Remember Rep Chris Collins (R-NY), who was indicted on insider trading charges prior to the 2018 elections? NBC News is reporting that his innocent plea may not survive the week:
Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., has sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office stating that he is resigning from his House seat, a source familiar with the matter tells NBC News.
Collins’ resignation comes ahead of his expected guilty plea Tuesday to charges relating to insider trading, according to documents filed in federal court Monday. His resignation will become effective once his letter is read on the House floor during Tuesday’s pro-forma session.
Collins, the first member of Congress to announce his support for Donald Trump’s presidential bid, is scheduled to appear for a “change of plea” hearing in a Manhattan courtroom at 3 p.m. Tuesday. He pleaded not guilty to insider trading and several other charges when he was first indicted in 2018. Experts say the hearing means he is likely changing his plea to guilty.
The reputation of the current crop of Republicans is blackened just a little bit, especially since Collins is a Trump supporter (TrumpScore: 99.3%, which is astounding to my mind). In fact, his >cough< superior TrumpScore even stains Trump himself, since one can assume Collins has been modeling himself on Trump.
I don’t actually know how Collins’ seat will be filled, but my guess is that it’ll be an appointment by the Governor, followed by a special election. The Governor, Andrew Cuomo, is a Democrat, so unless there are special rules concerning how to fill an empty seat, we can expect a Democrat to be appointed.
And then? New York’s 27th District has been Republican for a while, but Collins won the 2018 election, when under indictment, by .3 point, or roughly the skin of his teeth. How will a ‘clean’ successor do against a specially appointed incumbent? It’s hard to say.
But there’s definitely some opportunity here for the Democrats.
