14 September 2021: Hochul Pick for JCOPE Votes to Let Cuomo Keep $5.1M from Book Deal

Hochul ethics panel pick helps Cuomo keep $5.1M from book

Disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo can keep the $5.1 million he made selling his memoir about the coronavirus crisis, the state’s ethics agency narrowly decided Tuesday — when a brand-new member appointed by Gov. Kathy Hochul sided with her predecessor.

Cuomo scored six votes in his favor from members of the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, including Commissioner Randall Hinrichs, a former Suffolk County district administrative judge who Hochul named to the panel shortly before its meeting in Albany.

Other votes for Cuomo came from Commissioner James Dering, a Cuomo appointee who Hochul on Tuesday named JCOPE’s acting chairman, and Commissioner Juanita Newton, who was appointed by Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers).

The three remaining votes all came from commissioners Cuomo appointed before he resigned over a sexual harassment scandal last month....

The JCOPE commissioners voted 7-6 in favor of Lavine’s motion, but it was defeated because the agency’s rules require an eight-vote majority for it to act.

The report describes Hindrich's claim for the reasoning behind his vote:

Despite voting with Cuomo during Tuesday’s JCOPE meeting, Hinrichs, the new Hochul appointee, said, “It seems clear that the issue has to be looked at again.”

But he also said, “I know I haven’t been part of the other meeting to reach the conclusion today, right now, that there were in fact material misrepresentations,” he said.

“From what I heard, they seem to be premature.”

As rationales go, we would describe that as "weasily".

The vote did not go over well with the leading critics of Cuomo's controversial pandemic "leadership" book deal:

Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Queens), a vocal Cuomo critic, said Tuesday’s vote “conveys that Kathy Hochul is not concerned about holding Cuomo accountable or rooting out corruption in Albany.”

“So far, she’s failing to meet the moment that demands full accountability and real transparency,” Kim said.

“Just like Cuomo, she’s trying to govern through headlines instead of cleaning up vestiges of Cuomo that reek of corruption.”

In our view, Kim's assessment is justified. This was an opportunity for Hochul to establish her anti-corruption bonafides, and she chose otherwise through her candidate selection.