Franz Leichter

Franz S. Leichter (born August 19, 1930) is an American Democratic Party politician who served in both the New York State Assembly and the New York Senate.

Leichter was born in Austria and graduated with a degree from Harvard Law School in 1957.^[1] His mother Käthe Leichter, née Pick, was killed in a Nazi concentration camp in 1942, his father, Otto Leichter, died in New York City in 1973. Both had been Viennese by birth. His brother Henry O. Leichter, born 1924 in Austria, lawyer, died in New York City on December 20, 2010. After the Anschluss in 1938, both brothers could be brought out of Nazi Germany with the help of some friends; their father reached the U.S. later, staying in Belgium and France with exiled Austrians before.

Franz S. Leichter was first elected to the New York State Assembly in 1968.^[1] He drafted a bill expanding abortion rights together with Republican Assemblywoman Constance Cook of upstate Tompkins County, New York, proposing legislation that included no restrictions on the practice of abortion. The bill passed in the Senate on March 18, 1970 after five hours of debate by a vote of 31–26. For the Assembly, the bill was amended to allow for women to have abortions until their 24th week of pregnancy or at any time to protect the life of the mother.^[2] As the roll call progressed in the Assembly on April 9, 1970, the legislature deadlocked at 74 in favor and 74 opposed, with one member absent and the Assembly speaker not voting, leaving the count two short of the absolute majority of 76 members of the 150-member Assembly needed to pass the bill.^[3] George Michaels, an Assemblyman from Cayuga County who represented a largely conservative Roman Catholic district, had earlier voted against the proposal, but rose to speak, stating "I realize, Mr. Speaker, that I am terminating my political career, but I cannot in good conscience sit here and allow my vote to be the one that defeats this bill", and asked "that my vote be changed from 'no' to 'yes'", a prediction that turned out to be correct.^[4] With the switch by Michaels, the measure passed by a margin of 76 to 73 in the Assembly. Governor of New York Nelson Rockefeller signed the law the next day and the U.S. Supreme Court patterned its ruling in its landmark January 1973 decision Roe v. Wade on the New York law.^[2]

Leichter became a member of the New York Senate in 1974, representing a district in Manhattan until 1998, when he announced that he would not run for re-election. Leichter was viewed as a political maverick who would criticize governors of New York, both Republican and Democrat. In the legislature, Leichter supported campaign finance reform, viewing the state's existing campaign finance laws as too weak, and opposed the granting of tax subsidies to businesses by New York State. In much of the 1990s, with the Senate controlled by Republicans, the liberal Democrat described his primary responsibility as "raising issues and making noise", which he accomplished in debate in the Senate and through frequent news conferences in the Senate lobby in the New York State Capitol and at New York City Hall.^[1]

After announcing his retirement in 1998 at age 67, Leichter indicated that he had discussed possible positions serving in the Clinton Administration, indicating that "I've certainly let it be known that if there's a position where I could be helpful, I'd be interested".^[1]

Among the Democrats seeking to fill his seat representing the 30th State Senate District on Manhattan's Upper West Side was Daniel O'Donnell, a former public defender and brother of entertainer Rosie O'Donnell, who announced his intention to run for the seat and would have become the first openly gay man in the New York State Legislature if he was successful in his bid for office.^[1] Eric Schneiderman was the winner of the Democratic primary and the general election in 1998.

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