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Governor Kathy Hochul’s personal pick for Lieutenant GoveRnor Brian Benjamin was arrested on alleged bribery, fraud and falsification of records this morning, according to The New York Times (first to report the story), Bloomberg on MSN, Yahoo, NBC. He was scheduled to be arraigned today.

This is the second major high profile embarrassment to the state Democratic Party in two weeks.

The first was the Democratic-controlled legislature in Albany redrawing election districts across the state that were allegedly gerrymandered to favor Democratic candidates, resulting in the loss of 4 Republican districts. A 14-person lawsuit in Steuben County resulted in Judge Patrick McAllister ruling the newly redrawn districts were unconstitutional the way they were enacted as well evidently gerrymandered. That case has temporarily been stayed by the Appellate Division, 4th Department, and awaits a ruling April 20.

The second came today with the arrest of Mr. Benjamin. The charges date back to when Benjamin was a State Senator campaigning to be New York City Comptroller.

The wildfire of media attention resulted in Westchester County canceling the Sustainable Westchester, Con Ed announcement of a energy-conservation “Ap.”