Lawmakers set to interview attorney general hopefuls
ALBANY, N.Y. » In New York state government news, Democrats who control the Assembly have released details of the interview process for selecting a new attorney general after Eric Schneiderman abruptly resigned amid allegations he physically abused four women.
A look at stories making news:
Applicants for AG
Applicants for attorney general had until 5 p.m. this past Friday to submit a resume and cover letter to the speaker’s legislative counsel. A committee of legislators will review the materials, and then public interviews will be held in Albany on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Under state law, the Legislature has the authority to appoint a new attorney general with a joint vote by the Assembly and Senate. With Democrats holding the overall majority, the next attorney general is likely to be a Democrat, as is Schneiderman.
Senate Republicans have declined to participate in the process. GOP lawmakers want Acting Attorney General Barbara Underwood to stay in place until the end of the year.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie’s office said the names of the applicants aren’t officially being released before Monday, but numerous potential candidates for serving out the last 7 1/2 months of Schneiderman’s second four-year term have emerged.
Those who have publicly expressed interest include Zephyr Teachout, a Fordham law professor who ran for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2014, and Sen. Michael Gianaris, a Queens Democrat who served 10 years in the Assembly before being elected to the Senate in 2010.
The LCA show must go on
Meanwhile, Schneiderman’s abrupt resignation forced the Legislative Correspondents Association to do some last-minute script revisions for the group’s annual state government-spoofing show, which ended with surprise guest Cynthia Nixon providing the rebuttal.
One of the musical bits written weeks ago featured two reporters portraying Schneiderman and Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli while singing “we’re so lame” to the tune of the 1972 Carly Simon hit “You’re So Vain.” The lyrics painted the two elected Democrats as so low-profile and unworthy of spoofing that “they almost did this whole show without us.”
About an hour before the LCA troupe’s dress rehearsal Monday night in Albany, The New Yorker posted its Schneiderman story. The show’s scriptwriters hastily rewrote the song for a single character: Democrat Chuck Schumer, the U.S. Senate minority leader.
It was too late to reprint the program for the 118th LCA Show staged the following night, so it still had Schneiderman and DiNapoli listed as characters.
The show was capped by Nixon, the actor and activist challenging Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary. With Cuomo declining to give a live rebuttal at the show named after his new puppy — “Captain: The Dog That Saved The Executive Chamber!” — it was up to the “Sex and the City” star to offer some zingers.