These 13 People Want To Be New York's Attorney General

NEW YORK, NY — A committee of state legislators will interview 14 people this week who hope to permanently replace Eric Schneiderman as New York's attorney general. The state Assembly released a list Saturday of applicants for the state's top law enforcement job following Schneiderman's resignation last week in the wake of allegations that he physically and psychologically abused four women.

The list originally named 16 people, most of them Democrats, including two current Assembly members, a former Brooklyn district attorney and Barbara Underwood, who took over as acting attorney general after Schneiderman stepped down.

Three people — former city councilman David Yassky, U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-Cold Spring) and Jose Fernandez, a former assistant secretary of state — reportedly withdrew their names by Monday, narrowing the field to 13.

State law empowers the Legislature to appoint a new attorney general in a joint session vote whenever there's a vacancy. Democrats in the Assembly, led by Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx), will dominate that process with 104 votes.

The Legislature's eight-member committee, chaired by Assemblyman Joseph Lentol (D-Brooklyn), will interview the candidates in Albany starting Tuesday. The interviews will be streamed live on the Assembly's website starting at 2 p.m. Tuesday and 10 a.m. Wednesday.

Absent from the list are several potential candidates for attorney general in this fall's election, including Public Advocate Letitia James, state Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Queens), law professor Zephyr Teachout, former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and U.S. Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-Long Island).

All but Rice have said they would sit out the legislative appointment process as they consider a campaign. Teachout, who ran for governor in 2014 and Congress in 2016, said Monday that she would form an exploratory committee as she considers a run.

Here's the full list of the candidates going before the Legislature this week and a snapshot of their biographies.

1. Thomas J. Abinanti, Democratic assemblyman from Greenburgh
2. Lloyd Constantine, lawyer and onetime adviser to former governor Eliot Spitzer
3. Michael D. Diederich Jr., anti-discrimination attorney in Stony Point
4. Nicole Gueron, former federal prosecutor and deputy chief trial counsel under then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo
5. Elizabeth Holtzman, former city comptroller, Brooklyn district attorney and Democratic congresswoman
6. Thomas E. Humbach, Republican county attorney for Rockland County
7. Doris Ling-Cohan, state Supreme Court judge
8. Daniel J. O'Donnell, Democratic assemblyman from the Upper West Side
9. Mina Quinto Malik, deputy attorney general in the District of Columbia and former executive director of New York City's Civilian Complaint Review Board
10. Leecia Roberta Eve, Port Authority commissioner, former candidate for lieutenant governor
11. Jennifer P. Stergion, attorney from Buffalo
12. Barbara D. Underwood, current acting attorney general
13. Alex Zapesochny, tech executive from Rochester

This story has been updated to reflect the fact that David Yassky, Sean Patrick Maloney and Jose Fernandez withdrew from the Legislature's interview process.

(Lead image: The New York State Capitol is pictured in Albany. Photo by Felix Lipov/Shutterstock)