Hector LaSalle, Hochul's choice for chief judge, rejected by Senate panel  

ALBANY — State Senate Democrats on Wednesday voted down Gov. Kathy Hochul’s nominee to be New York’s new chief judge, dealing the governor the most significant political loss of her tenure.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, dominated by Hochul's fellow Democrats, voted 10-9 against advancing the nomination of Hector LaSalle, also a Democrat, to a vote of the full Senate.

The Democrats who opposed LaSalle said he was too conservative on issues of labor, abortion and criminal defense or they were opposed to adding another ex-prosecutor to a seven-member bench that has moved to the right recently.

Three Democrats and six Republicans supported the nominee.

Sen. Neil Breslin (D-Albany), considered a swing vote on the committee, captured some of the opposition in saying afterward: "I'm philosophically opposed to prosecutors going on to the higher court because there are a number of them already there and I find they have a predisposition toward the prosecutorial side."
It marked the first time a governor's nominee to the Court of Appeals, New York's highest court, has been defeated by the Senate since the state switched from electing to appointing the seven-member court in the mid-1970s.

It certainly also furthers the intraparty tensions between a moderate Democratic governor and a more progressive, increasingly assertive State Legislature. It could also prompt a lawsuit.

The Hochul administration has asserted that the Judiciary Committee could not block the nomination from going before the full Senate — where LaSalle could succeed with Republican votes — and has suggested it could sue to force a vote, according to sources.

The governor herself hinted as much in a statement in which called Wednesday's unprecedented four-hour Senate hearing unfair.

"While this was a thorough hearing, it was not a fair one, because the outcome was predetermined," Hochul said. "Several senators stated how they were going to vote before the hearing even began — including those who were recently given seats on the newly expanded Judiciary Committee. While the committee plays a role, we believe the Constitution requires action by the full Senate."

Historically, judicial confirmations in Albany have been a speedy, rubber-stamp affairs. But this political battle royale had been brewing since December, when Hochul nominated LaSalle to succeed Janet DiFiore, who retired last summer — over the strong objections of progressive groups and unions.

It came to a head in a hearing that began at 10 a.m. and ran past 2 p.m., and, instead of taking place in a small committee room that holds about 40, was moved a legislative hearing room that seats hundreds. Many opponents and supporters were kept out because of overcapacity issues.

During the proceeding, many Democrats said they believed LaSalle, 54, who is a midlevel appellate judge and former Suffolk County prosecutor, was too conservative to be appointed the state's chief judge.

They also called him anti-union. They chided him for accepting the cross-endorsement of the Conservative Party, although he noted he'd also been endorsed by the liberal Working Families too.

Perhaps most importantly, Democrats said they wanted to change the direction of a court that, dominated by ex-prosecutors, has moved to the right over the last decade.

"While I appreciate Justice LaSalle’s responses to the committee’s wide-ranging questions, his answers demonstrated his overly narrow views of the rule of law and the role of courts in our society," said Sen. Sean Ryan (D-Buffalo), another potential swing vote.

Sen. Kevin Thomas (D-Levittown), the lone Long Island Democrat on the panel, was one of three Democrats to support the nomination. 

Hochul, entering her second full year in office, had selected LaSalle in part because he would have become the first Latino chief judge in New York state history.

LaSalle — and his supporters — said critics maligned him and distorted his records. He said their claims of him being "pro-prosecution" ignored others in which he found prosecutorial misconduct or wrongful arrests.

In an impassioned testimony, LaSalle went further than any other Court of Appeals nominee to spell out his support for abortion rights and organized labor. He talked of growing up as a "working-class kid" in Brentwood and walking the picket line with his grandmother, who worked at an Entenmann's bakery. 

 "When you are talking about labor, those are the people who raised me," said LaSalle, an East Northport resident. "I'm a working-class kid. I didn't go to private school. I didn't fly in from another state." 

Vincent Bonventre, a Albany Law School professor who has studied the court, said no recent nominee went to such lengths "to make clear that as a personal matter, he is very much pro-choice, pro-labor and pro-right-to-counsel." 

Bonventre believes the law gives Hochul an avenue to sue to force the full Senate to vote on LaSalle. 

Asked about the prospect, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers): "I hope not. It’s a clear rejection." 

She said the law now calls for the governor and the Commission on Judicial Nomination, which screens candidates, to launch a new review for chief judge.

With Michael Gormley

Check back for updates on this developing story.

By Yancey Roy

yancey.roy@newsday.com@yanceyroy