Andrew Cuomo could be only the 2nd New York governor to be impeached; know about the first

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been besieged by bipartisan calls to either resign or become the second governor of the state to be impeached after dual scandals emerged that have tossed his administration in the recent weeks. Amid escalating COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes combined with allegations by at least five women that Cuomo sexually harassed them. Even though the New York governor has dismissed the accusations and has even stated that he won’t be stepping down from his position, his administration has noted that his ‘credibility has lost’. 

Republican lawmakers in New York have introduced a resolution Monday to initiate the impeachment proceedings against Democratic Governor, a move which has not been taken in over 100 years. Only one New York governor has ever been impeached for campaign finance violations and then removed from office in October 1913 after nearly a three-week trial, William Sulzer. As per an NBC report, historians have said that Sulzer was targetted for crossing Tammany Hall, the corrupt organisation which had once backed him. 

William Sulzer: First and only impeached NY governor

The National Governors Association website has said that during William Sulzer’s tenure, his efforts to remove Tammany Hall influence in state government “resulted in an investigation that discovered fraud in his own campaign contributions.” At the time, the former New York governor had said that his impeachment was a “political lynching” and "the culmination of a deep-laid political conspiracy to oust me from office."

William Sulzer was the 42nd governor of New York and born in New Jersey on March 18, 1863. He had first entered politics in 1889 serving as a member of the New York House of Representatives before becoming the speaker of the house in 1893. The NGA website has also described that he went on to become an elected governor by a popular vote on November 5, 1912. 

However, after impeachment charges were brought against him, Sulzer was then removed from office on October 17, 1913. Later the same year, he won election as an Independent to the New York House of Representatives. He retired from political life after failing in a governorship bid in 1914.