Don’t just take our word for it: see this editorial from today’s Daily News

Albany Dems steal a House seat: Leaving Stefanik’s upstate district vacant until November is wrong

Having tried to cheat voters during the 2022 redistricting of congressional maps to gain more House seats (which was thankfully blocked by state courts), Democrats in the state Legislature are again using underhanded methods to stymie voters by plotting to leave a GOP-held seat vacant for close to a year. Should they pass the legislation as expected today, Gov. Hochul must veto it. If she wrongly goes along with the dirty deal, then the Republicans should take them to federal court, where the Dems will surely lose.

At issue is the North Country constituency represented this past decade by Elise Stefanik. She was elected to a sixth term last November and took her seat on Jan. 3, but President Trump also nominated her to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. She aced her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and in short order will be approved by the full Senate. At that point, she would resign her House seat.

Hochul would then within 10 days issue a proclamation scheduling a special election between 70 and 80 days later, so maybe mid-May, depending on Stefanik’s resignation date.

However, the bill that was introduced Friday night by state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie also lets the governor set the special on the date of the general election, Nov. 4, keeping the seat empty for perhaps nine months.

As the House Republicans under Speaker Mike Johnson have a tiny minority, a missing Republican from New York would serve the Democrats and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who has been talking to his old pals in Albany. But the scheme is unfair to the New Yorkers who would be unrepresented for so long.

There have always been two problems with special elections in this state for Congress and the state Legislature itself. One is that the specials are wholly undemocratic without any primaries and where the party bosses tap the candidates. The other problem is that standalone specials add costs for local Boards of Elections and contribute to voter fatigue.

Once the governor had unlimited leeway as to when to issue proclamations on specials. We urged then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo to avoid specials whenever he could and let the normal primary and general election proceed. That allowed for voter input and saved administration costs.

Cuomo listened and starting in 2013, he would often let vacancies in the state Senate and Assembly get filled with open primaries. However, in 2015 when the Staten Island congressional seat became vacant, Cuomo was sued in federal court and lost. Brooklyn Federal Judge Jack Weinstein ruled on Feb. 17 that Cuomo had three days to act or Weinstein would. Cuomo relented and set a May 5 special.

When Cuomo was weakened by scandal in the summer of 2021, the Legislature pushed through a terrible bill that forced the governor on to a tight timetable with quick specials. Now, because it suits them, they want to modify their handiwork.

We would be happy if they allowed primaries, but they aren’t doing that and the consolidation option with the November election is really only for Congress, as any Albany vacancies must occur between late July and late September only.

In the meantime, even after she is Senate confirmed, Stefanik should not resign her House seat and serve as acting UN ambassador until the courts can throw out the new law.