A special election for

New York's 11th congressional district New York's 11th congressional district is a List of United States congressional districts, congressional district for the United States House of Representatives in New York City. The 11th district includes all of Staten Island and parts of south ...

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 Tax evasion or tax fraud is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to red ...

. On May 5, 2015, Republican candidate Dan Donovan defeated his Democratic challenger Vincent Gentile in the election and filled the vacant seat.

Background

In April 2014, Grimm was indicted on twenty felony charges, including

mail and wire fraud Mail fraud and wire fraud are terms used in the United States to describe the use of a physical (e.g., the U.S. Postal Service) or electronic (e.g., a phone, a telegram, a fax, or the Internet) mail system to defraud another, and are U.S. feder ...

perjury Perjury (also known as forswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an insta ...

obstruction of justice In United States jurisdictions, obstruction of justice refers to a number of offenses that involve unduly influencing, impeding, or otherwise interfering with the justice system, especially the legal and procedural tasks of prosecutors, investiga ...

, employing

illegal immigrants Illegal immigration is the migration of people into a country in violation of that country's immigration laws, or the continuous residence in a country without the legal right to do so. Illegal immigration tends to be financially upward, wi ...

, 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. Vowing his innocence, Grimm continued his campaign for reelection, and defeated Domenic Recchia, the Democratic Party nominee, by 53%, Grimm's highest margin in his congressional career. On December 23, 2014, Grimm pleaded guilty to one charge of felony

. All other charges were dropped as part of the plea bargain. Grimm indicated that he would not resign his seat. 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. According to the U.S. Constitution ( I.2.iv),

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

Andrew Cuomo Andrew Mark Cuomo ( , ; born December 6, 1957) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 56th governor of New York from 2011 until his resignation in 2021. A member of the Democratic Party and son of former governor Mario Cuomo, ...

is legally required to call a

special election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

to fill the seat, which under the terms of the

New York Constitution The Constitution of the State of New York establishes the structure of the government of the State of New York, and enumerates the basic rights of the citizens of New York. Like most state constitutions in the United States, New York's constituti ...

is to be held within 70 to 80 days of his announcement. 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. 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 and on February 17, Judge Jack B. Weinstein of the

United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (in case citations, E.D.N.Y.) is the United States district court, federal district court whose territorial jurisdiction spans five List of counties in New York, counties in ...

ordered Cuomo to either schedule the election or explain why he was delaying, or he would schedule the election himself. Cuomo's office replied that he would "announce the date" for the special election "shortly". On February 20, Cuomo announced that the election would be held on May 5. As it was a special election, primary elections did not occur. The nominees were selected by local party leaders in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

and

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is the southernmost of the boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York (state), New York. The borough is separated from the ad ...

Republican nomination

Candidates

Nominated

* Dan Donovan,

District Attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, county prosecutor, state attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or solicitor is the chief prosecutor or chief law enforcement officer represen ...

and nominee for

New York Attorney General The attorney general of New York is the chief legal officer of the U.S. state of New York and head of the Department of Law of the state government. The office has existed in various forms since 1626, originally established under the Dutch c ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Declined

Vito Fossella Vito John Fossella Jr. (born March 9, 1965) is an American politician serving as the Staten Island Borough President since 2022. A member of the Republican Party, Fossella previously represented the state's 13th congressional district in the U. ...

, former U.S. Representative *

Nicole Malliotakis Nicole Malliotakis ( ; born November 11, 1980) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for New York's 11th congressional district since 2021. Her constituency covers Staten Island and southern Brooklyn. Malliotakis is the o ...

, state assemblywoman

Democratic nomination

Candidates

Nominated

Vincent J. Gentile Vincent Joseph "Vinnie" Gentile (born January 3, 1959) is an American politician who served in the New York City Council from the New York City's 43rd City Council district, 43rd district from 2003 to 2017. He is a Democratic Party (United State ...

New York City Council The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City in the United States. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs. The council serves as a check against the mayor in a mayor-council government mod ...

man

Not nominated

* Amber Adler, community advocate * Lorie Honor, businesswoman * Arne Mattsson, nominee for the 13th congressional district in

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

* Carlo Scissura, president of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce * John Sollazzo, vice chairman of the Staten Island Democratic Committee

Declined

* William Colton, state assemblyman * Michael Cusick, state assemblyman * Robert Holst, electrician and middle class advocate *

Michael McMahon Michael E. McMahon (born September 12, 1957) is an American politician and attorney serving as the District Attorney for Richmond County, which is coextensive with Staten Island. A member of the Democratic Party, McMahon is a former U.S. Repres ...

, former U.S. Representative

Third parties

Besides the Democratic and Republican parties, the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

Independence Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of ...

Reform Reform refers to the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The modern usage of the word emerged in the late 18th century and is believed to have originated from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement, which ...

, Women's Equality and Working Families parties are

qualified New York parties In New York State, to obtain automatic ballot access, a party must qualify every two years by receiving the greater of 130,000 votes or 2% of the vote in the previous New York gubernatorial elections, gubernatorial election or United States pres ...

. Under the terms of

electoral fusion Electoral fusion in the United States is an arrangement where two or more United States political parties on a ballot list the same candidate, allowing that candidate to receive votes on multiple party lines in the same election. Electoral fus ...

, a candidate may be nominated by multiple parties.

Conservative

Nominated

* Dan Donovan,

and Republican nominee for

Declined

, state assemblywoman *

James Molinaro James P. Molinaro (born March 11, 1931) is an American politician and a former borough president of Staten Island. Molinaro first won the election as borough president of Staten Island on November 6, 2001, defeating his Democratic opponent Cou ...

, former

Borough President

Green

Nominated

* James Lane, Internet media professional and nominee for

New York City Public Advocate The office of New York City Public Advocate (President of the City Council) is a citywide elected position in New York City, which is first in line to succeed the Mayor of New York City, mayor. The office serves as a direct link between the wikti ...

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

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

* Dan Donovan,

and Republican nominee for

Not nominated

* Robert McKenna, retired

New York City Police The City of New York Police Department, also referred to as New York City Police Department (NYPD), is the primary law enforcement agency within New York City. Established on May 23, 1845, the NYPD is the largest, and one of the oldest, munic ...

Lieutenant

Declined

, state assemblywoman

Reform

* No nominee. Presumptive nominee Dan Donovan refused the line after pressure from the Conservative Party.

Working Families

Nominated

man

General election

Predictions

Polling

* * Poll commissioned by the

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is the Democratic Hill committee for the United States House of Representatives, working to elect Democrats to that body. The DCCC recruits candidates, raises funds and organizes races in ...

Finance Reports

Results

County results

References

External links

Vincent Gentle for Congress

Dan Donovan for Congress
{{2015 United States elections United States House of Representatives 11 2015 11 New York 11 New York 2015 11 New York 11 United States House of Representatives 2015 11

Background

Republican nomination

Candidates

Nominated

Declined

Democratic nomination

Candidates

Nominated

Not nominated

Declined

Third parties

Conservative

Nominated

Declined

Green

Nominated

Independence

Nominated

Not nominated

Declined

Reform

Working Families

Nominated

General election

Predictions

Polling

Finance Reports

Results

County results

See also

References

External links