Sudden resignation spurs speculation on successor
New York attorney general steps down over allegations.
The sudden resignation of Eric Schneiderman, the New York attorney general who stepped down after allegations that he had physically abused multiple women, set off an immediate storm of speculation in New York about his potential successor.
Even before Schneiderman announced his resignation late Monday, just hours after The New Yorker first published the accusations, New York’s political circles were already abuzz with talk of who would replace him — and what would happen to his many legal challenges to the Trump administration.
The remainder of Schneiderman’s term — he had been the heavy favorite to win a third term in November — will be filled by the state Assembly and state Senate, which under New York’s constitution make the choice by joint ballot. That effectively places the decision in the hands of the Assembly, which comprises an overwhelming majority of the state’s legislators and is dominated by Democrats.
“The effective choice is with the speaker,” said Gerald Benjamin, a political science professor at State University of New York at New Paltz, referring to Carl E. Heastie, the leader of the Assembly Democrats.
Names of potential successors proliferated quickly and included Kathleen Rice, a U.S. representative from Long Island who unsuccessfully challenged Schneiderman in the 2010 Democratic primary; Preet Bharara, the former U.S. attorney from Manhattan; Alphonso David, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s chief counsel; Michael Gianaris, a state senator from Queens and chief political strategist for the Democratic conference; Zephyr Teachout, a Fordham Law School professor who ran for governor in 2014; Helene Weinstein, who chairs the Assembly’s Ways and Means Committee; and Benjamin Lawsky, formerly the state’s top financial regulator.
None have publicly expressed interest and it is unclear whether they would also seek to run in the general election in November.
New York Solicitor General Barbara D. Underwood will lead the office in the meantime, according to Amy Spitalnick, a spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office. Underwood, a graduate of Harvard and Georgetown, has argued 20 cases before the Supreme Court and served as a clerk for former Justice Thurgood Marshall.
According to The New Yorker, Schneiderman slapped, choked or spat on at least four women with whom he had been romantically involved, two of whom spoke on the record. The horrific accusations included alcohol-fueled rages, racist remarks, drug abuse and threats — including to kill the women or use his power as the state’s top law enforcement officer against them if they defied him.
Politicians and pundits in both parties joined in swift and unsparing condemnation of Schneiderman. But the conversation quickly turned partisan, given Schneiderman’s meteoric rise as a relentless and outspoken legal foe of Trump who had sued the federal administration more than 100 times over policies ranging from immigration to taxation.
Prominent Republicans nationwide reveled in the news. Donald Trump Jr. mockingly shared several old tweets from the attorney general in which he had denounced the president and expressed solidarity with victims of sexual assault; “This didn’t age well,” he wrote. Kellyanne Conway, the president’s counselor, wrote in a tweet that Schneiderman had been “drunk with power.” By early Tuesday, the president had not commented on Schneiderman’s resignation.
Schneiderman’s fellow Democrats had also called on him to step aside, with Cuomo, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Heastie saying the attorney general was incapable of continuing in his office.