The Fall and Fallout of Brian Benjamin
Brian Benjamin has exited the New York political scene.
As I reported in The Wall Street Journal with Cory Ramey and Jim Fanelli, Benjamin resigned his position as lieutenant governor Tuesday less than 12 hours after he surrendered to federal agents and was charged in a bribery scheme. The Harlem Democrat is accused of procuring a $50,000 state grant in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from a real-estate developer. He has pleaded not guilty and his lawyers said the state grant — which was never disbursed — was to buy supplies for public-school children.
But Benjamin’s indictment prompted a swirl of questions for Gov. Kathy Hochul, who tapped him in Septemberto be her running mate. She expressed “utmost confidence” in him just days before his arrest, even after reports that he had been subpoenaed as part of an investigation into his campaign fund-raising.
Hochul’s Republican and Democratic opponents pounced, saying the entire episode showed a lack of judgment. Political veterans said it too early to know the impact of Benjamin’s arrest on the governor’s campaign for her first full term, but it was certainly a distraction.
“Running for governor is a road strewn with rocks and other obstacles in the best of years. She just had a boulder dropped on her path,” Lawrence Levy, executive dean of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University, told me.
And because New York’s election laws are one of the things that make it the Empire State, it will be difficult to get Benjamin off the ballot for the June 28 Democratic primary. Candidates for governor and lieutenant governor run separately in party primaries, before the winners forged into a general election ticket. Benjamin could be removed from the ballot if he dies, moves out of state or is nominated for another office, election lawyers said. This means Hochul may end up on a ticket with someone who is now campaigning against her — Ana Maria Archila and Diana Reyna, the respective running mates of Jumaane Williams and Tom Suozzi.
The governor said she was considering all her options, and was starting the process of determining who could replace Benjamin in his governmental role. She indicated the vetting would take a bit longer this time around.
In a New York Times profile published this weekend, Jessica Bennett describes Hochul bobbing, weaving and (at times) rising around men in ethically compromised situations over the course of her career. The news about Benjamin, Bennett writes, can be distilled into, “Another man, another scandal, another day in New York politics.”
“She is trying to ventilate sexism and bullying out of the political ether — creating breathable air for women at the top of one of the most powerful states in the nation, all while governing,” Bennett writes of Hochul. “Whether she succeeds will help determine whether she gets to keep her job.”
HAPPY Easter and Passover to all who celebrate. In my house it means kielbasa and a Cadbury Crème egg.
THE WEEK AHEAD: A judge may appoint an outside expert to start drawing new districts lines for the state Assembly and Senate as well as the U.S. House of Representatives. Eric Adams will come off Covid quarantine, which kept him isolated during a shocking mass shooting and manhunt last week. Hochul is expected to keep up her post-budget tour. [Corrected 4/17, 6:17 p.m.]
THE QUESTION: Who was the first woman elected lieutenant governor of New York?
Know the answer? Drop me a line at jimmy.vielkind@gmail.com. Or just write with thoughts, feedback or to say hi.
THE LAST ANSWER: The first legal casino in modern New York is Turning Stone, which opened in 1993 in upstate Verona.