Less than three years after getting expelled from the City Council for misconduct, Andy King wants to return.

Although he hasn’t made any formal announcement, King has filed with the city’s Campaign Finance Board to run for his old seat in the Bronx’s District 12.

But legal experts say he is not eligible to run.

What You Need To Know

  • Former City Councilmember Andy King has filed with the city’s Campaign Finance Board to run for his old seat in the Bronx

  • King was expelled from the City Council by colleagues in 2020 for misconduct

  • Experts say King is ineligible because of term limits

“I litigated this exact issue 20 years ago,” Jerry Goldfeder, election attorney, said. “Challenging the use of the term limits law to prevent somebody from running again under these circumstances. And we lost that case both in state court and in federal court.”

King was elected to the City Council in 2012 in a special election to fill the unexpired term of Larry Seabrook, who resigned due to a scandal.

He won a full term in 2013, and was re-elected in 2017.

But in 2020, his City Council colleagues took the extraordinary step of expelling him for sexual harassment and other improprieties.

“I think definitely the previous council had its process, and that was finalized,” said Bronx Councilmember Amanda Farías, who is the co-chair of the Women’s Caucus. “So, for us to consider whether or not as a city we want to bring back leadership that has been expelled from the council, that has the kind of record Councilman King has, is definitely not the direction we need to go in this body.”

But technically speaking, it’s not the expulsion that renders King ineligible. It’s that he would need to wait two more years before running, or one full term.

“The issue before us right now is whether two years constitutes a term for the purposes of skipping a term before you run again. And the law is pretty clear, that it’s not two years that constitute a term, but it’s four years,” Goldfeder said.

Some believe King could challenge that, since it’s an unusual off-year election for the council this year, coming out of redistricting.

District 12 is also configured differently.

When NY1 reached out to King for a comment, he said that he is dealing with a personal issue and would be happy to discuss his intentions next week.