Gov. Hochul ‘weighs options’ after her New York Chief Justice nominee Hector LaSalle is rejected by fellow Democrats

ALBANY. Governor Hochul can’t let her election to head the Court of Appeal go without a fight.

The day after the governor’s Democratic colleagues in the State Senate rejected Hector LaSalle’s candidacy for Chief Justice of New York, Hochul on Thursday refused to rule out going to court.

“We’re certainly weighing all of our options,” Hochul said after the East Harlem event.

On Wednesday, the Democratic-led Senate Judiciary Committee voted against LaSalle after a five-hour hearing in which the 54-year-old lawyer dismissed claims he was too conservative to lead the state’s sprawling judiciary.

“I think yesterday all New Yorkers had the opportunity to listen to an exceptionally qualified lawyer who shares the values ​​of New Yorkers; for choice, for work, for LGBTQ people,” said Hochul.

“I think he did an incredible job and we are certainly looking into all of our options,” she added.

The governor and Lasalle’s supporters argue that the state constitution requires a full Senate vote on nominations.

Sen. Brad Hoylman-Segal (D-Manhattan), chairman of the judiciary committee, stuck to his belief that the Senate had fulfilled its constitutional obligations, calling possible lawsuits a waste of “time, energy, and money.”

“I hope we can move on quickly,” he told WNYC’s Brian Lehrer. “I’d like to think it’s a bump in the road. Democrats can disagree, and we can also overcome our differences and hopefully work for the common good.”

The Senate has never rejected a governor’s choice for Chief Justice, as the current nominating system has been in place since the 1970s.

LaSalle’s nomination last month led to a drawn-out public battle over his judicial record as progressive lawmakers, labor leaders and lawyers called him a poor candidate for the state’s chief justice.

Critics have argued that the former prosecutor’s court records showed him to be anti-union, anti-reproductive rights, and generally too conservative for the position. More than a dozen Senate Democrats have openly opposed the nomination in recent weeks.

LaSalle, a Long Island native, is currently the Presiding Judge of the 2nd Division of Appeals in Brooklyn and would have been the first Hispanic to head the Court of Appeals if confirmed.

Hochul attributed the defeat in part to Senate Democrats increasing the number of members serving on the Judiciary Committee from 15 to 19 ahead of the vote.

“I think if you look at the original composition of this committee before it was changed, you will see that there were enough votes to move on,” she said.

Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins ​​(D-Yonkers) has repeatedly pointed out that enough members privately disagreed with LaSalle that he would likely have been rejected by the entire 63-seat House.

Democrats have an overwhelming majority of 42 in the Senate.