By: Don Driggers
With scandals piling up and members of his own party calling for investigations there is a quite a possibility the Governor Cuomo may indeed have to step down, leaving the Lieutenant Governor to take the helm.
This would not be the first time in NY state in recent memory the governor might step down. The 54th Governor of NY, Elliot Spitzer, was forced to resign after a sex scandal. On March 10, 2008, The New York Times reported that Spitzer had patronized a high-priced escort service called Emperors Club VIP and met for two hours with a $1,000-an-hour call girl. This information originally came to the attention of authorities from a federal wiretap. During a six-month span, Spitzer had at least seven or eight liaisons with women from the agency and paid more than $15,000. Within days of the scandal, Spitzer resigned, and LT Governor David Patterson took the helm.
If Cuomo is forced to resign, Lt. Governor Kathleen Courtney Hochul would become the Governor of NY. She began her political career in May 2003, when Erie County Clerk David Swarts appointed Hochul as his deputy, When Swarts left office in 2007, Governor Eliot Spitzer appointed Hochul to fill the post.
Hochul ran in the four-way special election race of May 24, 2011 to fill the seat in New York’s 26th congressional district left vacant by the resignation of Republican Chris Lee, she won a four way race, but was defeated in the 2012 election, after Hochul’s district was renumbered as the 27th district.
She became the Lieutenant governor when Robert Duffy announced in 2014 that he would not be a candidate for reelection as lieutenant governor.
Hochul is considered quite conservative for a Democrat and actually received an NRA endorsement in 2012.
NY Post reported:
Under state law, Hochul, 62, would succeed Cuomo as governor should he resign or be impeached.
“Kathy is absolutely ready,” Erie County Democratic Party chairman Jeremy Zellner told The Post on Sunday.
“There’s one word that describes our lieutenant governor: tenacious,” continued Zellner, pointing to Hochul’s ability to appeal to rural and urban Democrats alike. “She’s been a bulldog from day one. She knows what needs to get done for the people of New York.”
The Post went on:
Now in her second term, Hochul has remained relatively anonymous in the often-thankless job, not even earning a mention in Cuomo’s memoir on the handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
As calls mounted, however, for an independent probe into the sexual harassment allegations against Cuomo, Hochul spoke out to echo her fellow lawmakers in the sentiment.
“Everyone deserves to have their voice heard and taken seriously,” said Hochul.
