Dems try to mend fences
Gov, Senate chief say judge battle won’t taint budget talks
ALBANY — Gov. Hochul’s fellow Democrats handed her a major early term defeat when they formally rejected her chief judge pick, setting the table for potentially strained relations ahead of the state’s April 1 fiscal deadline.
The unprecedented rejection of Hector LaSalle, Hochul’s nominee to lead the Court of Appeals, doesn’t bode well for the governor as she navigates negotiations over her $227 billion budget blueprint, according to veteran political strategist Hank Sheinkopf.
“This is a clear case where the Legislature ... decided to say to the governor: ‘We’re in charge, not you,’ ” Sheinkopf said. “The question is how does it work itself out going forward.
“The Legislature has to be convinced they have the governor at a disadvantage,” he added.
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers), however, sought to tamp down the prospect of any lingering fallout and said both she and the governor are focused on the state spending plan.
“We both understand the importance of being able to tackle the issue at hand, which, again, is this budget, and we know that it’s important that we work together and we are committed to doing that,” Stewart-Cousins said.
The bruising battle over LaSalle, who faced fierce opposition from progressive Dems and labor leaders, could impact a host of policy and spending measures as Hochul seeks to convince the Legislature to revisit bail reform, lift the charter school cap and overhaul the state’s approach to housing as part of her first budget since narrowly winning a full term in office.
Stewart-Cousins and others have expressed reservations about once again amending the state’s bail law without hard data as Hochul wants to remove a central component of the law requiring judges to impose the “least restrictive” means of ensuring defendants return to court.
The governor says she is focused on serious charges and repeat offenders and her proposal has the backing of Mayor Adams, a fellow moderate Democrat who has clashed with progressive members of his own party.
Sheinkopf said while the LaSalle battle may have been a loss for Hochul, she is known to be a fighter and he noted that the outsized power of the governor’s office in the budget process gives her a chance to rebound.
“Good fighters, if they take a lot of punches, go back and retrain for the next fight,” he said. “This is a brawl where the participants are excellent at brawling. The question is how does [Hochul] retool herself to get back ... into the battle.”
The governor, in a pretaped interview aired on WAMC Thursday, echoed Stewart-Cousins’ assertion that she and lawmakers will be able to move past the Court of Appeals clash.
“I’m very able to compartmentalize different issues,” Hochul said. “That’s how I’m changing the culture here in Albany ... that despite some of the disagreements — and some of them are very serious disagreements — that we can still work together on other issues.”
Senate Democrats, meanwhile, still have to contend with a Republican-backed lawsuit, filed last week by Sen. Anthony Palumbo (R-Riverhead) filed over the initial refusal to hold a floor vote on LaSalle’s nomination.
Lawyers for the Dems filed a motion to dismiss the suit following Wednesday’s 39-20 defeat.
“Any further questions related to the Court of Appeals nomination process, and the Senate’s role, are purely academic,” an attorney repping the Dems wrote in the motion. “The court should decline any invitation to provide an opinion that would be purely advisory in nature.”
A hearing is scheduled for Friday in Suffolk County Supreme Court.
Palumbo argued that the vote does not render the suit moot and wants to see court precedent set to ensure that “regardless of what party is in power, nominations need to go to the floor.”