Albany lawmakers are plotting to keep a critical House seat vacant until June or even later in an effort to thwart President Trump’s legislative agenda.
Lawmakers from both the state Assembly and Senate met Friday to discuss changes to the state’s election law that would allow the governor to delay special elections and push off any pending ones until the June primaries — or even the general election in November.
The dead-of-night discussions ostensibly were about how to save time and money by consolidating elections into a single day — but in actual fact appear targeted at the soon-to-be vacated seat of GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik.
Stefanik — who Trump tapped to be the US Ambassador to the United Nations — is expected to resign her seat to take up the post in the coming days. The vacancy will create headaches for House Republicans who are already struggling to manage a razor-thin majority stocked with frequently unwieldy members.
Stefanik’s district is in deep red north country and she would almost certainly be replaced by another Republican in a special election.
Under the current law, when Stefanik officially resigns, Gov. Hochul must declare a special election within 10 days and the election must take place 80 to 90 days after that declaration.
The Democratic-dominated state legislature, however, could rewrite the rules.
Minority Republicans have little power in either chamber.
Such a measure could come as soon as Monday.
A Hochul spokesman told Gothamist that she “believes it’s critical to increase voter turnout and reduce the cost of election administration and she would support legislation that achieves that goal.”
The proposed election change has Republicans — who control the House with a 218-215 majority, the smallest margin in a century — frothing.
“This is corruption, the corruption of absolute power,” western New York GOP Rep. Nick Langworthy told The Post.
Added Rep. Mike Lawler (R-Rockland County): “This would be an outrageous abuse of power and expose Democrats hypocrisy when it comes to ‘protecting democracy.’ Kathy Hochul should make clear this will not happen.”
Rep. Stefanik did not respond to request for comment from The Post.
