A legal representative for New York Republican Rep. Chris Collins says his client will remain on the ballot in the race for New York's 27th congressional seat despite being indicted for insider trading.
"Because of the protracted and uncertain nature of any legal effort to replace Congressman Collins we do not see a path allowing Congressman Collins to be replaced on the ballot," Mark Braden, legal counsel for Collins, said in a statement.
Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York allege that Collins, while he was a board member of Australian company Innate Immunotherapeutics, gave a tip to his son Cameron last year about a failed drug trial that would soon be announced. His son used that information to dump the stock and avoid a six-figure loss, the Justice Department alleges, and Cameron Collins passed that information along to his father-in-law.
Since then, the New York Republican State Committee have been scrambling to find a way to get Collins off the ballot and prepare an alternative candidate to take on newcomer Nate McMurray.
Democrats appear to have a better chance of flipping Collins' 27th District with him on the ballot. The legal damage would likely make nonpartisan election handicapper Sabato's Crystal Ball move its rating for the race to "leans" Republican from "likely" GOP, the site's managing editor Kyle Kondik said earlier in the day.
Collins' seat is one of two that Republicans will now have a tougher time defending in November due to legal troubles for an incumbent. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Ca., faces charges of misusing campaign funds. Sabato's Crystal Ball also lists that race as "leans" Republican.
Both Collins and Hunter have pleaded not guilty to the charges facing them.
House Republicans cannot afford to lose any elections in this year's midterms as they try to stop Democrats from flipping the 23 GOP-held seats needed to win a House majority.
Both Collins and Hunter won their districts by more than 25 points in 2016 and were considered near locks to hold on to them this year.
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