NEW YORK – Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney came in third out of four candidates in the Democratic primary for attorney general on Thursday.
New York City Public Advocate Leticia James locked up the party line with 577,808 votes with Zephyr Teachout polling second with 441,556 votes. Maloney received 356,514 votes. Leecia Eve was far behind with only 48,478 votes.
Maloney had entered the statewide race after he filed petitions for another two-year term in the House of Representatives. He later entered the attorney general’s primary saying if he won the primary, he would bow out of the congressional race.
Some, like Republican congressional opponent James “Jimmy” O’Donnell saw Maloney’s attorney general run as his abandonment of the voters in the 18th Congressional District.
Maloney’s “poor showing in the primary will mean he is forced into his backup plan of running for Congress, but the dye is already cast on him abandoning his district,” O’Donnell said in a statement after the AG results were in late Thursday night. “The people of the Hudson Valley deserve a representative who is 100 percent committed to representing their needs, not those of New York City liberals,” O’Donnell said.