By: Ilana Siyance

On Monday, Republican Rep. Mike Lawler vowed to push for a federal racketeering probe against New York Democrats’ plot to keep an upstate congressional seat vacant — in a bid to impair the Republican majority. “I am going to be requesting that the Department of Justice open up a RICO investigation into New York State, because this is as corrupt a state as we have seen,” said Lawler, who represents of 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,” Lawler added.

Lawler isn’t alone. As reported by the NY Post, a growing number of high-profile Republicans are speaking out against Albany Democrats for trying to change state election laws to keep the upstate District 21 seat, currently held by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), unoccupied after her expected resignation.

The 40-year-old Harvard grad, who has held the congress seat since 2015, was nominated by President Trump as the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and is set to resign any day now. In a bid to thwart President Trump’s legislative agenda, Democratic lawmakers from the state Assembly and Senate met on Friday to discuss making changes to New York state’s election law which would allow the governor to delay special elections until the June primaries, or even till the general election in November—leaving the critical deep-red seat vacant. The discussions were held under the guise of saving time and money by consolidating elections into a single day.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) also spoke out against the plot. “Instead of working to address high costs, taxes, or fees, the illegal immigration crisis, crime, antisemitism on college campuses, or other priorities — New York Democrats are instead working feverishly to silence the voices and needs of more than 750,000 citizens in New York’s 21st Congressional District,” Johnson seethed. “In an open display of political corruption, they are aiming to change the election rules to add a long delay in filling the NY-21 seat.”

He added, “Gov. Hochul and other top Democrats are willing accomplices in this delay scheme because they know the seat will be filled by another Republican. We will continue to hold these politicians accountable and challenge their corrupt plan so that hardworking families across Upstate New York and the North Country get the representation they deserve, and House Republicans can deliver on our America-First mandate.”

Per the Post, the current law stipulates that Gov. Hochul is to declare a special election within 10 days of Stefanik’s resignation, and the election must take place 80 to 90 days after that declaration. The upstate district 21 has been a longtime deep-red county and is expected to elect another Republican to replace Stefanik. If the rules are re-written, allowing for no special election, but rather awaiting the next election, this would hamper the Republican president’s ability to pass new legislation, as the Republicans only control the House with a narrow 218-215 majority— the smallest margin in a century.

“This is corruption, the corruption of absolute power,” said western New York GOP Rep. Nick Langworthy.