16 hopefuls for AG spot
ALBANY — A sitting congressman, several state lawmakers, a former top aide to disgraced exGov. Eliot Spitzer and other high-profile politicians are among those seeking appointment by the Legislature as interim state attorney general.
In all, 16 people who filed applications will be considered by a panel created by Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to serve out the remaining few months of the unexpired term of disgraced former Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who resigned abruptly last week in the wake of accusations by four women whom he allegedly assaulted.
By law, the Legislature must pick someone to fill out Schneiderman’s term, which runs through the end of the year. But there’s no time frame to do so.
Among the applicants to be interviewed on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the list released by the Assembly Saturday, is Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, a Hudson Valley Democrat who in 2006 lost a primary race for attorney general to current Gov. Cuomo.
Also looking for the nod is Barbara Underwood, the state solicitor general who was elevated to acting attorney general last week after Schneiderman’s resignation. A host of people, including Cuomo, have indicated they’d prefer her to serve until the end of the year while voters in November get to pick the next full-time AG. Underwood said she won’t run for a full four-year term.
Democratic state Assembly members Daniel O’Donnell of Manhattan and Thomas Abinanti of Westchester County have also applied — as has Leecia Eve, a lawyer appointed last year to the Port Authority by Cuomo. She’s also a former lieutenant governor wannabe, policy adviser to then-Sen. Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, and daughter of retired longtime Assemblyman Arthur Eve of Buffalo.
Others on the list are Lloyd Constantine, who served as a Spitzer top aide, Manhattan state Supreme Court appellate division Judge Doris Ling-Cohan, and Elizabeth Holtzman, a former congresswoman, city controller and Brooklyn district attorney.
Also submitting an application is David Yassky, the former chair of the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission and an ex-city councilman from Brooklyn who recently announced he’s resigning as dean of Pace University Law School over conflicts with the faculty.
Other names are: Mina Quinto Malik, a Harvard Law School lecturer whose sexual harassment claim while the executive director of the city Civilian Complaint Review Board led to the board chair’s resignation; Rockland County Attorney Michael Humbach, who previously announced he’s seeking the GOP nomination for attorney general; Michael Diederich Jr., a lawyer from Rockland County; Nicole Gueron, a founding partner at Clarick Gueron Reisbaum who once served as the deputy chief trial counsel to Cuomo when he was attorney general; and lawyers Jennifer Stergion, Jose Fernandez, who was a one-time assistant secretary of state for economic, energy and business affairs in the Barack Obama administration, and Alex Zapesochny.
Some of the bigger names who are forgoing the process but might try to get on the November ballot include City Controller Letitia James, former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-Nassau County), and state Sens. Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) and Todd Kaminsky (D-Nassau County).
The state Democratic and Republican parties will both hold their nominating conventions May 23 and 24.