Cuomo Expects To Meet Friday Deadline For Setting Election Date To Replace Grimm
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he expects to set a deadline for a congressional special election by Friday, meeting a deadline set this week by a federal judge.
The special election would decide the replacement for Michael Grimm, the Staten Island congessman who resigned last month after pleading guilty to tax evasion.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Jack B. Weinstein in Brooklyn said he would set an election date if the governor did not do so himself by noon Friday.
"The right to representation in government is the central pillar of democracy in this country. Unjustified delay in filling a vacancy cannot be countenanced," Weinstein wrote in his decision in response to a lawsuit brought by voters.
Cuomo has griped about the cost of the special election, WCBS 880's Paul Murnane reported.
The governor said he expects at least one more office to become vacant and wants to spread out the cost of the vote.
"From their point of view, taxes don't matter. Spend, spend, spend," Cuomo said Wednesday in the Bronx. "I understand that. That's why New York is one of the highest-taxed states in the United States. Cost isn't a matter, unless you are paying."
When asked, Cuomo couldn't say how much the special election will cost.
Grimm pleaded guilty to tax evasion in December. An indictment charged him with, as owner of a Manhattan restaurant, underreporting more than $1 million in wages and receipts to evade payroll, income and sales taxes, partly by paying immigrant workers, some of them in the country illegally, in cash. He is scheduled to be sentenced in June.
Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan is all but locked in his place on the Republican and Conservative party lines.
The Brooklyn and Staten Island Democratic Party bosses are reportedly chosing between Brooklyn Councilman Vincent Gentile, Brooklyn Assemblyman William Colton, Staten Island union activist Robert Holst and First Vice Chairman of the Staten Island Democratic Party John Sollazzo.