Republican Rep. and convicted felon Michael Grimm
On Tuesday, Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY)
plead guilty to falsifying tax returns at his restaurant, but refused to resign from his Staten Island seat. We wondered if Speaker John Boehner would try to pressure the stubborn Grimm into changing his mind, or even try to have him expelled from Congress.
However, it looks like Boehner isn't planning to rally the Orange Army of Darkness to get rid of Grimm. The speaker and the rest of the Republican leadership have said very little about the matter, and don't seem to be in any hurry to deal with the New Yorker. Usually when congressional leaders want a member to bounce, they aren't shy about applying public pressure. For instance, when former Staten Island Republican Rep. Vito Fossella's DUI arrest led to revelations about his secret family back in 2008, Boehner and other national Republicans made it clear very quickly that Fossella needed to go.
We saw that again earlier this year, when then-Majority Leader Eric Cantor told Rep. Vance McAllister to resign after the Louisiana Republican was caught on camera making out with a woman who wasn't his wife (McAllister didn't resign, but lost re-election months later). If Boehner is trying to get Grimm to call it quits, it's very unlikely that he's doing it entirely behind the scenes. If Grimm receives a hefty sentence in June that may change the speaker's calculations, but right now it looks like the congressman will be able to hang on.
Grimm's situation has led to plenty of instability, and a few Republicans are eying the seat. However, while Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, Richmond County District Attorney Daniel Donovan, and state Sen. Andrew Lanza haven't ruled anything out, none of them sound incredibly excited about challenging the incumbent in a primary. And it wouldn't be a party if the aforementioned Vito Fossella wasn't once again touted. Fossella only left the House reluctantly in 2008, and may have even tried to restart his re-election campaign in an unsuccessful 11th hour maneuver. Fossella also flirted with running for this seat in 2010, 2012, and 2014.
This time around Fossella hasn't said anything publicly, but some local Republicans are talking him up. One of them is 2013 mayoral contender John Catsimatidis, who called for Grimm to resign and for Fossella to run in his place. There's little love lost between Grimm and Fossella, since Fossella backed Grimm's primary challenger in 2010 and contemplated primarying the incumbent twice. Right now there's no reason to think that he'll jump in, but you really never know what will happen when it comes to Fossella.
Obama carried this seat 52-47, and Democrats are going to want to take a swing at it. Former Rep. Michael McMahon has publicly considered running, and Assemblyman Michael Cusick sounds interested. Cusick recently said that if Grimm does depart early, a special election campaign is "an option, it's one we have to consider." Cusick didn't say anything about what he'll do if there's only a regular election, where he'd need to give up his assembly seat to run. There's a lot of dust left to settle here, and it's going to be a while before we know how things are looking on both sides. But whatever happens here won't be boring.