Assemblyman Chris Tague (R,C,I-Schoharie) joined New York State Minority Chairman Nick Langworthy and Sen. George Borrello (R, C, I, LIB) in a press conference today in front of the state Capitol to announce an effort to bring a recall mechanism to New York State for state officials. The announcement follows calls by a growing grassroots movement to introduce a recall mechanism following frustration over Gov. Cuomo’s poor COVID-19 response and attempt to cover up thousands of nursing home deaths due to the administration’s decision to place patients with COVID-19 into nursing homes in the early months of the pandemic.

The proposal loosely emulates the California recall model and would provide voters the means to begin the process of initiating a recall on a statewide official, to be followed by a statewide vote. As recently as yesterday, a poll conducted by Zogby revealed a plurality of New Yorkers (47-41%) want to replace Gov. Cuomo with someone new.

“Gov. Cuomo’s one-man rule of our state during this pandemic has been disastrous and has cost us tremendously, both in economic progress and human lives,” said Tague. “Even after his nursing home cover-up was exposed, the governor and his allies rushed to defend his persisting executive powers and have decided to stand up for their own interests, as opposed to the will and well-being of the people. In the last year, the governor cast aside the basic democratic principles our nation was founded upon and unilaterally made decisions for our state that hurt our families, economy and communities. A recall mechanism would give the people a way to assure public officials are held accountable now and, in the future, and give people a voice in their government that the governor has tried to diminish for nearly a year.”