ALBANY, N.Y. — It was a historic show of force by a clutch of left-leaning Democrats, disrupting what is normally a rubber-stamp judicial nomination process by rejecting a candidate they believed was too conservative to lead New York’s court system.
The vote against Justice Hector LaSalle on Wednesday was all the more remarkable because he was the nominee of Gov. Kathy Hochul, the leader of the Democrats’ own party, and signaled what could be a contentious four-year term for the newly elected governor.
Ms. Hochul came to face such a prospect not only because of the clout of an insurgent and outspoken progressive wing in the Democratic-controlled Legislature, but also because she made a series of missteps, failing to lock up solid support for Mr. LaSalle before announcing his nomination on Dec. 22.
When opposition quickly lined up against Mr. LaSalle, a former prosecutor, Ms. Hochul dug in, refusing to withdraw the nomination — a move that could have forestalled the embarrassing loss.
Instead, the governor is now left to contemplate whether to go to court to seek a full Senate hearing, or simply concede defeat.
Wednesday was Mr. LaSalle’s first public testimony since criticism arose over several of his judicial decisions, which critics suggested were anti-union and anti-abortion. Mr. LaSalle’s supporters pushed back, saying the decisions were being mischaracterized, cherry-picked or both.
During the hearing, Mr. LaSalle was praised by many lawmakers — even those who opposed him — while he, at one point, noted the cordial chats he’d had with many of them before the vote in which they rejected him. “The private conversations I’ve had,” he said, “have not mirrored the public statements that have been made.”
While opposition to Mr. LaSalle was centered on his stances, the moment was also a clear demonstration of political muscle.
“They’re testing her,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran Democratic political consultant, noting that the governor in New York often has outsize power in budget and other negotiations. “This is a battle about who is going to run the state, and what ideological group is going to run the state,” he added.
Indeed, moments after the vote not to send Mr. LaSalle’s nomination to a floor vote, the Working Families Party — which is positioned to the left of mainstream Democrats and opposed Mr. LaSalle — sent out a triumphant message, as did several other progressive-aligned groups.
“With a far-right U.S. Supreme Court, and a New York Court of Appeals captured by conservative and corporate interests, New York’s next chief judge must be ready to stand up for the rights and dignity of all New Yorkers,” Sharon Cromwell, deputy director of the party, said in a statement. “Governor Hochul should return with a new judicial nominee.”
That same progressive wing also took credit for salvaging Ms. Hochul’s flagging campaign for a full term in November, after the governor found herself in an unexpectedly tight battle with Republican Lee Zeldin, the conservative congressman from Long Island.
At the same time, the opposition also comes from a hunger on the part of many progressives and moderates to push the court back to the left after the tenure of the previous chief judge, Janet DiFiore, an Andrew Cuomo nominee, who many saw as too conservative.
That opinion was codified last year, when a 4-to-3 bloc led by Judge DiFiore rejected a new map for the state’s congressional districts, a decision that many Democrats felt paved the way for a raft of Republican wins in Congress in November.
The fight over Mr. LaSalle also opened new fault lines among some of the state and New York City’s most powerful Democratic constituencies, including labor, the left and Latinos.
Opposition to Mr. LaSalle has bound together some left-wing and more moderate, but still pro-union members, of the Legislature. But union opposition to the nomination has not been monolithic, with major labor groups like the Transport Workers Union criticizing fellow union groups for their tactics.
Many Latinos were thrilled by the nomination of Mr. LaSalle — who would be the state’s first Latino chief judge — but one of his critics on the committee was Senator Jessica Ramos, who spoke Spanish with the nominee at the hearing before voting no, a position she voiced weeks in advance of Wednesday’s hearing.
While such schisms are not unheard-of in New York politics, the emotion that the LaSalle nomination engendered may be more difficult to forget. On Wednesday, some of Mr. LaSalle’s Democratic backers seemed angry at the questioning from fellow Democrats.
State Senator Luis R. Sepúlveda of the Bronx accused his colleagues of “character assassination” and spreading misinformation, something he said that he had only seen “the last time we had a Latino or a Latina before this proceeding.”
He continued, saying Wednesday’s questioning reminded him of last year’s contentious confirmation hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson, the U.S. Supreme Court justice, “where my colleagues were complaining about the Republicans treating her in a certain way.”
For Republicans, who, despite having a good year in congressional races still face Democratic supermajorities in each chamber in Albany, watching the intraparty war seemed to create a special joy.
“You know, in reading your decisions and especially in listening to your opening statement, I thought for a moment I was in the wrong room,” said State Senator Andrew Lanza, a Staten Island Republican, drawing laughter from the packed hearing room in Albany. “You do not come across as a right wing conservative nut.”
William F.B. O’Reilly, a Republican consultant, said that the battle over Mr. LaSalle was “the first skirmish in a greater war to come.”
“Progressives and democratic socialists are feeling their oats, and blocking the governor’s chief judge pick would give them a major momentum boost in New York,” he said, adding, “Moderate Democrats are fighting hard for LaSalle because they don’t want the tail wagging the dog for the next four years.”
Blair Horner, the executive director for the New York Public Interest Research Group, a watchdog group, said Wednesday’s committee decision had put Ms. Hochul in a “lose-lose position” of either accepting defeat or pushing for a vote that could rely heavily on Republicans.
“If her nominee fails, she lost despite putting enormous capital into the effort,” he said. “If the nominee is approved, she’s caused a big headache for the Senate leadership and created deep tension with many members, just as she goes forward with her budget,” which is due April 1.
Mr. Sheinkopf agreed that the fight over Mr. LaSalle could be seen as a test by progressives of their power. “If they can roll her on the judge,” he said. “They can roll her on the budget.”
On Wednesday, State Senator Jabari Brisport, a democratic socialist from Brooklyn, cast Justice LaSalle’s defeat as a harbinger of a newly emboldened Legislature.
“The State Senate doesn’t need to tolerate Gov. Kathy Hochul acting like a Republican,” he wrote on Twitter, “on judge nominations or in the upcoming budget negotiations.”
Jesse McKinley and Luis Ferré-Sadurní
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