If there was a honeymoon period for the first woman and first upstater in a century to become governor of New York, it ended in a crash of monumental proportions Tuesday afternoon.
Gov. Kathy Hochul now faces the most serious political crisis of her career as she endures a torrent of criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike following the Tuesday arrest and resignation of Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin, her choice for the state’s second spot after she took over for former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in August.
New York Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin has resigned in the wake of his arrest in a federal corruption investigation, creating a political crisis for Gov. Kathy Hochul seven months after she selected Benjamin as a partner to make a fresh start in an office already rocked by scandal. Hochul says Benjamin resigned Tuesday. He was accused in an indictment of participating in a scheme to obtain campaign contributions from a real estate developer in exchange for Benjamin’s agreement to use his influence as a state senator to get a $50,000 grant of state funds for a nonprofit organization the developer controlled. Benjamin pleaded not guilty Tuesday.
“I have accepted Brian Benjamin’s resignation effective immediately,” Hochul said in a statement. “While the legal process plays out, it is clear to both of us that he cannot continue to serve as Lieutenant Governor. New Yorkers deserve absolute confidence in their government, and I will continue working every day to deliver for them.”
Even before Benjamin ended one of the shortest lieutenant governor tenures in state history, Hochul’s opponents pounced after authorities arrested him on charges of trading political favors for campaign contributions. A chorus of demands for Benjamin’s resignation developed, along with questions about her appointment of the Harlem liberal in the first place.
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Rep. Lee Zeldin, the endorsed Republican candidate for governor, emerged as one of the first to say Hochul should demand that her appointed successor resign.
“That would be leadership,” he said. “By the way, that should have already happened.”
Buffalo Democrats appearing at a transit event Tuesday were treading lightly. State Sen. Timothy M. Kennedy and Assembly Majority Leader Crystal D. Peoples-Stokes said they were unfamiliar with all the facts and called it “premature” to offer more comment. But Peoples-Stokes, the Assembly’s second ranking member, nevertheless acknowledged the seriousness of the Benjamin situation just as Hochul was pivoting her attention from a new budget to her own re-election.
“You can’t be under investigation and run for office at the same time,” she said of Benjamin, adding she believed the governor should not be held responsible.
“You cannot hold this against her because she has not done anything wrong,” Peoples-Stokes added.
Still, in a scenario that resembled the summer’s Democratic defections against Cuomo following a series of scandal accusations, some Democrats in the Assembly were beginning to wither by late afternoon. Two members of the Assembly from Albany County, Phil Steck and Patricia Fahy, were seeking the end of Benjamin’s short stint as the state’s second-in-command.
“Given this criminal indictment, I urge Lt. Governor Brian Benjamin to immediately step aside while these charges are pursued so as not to distract from the urgent work ahead,” Fahy said.
Steck, who last August predicted Hochul would prove “very different” from her predecessor, sounded a far different tune on Tuesday.
“The Hochul administration needs to move swiftly to counter the damage done by the Benjamin indictment,” the assemblyman said. “There is a growing perception that this administration is for sale, that it blurs the line between principle and campaign contributions.”
A succession of Democratic state senators, including State Sen. Rachel Ray of Onondaga County, also joined the chorus of concern over Benjamin.
“I firmly believe we need accountability at all levels of government,” she said on Twitter. “These allegations, if true, are inconsistent with the spirit of public service, and I believe that LG Benjamin should resign.”
And significantly, State Sen. Liz Krueger of Manhattan, chairwoman of the Finance Committee, said shortly before the resignation announcement that Benjamin no longer enjoyed public confidence and should resign.
But no other major Democratic officeholders or party officials were weighing in during the hours following the indictment. Even Attorney General Letitia James, in Buffalo on Tuesday to lend support to Starbucks workers and who helped drive Cuomo from office, offered no comment other than: “I was shocked, just like everybody else.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan said Benjamin was arrested on charges of bribery, honest services wire fraud and falsification of records. The arrest follows the indictment of a real estate developer and contributor to his failed bid for New York City comptroller – Gerald Midgol – who was indicted for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft for illegal donations to Benjamin’s campaign.
Democrats challenging Hochul for the party nomination in the June primary revved up criticism already at the center of their campaigns. Rep. Thomas R. Suozzi of Nassau County suddenly basked in new attention despite his low standing in the polls. With his running mate, Diana Reyna, Suozzi reiterated that Hochul exhibits “lack of experience and poor judgement.”
“Hochul’s first decision was to pick her LG, who she entrusted with leading her failed bail reform effort, negotiating the budget and last week said she had the utmost faith in him, despite many reports of investigations into his conduct in office,” they said. “Hochul has fostered a culture of continued corruption, with months of fundraising from pay-to-play insiders and people doing business with the state, and secretive budget deals that resulted in the billion dollar Bills stadium and little else.”
Republicans, vastly outnumbered in New York and unable to elected a governor since George E. Pataki in 2002, adopted an “I told you so” attitude that invoked the scandals engulfing Cuomo just a few months ago.
“She does not possess the judgment nor the moral code to serve as governor,” said state GOP Chairman Nicholas A. Langworthy. “The only way to wipe clean the Cuomo-Hochul stench is to throw the entire corrupt cabal out of office this November.”
And Zeldin convened reporters on a video call to highlight his own choice for lieutenant governor, former NYPD Deputy Inspector Alison Esposito, on a day when a gunman opened fire inside a Brooklyn subway station. He has consistently lambasted Hochul for criminal justice reforms from which she partially retreated during the budget process.
He said his own lieutenant governor nominee, a 24-year police veteran, offered a “contrast that could not be more stark (and a choice between someone) who spent her life enforcing the law or a lieutenant governor who spent his life trying to run away from it.”
Another Republican candidate for governor, former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, noted on Twitter: “On the day of an awful attack that injured many in a Brooklyn subway, @GovKathyHochul’s ‘defund the police’ LG is arrested for a series of crimes.”
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