Only one New York governor has ever been impeached — William Sulzer, who was impeached for campaign finance violations and removed from office in October 1913 after a three-week trial. Historians have said he was targeted for having crossed Tammany Hall, the corrupt political organization that had once backed him."During his tenure, his efforts to remove Tammany Hall influences in state government resulted in an investigation that discovered fraud in his own campaign contributions," the National Governors Association website said.
Sulzer said his impeachment was a "political lynching" and "the culmination of a deep-laid political conspiracy to oust me from office."
As for the impeachment process itself, Stephen Gillers, a New York University law professor, said, "it's a lot like but not the same as in the federal system."
Impeachment begins in the Assembly and "requires a majority of the members of the Assembly" to vote to charge the governor.
Unlike the federal Constitution, New York's Constitution makes "no mention of high crimes and misdemeanors," Galie said. In terms of possible charges, "there's nothing there at all," leaving the way forward entirely up to the Assembly, he said.
If the Assembly votes to charge the governor, a trial is held before the state Senate. Unlike in the federal system, the senators aren't the only judges/jurors. Judges from the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals, hear the case, as well. That could be a boon for Cuomo, who appointed all seven of the judges.
Gillers said the judges probably were added to eliminate appeals, because the "state high court judges would already have participated in the impeachment trial."
A two-thirds vote is required for conviction, and the penalty is removal from office. The Senate and the judges could also vote to ban the governor from holding any other state office — a penalty that wasn't used against Sulzer. He was elected to the Assembly just weeks after he was impeached.