This morning, former FBI agent and Staten Island GOP Rep. Michael Grimm turned himself into federal authorities and was indicted on 20 counts including mail and wire fraud, filing false tax returns, perjury and obstruction relating to his ownership of a health food restaurant prior to his 2010 election to Congress. As such, we are moving the rating of NY-11 to Lean Democratic.
Grimm has vowed to fight the charges, but even before prosecutors handed down the indictment today, he was facing a much stronger Democratic challenger than he did in 2012: New York City Councilman Domenic Recchia, who had over $1 million in the bank at the end of March. Recchia now becomes the favorite for the seat, in part because of the timing of the indictment.
Staten Island Republicans would love to find a way to replace Grimm on the November ballot, but New York's filing deadline for the June 24 primary passed earlier this month. According to New York election law, the only ways the GOP could replace Grimm on the ballot would be if he were
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