2015 New York's 11th congressional district special election

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2015 New York's 11th congressional district special election
Flag of New York (1909-2020).svg
  2014 May 5, 2015 2016  

New York's 11th congressional district
  Dan Donovan official photo.jpg Vincent J. Gentile.jpg
Nominee Dan Donovan Vincent J. Gentile
Party Republican Democratic
Alliance Conservative / Independence Working Families
Popular vote24,79717,049
Percentage58.3%40.1%

2015 NY-11 special.svg
Results by state assembly district
Donovan:      50–60%     60–70%     70–80%     80–90%
Gentile:      50–60%     60–70%     70–80%

U.S. Representative before election

Michael Grimm
Republican

Elected U.S. Representative

Dan Donovan
Republican

A special election for New York's 11th congressional district was held on May 5, 2015, to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Michael Grimm. Grimm, a member of the Republican Party, announced on December 30, 2014, that he would resign from the House effective January 5, 2015, and not take his seat for a third term following his guilty plea for tax evasion. On May 5, 2015, Republican candidate Dan Donovan defeated his Democratic challenger Vincent Gentile in the election and filled the vacant seat. [1]

Contents

Background

In April 2014, Grimm was indicted on twenty felony charges, including mail and wire fraud, perjury, obstruction of justice, employing illegal immigrants, and conspiring to defraud the United States after it was found that he under-reported revenues and employee wages relating to a restaurant he owned. He surrendered to the police and was released on $400,000 bail. [2] Vowing his innocence, Grimm continued his campaign for reelection, [3] and defeated Domenic Recchia, the Democratic Party nominee, by 53%, Grimm's highest margin in his congressional career. [4]

On December 23, 2014, Grimm pleaded guilty to one charge of felony tax evasion. All other charges were dropped as part of the plea bargain. [5] [6] Grimm indicated that he would not resign his seat. [7] However, on December 30, Grimm announced that he would resign from Congress on January 5, 2015, rather than be sworn in for his elected term. [8] [9] According to the U.S. Constitution (I.2.iv), Governor Andrew Cuomo is legally required to call a special election to fill the seat, which under the terms of the New York Constitution is to be held within 70 to 80 days of his announcement. [10] On February 2, Cuomo, who had given no indication of when he would call the special election for, said that he was "looking at it now" but didn't have a timeframe for setting a date. [11] Staten Island Attorney Ronald Castorina Jr. filed a lawsuit on behalf of 8 Plaintiffs from Brooklyn and Staten Island, Republicans, Democrats, Independents, and Non-Enrolled parties, to force Cuomo to call a special election [12] and on February 17, Judge Jack B. Weinstein of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York ordered Cuomo to either schedule the election or explain why he was delaying, or he would schedule the election himself. [13] Cuomo's office replied that he would "announce the date" for the special election "shortly". [14] On February 20, Cuomo announced that the election would be held on May 5. [15]

As it was a special election, primary elections did not occur. The nominees were selected by local party leaders in Brooklyn and Staten Island . [16]

Republican nomination

Candidates

Nominated

Declined

Democratic nomination

Candidates

Nominated

Not nominated

  • Amber Adler, community advocate [24]
  • Lorie Honor, businesswoman [25]
  • Arne Mattsson, nominee for the 13th congressional district in 2002 [26]
  • Carlo Scissura, president of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce [27]
  • John Sollazzo, vice chairman of the Staten Island Democratic Committee [28]

Declined

Third parties

Besides the Democratic and Republican parties, the Conservative, Green, Independence, Reform, Women's Equality and Working Families parties are qualified New York parties. Under the terms of electoral fusion, a candidate may be nominated by multiple parties.

Conservative

Nominated

Declined

Green

Nominated

  • James Lane, Internet media professional and nominee for New York City Public Advocate in 2013 [38] He is a member of the Adoptee Rights, Black Lives Matter and Stop Mass Incarceration movements. His current titles include: director of analytics & implementation, GroupM and editor-in-chief, Hot Indie News

Independence

Nominated

Not nominated

Declined

Reform

Working Families

Nominated

General election

Predictions

SourceRankingAs of
The Cook Political Report [43] Solid RApril 3, 2015
Inside Elections [44] Solid RJanuary 28, 2015
Sabato's Crystal Ball [45] Likely RJanuary 5, 2015

Polling

Hypothetical polling
Poll sourceDate(s)
administered
Sample
size
Margin of
error
Dan
Donovan (R)
Michael
Cusick (D)
OtherUndecided
Global Strategy Group* [46] January 16–18, 2015404± 4.9%48%28%24%

Finance Reports

Campaign Finance Reports through April 15
CandidateRaisedSpentCash on HandDebt
Vincent Gentile$195,724$79,697$116,026$0
Dan Donovan$614,775$152,533$461,781$120,760
James Lane$11,095$3,567$7,527$0
Source: OpenSecrets [47]

Results

New York's 11th congressional district special election, 2015 [48] [49]
PartyCandidateVotes%
Republican Dan Donovan19,06544.85
Conservative Dan Donovan4,28910.09
Independence Dan Donovan1,4433.39
Total Dan Donovan 24,79758.33
Democratic Vincent Gentile15,59536.69
Working Families Vincent Gentile1,4543.42
Total Vincent Gentile 17,04940.11
Green James Lane5671.33
Write-in Write-in960.23
Total votes42,509 100.0
Republican hold

County results

Vote breakdown by county
Dan Donovan
Republican
Vincent Gentile
Democrat
James Lane
Green
Write-in
Write-in
Total
CountyVotes %Votes %Votes %Votes %Votes
Kings (Brooklyn) 3,57037.74%5,74560.73%1301.37%150.16%9,460
Richmond (Staten Island) 21,22764.23%11,30434.20%4371.32%810.25%33,049

See also

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