“When Albany Democrats began discussing a rewrite of New York’s special election law in recent days, seemingly out of the blue, they framed it publicly as a matter of good governance,” the New York Times reports.
“But behind the scenes, their motivation was far more political, and was driven by Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the top House Democrat, who saw an opportunity to manipulate the law to slow Republicans’ agenda in Washington.
”“In a series of phone calls and a private lunch on Friday at a Manhattan steakhouse with Gov. Kathy Hochul, he aggressively pushed for legislation that would give the governor far more time to call special elections for unoccupied legislative seats.”