Mayor Eric Adams is bucking state Democratic leaders who have largely turned their backs on efforts by Gov. Kathy Hochul to boot ex-Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin from the primary ballot following his recent indictment for an alleged campaign finance scam and subsequent resignation.
“I agree with good government advocates and many of my colleagues in Albany – New York State should change its laws so that politicians are permitted to remove themselves from the ballot if they resign from the office, are indicted for a crime, or have a life-threatening illness,” Adams said Wednesday on Twitter.
“Forcing an official to remain on the ballot after they’ve resigned deprives more than 6.4 million New Yorkers of the opportunity to choose their representative, a fundamental American right,” he added.
Following Benjamin’s April resignation after he was indicted by federal prosecutors for the alleged campaign finance scheme, Democratic state lawmakers in New York began working on a measure that could boot the former second-in-command off the ballot in the upcoming primary. Assemblywoman Amy Paulin (D- Westchester) started pushing a bill “to allow a candidate for office to decline their party’s designation or nomination, and be removed from the ballot, if they are charged with a crime.”
Under current elections laws, because he was nominated alongside Hochul at February’s New York Democratic Party convention, the only ways for Benjamin to be kicked off the ballot are by moving out of state, dying or running for another elected office.
Benjamin — a 45-year-old Harlem resident and former state senator — has pleaded not guilty on five federal charges. He is accused of directing a $50,000 state grant to a nonprofit organization controlled by a real-estate developer, and in exchange receiving tens of thousands of dollars of campaign contributions to his state Senate campaign committee and fourth-place city comptroller campaign.
Under the terms of his release from federal custody, Benjamin is able to travel to New Jersey as well as the federal districts of Northern Georgia and Eastern Virginia.
But last week, Hochul revealed she will not be asking indicted Benjamin to move out of state in order to disqualify himself from the ballot.
On Tuesday, Hochul urged state lawmakers to help remove Benjamin off the Democratic ballot.
“There is a need for a legislative solution,” she told reporters. “And I would like the legislature to do just that and to pass legislation that corrects what is really a strange part of our law that does not allow the removal of someone who is under indictment.”
The Post reported Wednesday that Hochul faces steep opposition from members of her own party — especially in the state Senate — as she lobbies legislative leaders to take action on the issue before the state Board of Elections finalizes the primary ballot in early May.
State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins Stewart-Cousins (D-Westchester) requested that state Senate Finance Committee Chair Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) refrain from introducing Paulin’s bill.
That came after a rep for Stewart-Cousins said last week, “There are no plans to take up these bills.”
Some Assembly members, like Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan), told The Post Wednesday that they support Hochul’s push to change state election law ahead of the rapidly approaching primary, while others say it is rubbing them the wrong way.
“It’s a clusterf–k,” another Assembly Democrat previously said.
Adams, Hochul and Albany Democrats who favor the legislative measure are running out of time to yank Benjamin from the June 28 primary contest; the state Board of Elections certifies the primary ballot on May 4.
And Adams’ attempts to sway state lawmakers have previously hit roadblocks.
When he traveled to Albany to convince state lawmakers to change controversial, progressive pretrial policies, Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D- The Bronx) said his proposals were dead on arrival.
Albany politicians ended up tweaking the 2019 bail reforms and other criminal justice measures, while omitting the “dangerousness” standard Adams sought. After the process, Adams declared “there’s more to be done” on bail reform.
And when lawmakers and the governor belatedly finalized the state budget, legislative leaders did not grant Adams an extension of mayoral control of New York City public schools he publicly sought and for which Hochul advocated.