By Shane Goldmacher
It
was hardly a secret that Herman D. Farrell Jr. had planned to retire
from the New York State Legislature. The governor feted him at a goodbye
breakfast in June. Colleagues sent the 85-year-old assemblyman off to
shouts of “for he’s a jolly good fellow.” They even named a state park after him.
But
Mr. Farrell, known to most as Denny, did not retire when all these
festivities occurred. He called it quits earlier this month, saying it
marked the anniversary of his first government job.
The
timing ensured that Mr. Farrell could essentially handpick his
Democratic successor, sidelining voters in his Upper Manhattan district
after four decades of his incumbency. Stepping down in June would have
cleared the way for an open Democratic primary in September. Instead,
with the deadline passed for filing election petitions, party insiders
gathered this weekend to formalize the choice of Mr. Farrell’s chief of
staff.
For
decades, seats in the New York State Legislature have traded hands this
way in what amounts to one of the last, most powerful vestiges of
Tammany Hall-style politics in the state. Election laws here grant
politicians and local party bosses and county committees vast sway in
picking candidates when legislators leave office in the middle of their
term — whether they retire early, pass away, depart for another job or
are carted away in handcuffs.
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