re concerned, actually, was, you know, that opportunity, and they they were there for that.”
Those comments came after Stewart-Cousins made her first public comments Tuesday about the lawsuit over LaSalle’s nomination.
“The constitution allows us to make our own rules — and our rules were followed,” she said.
