Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie Has Been Dating a Legislative Lobbyist

Heastie has been keeping the relationship quiet. His office has declined to acknowledge it publicly — or to describe what steps the powerful speaker has taken to avoid conflicts of interest.

“As the Speaker has said, he will never discuss his personal life,” Michael Whyland, a Heastie spokesperson, told New York Focus. “There are procedures in place to address potential conflicts of interest.”


Heastie’s office did not share the procedures, nor did it respond to a question about why Lamorte’s job title was misstated on the disclosure filing.

While Heastie avoids the matter in public, an attorney in his office did write a March 11 letter, obtained by New York Focus, outlining steps the speaker was said to have taken to avoid being lobbied by Lamorte’s organization. Lamorte used the letter this week, when she sought permission to keep lobbying the Assembly, according to her employer’s attorney.

Under state law, New York officials may not have any interest that substantially conflicts with their public service.

It’s not the first time that potential romantic conflicts of interest have come up among Albany leadership. Soon after Hochul became governor, she began facing media scrutiny over her husband’s high-ranking position at Delaware North, a major gaming and hospitality company with extensive business before state government. In response, Hochul publicly released a letter outlining her recusal policy and how she would avoid real or perceived conflicts. The letter stated that William Hochul had recused himself from business matters related to New York.

While some government watchdogs argued Hochul’s policy did not go far enough — the agreement was self-enforced, rather than through a third party — she went significantly further than Heastie.

By releasing the document, Hochul opened her later actions up for scrutiny against the agreements she’d made. Heastie, who holds enormous sway over what bills or budget items are passed by the Assembly, has not publicly acknowledged the relationship and declined to release his own conflict of interest policy.

Reached for comment, Dean Angelakos, LECET’s executive director, referred New York Focus to David Grandeau, the ethics compliance attorney for LECET and formerly the state’s top lobbying enforcement official.

Grandeau said that Lamorte made LECET “aware” that she was “seeing the speaker” within the last 30 to 45 days.

The relationship has likely been going on longer than that. Heastie and Lamorte attended the Bills game together almost three months ago, and the letter obtained by New York Focus states that the speaker’s conflict of interest policy was communicated to staff in November.

When Lamorte informed her employer about the relationship this year, she was “instructed not to lobby the Assembly” or Heastie, Grandeau said. He added that he is “not aware of any lobbying that she’s engaged in with the Assembly since we put that policy in place.”

State law prohibits a lobbyist from giving a gift to an elected official worth more than $15, but beyond that, there’s nothing that prevents them from having a romantic relationship with a public official, Grandeau said.

“There is language and there are opinions regarding what an elected official should do,” Grandeau said. “But obviously, we cannot control what the speaker may or may not have done.”

The letter from Heastie’s counsel, Rebecca Mudie, does not mention Lamorte. It notes that it was written in response to a “request for confirmation regarding the Speaker’s recusal from matters relating to the Mason Tenders’ District Council of Greater New York, including laborers locals 66, 78, 79 and 108, and/or the Greater New York LECET Fund.”

“The Speaker will not personally attend meetings with the aforementioned organizations,” Mudie wrote. She added that “senior staff will come to and advance a consensus decision to the Speaker for any matters specific or unique to such organizations.”

Lamorte did not respond to questions from New York Focus, including about whether she’d requested that Heastie’s counsel issue the letter. The document soon made its way to Lamorte’s attorney, who then sent it to Grandeau.

According to Grandeau, her attorney was asking: “If the speaker recuses, would you allow her to lobby the Assembly?”

Grandeau said that he would have to see a recusal first. “And now that I’ve seen what I guess they’re calling a recusal, it does not change my opinion — or my advice to the union — that she not lobby the Assembly,” he told New York Focus. “And I conveyed that to her attorney.”

LECET seeks to promote the use of unionized labor on New York construction projects and public support for those workers’ wages.

Lamorte is one of four LECET officials listed as lobbyists for the organization in a disclosure covering January and February. The organization reported lobbying various assemblymembers and state senators on a handful of bills over those two months, ranging from budget bills to a new prevailing wage requirement.

The organization lobbied in favor of a bill introduced by Assemblymember Harry Bronson, which would require the State University of New York to utilize project labor agreements for large-scale SUNY construction fund projects costing $3 million or more. Prevailing wage agreements promote the use of union labor.

That proposal was included in the Assembly’s one-house budget resolution, released Monday, which outlines the chamber’s negotiating position during budget talks with the governor. The State Senate also recommended the measure.