Heastie, Morelle and Wright Top Candidates to Replace Silver (Updated)

UPDATE:  Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver still hasn’t announced that he will resign and members of the Assembly are starting to seriously consider moving to oust him from the position. To do that, members will have to call a session—likely to happen Monday—to change house rules since Silver has already been elected as speaker for the 2015 legislative session.

Once they change the house rules, Silver can choose to resign or the Assembly Democrats can then vote to remove him as speaker. Sources say the changes to the rules are so serious that Assembly lawyers have been brought up to ensure the changes cannot be legally challenged. 

Even if Silver does end up stepping down voluntarily Assembly Democrats still must decide who will replace him—and sources say lawmakers have yet to coalesce around a single candidate. The most likely choices have been winnowed down to three veteran lawmakers: Joseph Morelle, the Assembly majority leader who hails from the Rochester area; Assemblyman Keith Wright of Harlem, the leader of the Manhattan Democrats; and Assemblyman Carl Heastie, who chairs the Bronx Democratic Party.

On Monday night, Assembly Democrats met as a conference for about six hours before agreeing that Silver must resign as speaker after his arrest on corruption charges last week, with the possibility that he may return if he is acquitted of his charges.

Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh told reporters that the rank and file have enough votes to oust him if he refuses to step down, but that he did not believe it would come to that. 

However, as of last night, Silver did not appear to be ready to resign. “I am the speaker,” Silver told reporters. “I’m standing. And I’m going to be standing for a long time.”

Silver said he will speak to Assembly Democrats today when they conference at noon, in part to decide who will become speaker when Silver potentially resigns or is ousted—whichever way it happens, sources say Silver will no longer be speaker by the end of the day.

As majority leader, Morelle is second in line and would become acting speaker once Silver steps down. He has the support of the suburban members as well as the Cuomo administration, although it is unclear whether that helps or hurts him, since members do not want a speaker who is too close to the governor.

Wright was one of the first Assembly members to publicly call for Silver’s resignation, coming out against the speaker on Monday after he was left out of a proposed five-member leadership team that would have led the conference while Silver battled in court.

Wright has long been an influential member of the Assembly and has positioned himself as a “moderate” candidate in this situation. He also has ties to the governor, having served as co-chair of the state Democratic Party until last year.

Heastie has the support of many Queens and Bronx members, but there some concern among members that he is too entrenched in machine politics and is too similar a politician and leader to Silver.

Sources told City & State that Assembly members are being cautious on their next choice of speaker and do not want to wind up with another leader who may have legal problems in the future.

According to the Assembly’s rules, whenever there is a speaker who steps down, a replacement must be voted on the next time the Assembly is on the floor. If Assembly Democrats do not have a candidate picked by then, the Republican conference could force a vote and potentially throw the Assembly Democrats into disarray, so it appears likely during the conference today that a candidate will be picked.

Check back here for more updates as they develop.