Gov. Kathy Hochul is seen Wednesday announcing a $150 million investment to connect the Long Island Rail Road’s Ronkonkoma Station with the proposed North Terminal at MacArthur Airport. (Provided photo — Susan Watts/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)

A bill that would radically extend the timeline for the Governor to set a special election to fill a vacant Congress seat in New York was paused on Monday, and on Tuesday, state leaders seemed to disagree on who actually initiated the bill or pushed to pause its advancement.

In news conferences in New York City and Albany, respectively, Gov. Kathy. Hochul and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers, seemed to offer two different explanations for how the bill was put together and then killed within three days.

If passed, the bill would have allowed the Governor to choose to schedule any Congressional special elections on the pre-set general election date of that year–or stick to a marginal tweak of the current system that would require the Governor to schedule a special election within 85-95 days of the vacancy happening, a choice made at their own discretion.

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Stefanik replacement

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While none of the bill’s supporters directly referenced the race to replace Congresswoman Elise Stefanik in the 21st Congressional District, that is the only Congressional special election anticipated this year for New York. The Congresswoman is set to be the next U.N. Ambassador from the United States, but her final confirmation has been delayed until April to allow for other vacancies in the House to be filled before she leaves. An election to replace her cannot be called until she formally steps down from office.

Sources close to discussions between Hochul and the White House told multiple outlets, including the Watertown Daily Times on Monday, that the bill was being used as leverage in talks with President Donald J. Trump over the future of congestion pricing in Manhattan–the toll charged to drivers entering the densest part of Manhattan that the President has said he plans to unilaterally cancel. The idea was that Hochul, by extending this special election timeline, could hold the Republican-controlled House back from achieving its goals.

Stefanik is a reliable Republican vote, and while there are two other vacant seats in the House likely to be filled by Republicans in April, she’s an important vote in the current three-vote majority the Republicans have. Internal disagreements or lone members opposing legislation could be a blockade to Republican governance, and keeping a safe Republican seat like NY-21 open for longer makes achieving legislative goals harder.

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‘It began with her’

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In Albany, Stewart-Cousins said the Legislature was following along with requests from the Governor about the bill. She said lawmakers began discussing the bill a few weeks ago–which would be after it became clear NY-21 was going to see a special election this year–and that the Governor knew about the legislation and was also interested in passing it.

“The governor certainly knew about it,” she said. “The governor was interested in looking at having more time in terms of an election.”

“It began with her,” she added later. “And if she’s interested in holding it, it’s fine. It’s okay.”

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Backing off

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Stewart-Cousins said the Legislature had followed a request from the Governor to back off passing the bill, but she wasn’t sure what motivated the request. “I honestly don’t know,” she said when asked what had changed. “I know that, at this point, there is a desire to hold off.” But she said lawmakers are working together and are on the same page on this issue.

Hochul didn’t seem to express that same position when asked about the situation by reporters in New York City. At a press conference discussing her response to a rate hike announced by the NYC utilities company Con Edison, Hochul took questions on the special elections bill–and seemed to distance herself from the entire ordeal.

“I don’t introduce bills, that’s not the role of the governor,” she said. “When bills are introduced, and passed, and they get on the pile on my desk with about 800 to 1000 bills, depending on the year, that’s when I pay attention to them,” she added when pressed.

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Hochul election

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Hochul did say she believes a longer election timeframe would suit voters better–and referenced her own special election victory in 2011, saying she thought a longer election timeframe would have suited voters better that year. Notably, Hochul’s special election was called under older legislation that allowed the Governor to schedule a special election whenever they wanted. That law was changed after 2014, when former Governor Andrew M. Cuomo opted to leave a number of legislative seats open for an extended length of time, rather than call an election to replace them.

The Senate Majority Leader on Tuesday didn’t shut the door on reviving the special elections bill in the future. “This is something that our conference was willing to do,” she said, when asked if she would bring the bill back to the floor if Hochul requested it.

The Governor’s office did not return a request for comment by press time Tuesday.

One North Country lawmaker, Senator Mark Walczyk, R-Watertown, who is the senior Republican on the Senate Elections Committee, said he believes the link between the Governor and the legislation is undeniable.

“She got cold feet, and she backed off,” he said on Tuesday.

Walczyk was one of the many Republicans to criticize this push to change the special elections schedule. He noted that no good government groups, no organizations representing elections commissioners or staff members, and no voters’ rights groups had been consulted with during the drafting of the bill.

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Using leverage

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What was reported, however, indicates that U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-Bronx, met with Hochul in the days before rumors began to spread about a change to the special election timeline. As sources have said, the Hochul administration was attempting to use the bill as leverage in wider conversations with Washington Republicans, especially Trump, over congestion pricing.

“Hochul wanted to make it seem like she had leverage in a negotiation with Trump,” Walczyk said. “The author of The Art of the Deal. She’s never going to out-maneuver Trump.”

He said he wasn’t overly concerned that the bill could come back up in the future–he said he sees the reversal as proof that the bill can’t move forward, but he and Republicans would push to combat any attempts to extend the length of time a district will go without representation in New York.