Skelos and son found guilty

Speculation begins on successor

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Former State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and his son, Adam, were found guilty last Friday of all the corruption charges against them, bringing an end to Skelos’s more than 30 years in the Senate and kicking off a race to fill his now-vacant seat.

The jury deliberated the case for a day and a half before returning its verdict. Because of the conviction, Skelos automatically — and immediately — lost his seat in the Senate.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo will call a special election to fill the seat. The day that seems most likely to be chosen is April 19, the date of the state’s presidential primary and the special election to fill the seat of former State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who was also convicted by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara on corruption charges.

There are a few names now being floated as potential candidates for the vacancy left by Skelos, a Republican. At the top of the Democratic list is Assemblyman Todd Kaminsky (D-Long Beach), and others who have been mentioned are Nassau County Legislator Carrie Solages and Rockville Centre attorney Laura Gillen. On the Republican Side, potential candidates include Lynbrook Assemblyman Brian Curran and Hempstead Town Councilman Bruce Blakeman.

In comments immediately after the verdict was announced, Skelos’s attorney said he planned to appeal.

The father and son each face maximum sentences of more than 100 years for all of the counts against them, but are unlikely to serve more than a fraction of that time. Sentencing was set for March 3.

“The swift convictions of Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos beg an important question — how many prosecutions will it take before Albany gives the people of New York the honest government they deserve?” Bharara said in a statement.

Skelos spent 32 years in the Senate, representing Rockville Centre and the surrounding towns, and was sworn into his 16th term in January. But within minutes of his conviction, he was removed from the State Senate list, and his own web page stated, “This Senator is no longer serving in the New York State Senate.”

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