Even with resignation, Benjamin is on the primary ballot with no simple way for Dems to remove him

ALBANY — Even though he has resigned as New York's lieutenant governor, Brian Benjamin is still on the primary ballot with no simple way for Democrats to remove him.

And that could potentially saddle Gov. Kathy Hochul with quite the election-year liability.

Federal officials on Tuesday announced the indictment of Benjamin on corruption charges, including bribery, wire fraud and falsifying records in connection with illegal campaign donations. He pleaded not guilty.

About four hours later, Hochul announced she had accepted Benjamin's resignation.

But a huge potential poitical problem remains for the governor. Benjamin is on the Democratic primary ballot for lieutenant governor and given it is just 10 weeks away, he can't be removed easily. Nudging him off would require some obvious political machinations and cooperation from the lieutenant governor himself, officials and election-law experts said.

Here’s why:

In February, Democrats, at their state convention, officially made Benjamin their designee for lieutenant governor.

Benjamin could have declined the designation — after all, the federal probe had been underway for months and he already had interviewed with investigators.

Declining a nomination is a tactic political parties deploy when they want to remove someone from the ballot after he or she has been nominated.

But Benjamin didn’t and the deadline for declining is long past, said John Conklin, a spokesman for the New York State Board of Elections.

Further, the deadline for getting a possible substitute into statewide primaries expired last week.

Once designated, a person can be removed from the ballot if he or she dies or moves out of state.

A third way involves a bit of political machinations: Benjamin could be nominated as an independent candidate for another office, say, Assembly, Senate or Congress, said John Ciampoli, a Republican attorney who has litigated many election law cases.

Under that scenario, Benjamin could accept the nomination for another office and then decline the Democratic designation for lieutenant governor, Ciampoli said. A Democratic source concurred.

In 2018, for example, Cynthia Nixon lost the Democratic gubernatorial nomination to Andrew M. Cuomo but had secured the Working Families Party ballot line. Following a political deal, Nixon ran for a state Assembly seat, clearing the way for the WFP to give Cuomo its line.

As of now, Benjamin is competing in a Democratic primary for lieutenant governor with two others who are aligned with Hochul opponents: Diana Reyna, who is running with Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove); and Ana Maria Archila, who is teamed with New York Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.

The primaries are run separately and more than once in New York history, a gubernatorial candidate has had to run with someone he didn’t originally choose. Most recently, in 2010, Carl Paladino ran for governor on the Republican ticket with Greg Edwards, not Paladino’s original choice for a running mate.

If Archila or Reyna wins the June primary, either could end up as Hochul’s running mate in November, if Hochul wins her own Democratic primary.

With Michael Gormley

By Yancey Roy

yancey.roy@newsday.com@yanceyroy