Chris Bragg is reporting for the Times Union that the majority of New York ethics commissioners present for a vote on October 19, favored revoking approval of former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's book deal. But the motion failed to carry by one vote because so many commissioners had left the meeting by the time the vote was taken late in the afternoon. On a vote of 7 to 2, commissioners overseeing the Joint Commission on Public Ethics voted against undoing its staff’s approval for Cuomo to write the book, “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons From the COVID-19 Pandemic." Eight votes in favor were needed to pass the motion. At the time of the vote, five of the 14 JCOPE commissioners were not present. The commission had held an unusually long, closed-door executive session where various matters were discussed before taking the vote in public. The lone dissenting votes were cast by William Fisher and Jose Nieves, the panel's new chairman. Commissioner Gary Lavine said after the vote on Oct. 19, he plans to request a special meeting where another vote could be taken on the same motion. After gaining praise for his early handling of the pandemic, Cuomo secured a $5.1 million book deal with Crown, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House. Cuomo resigned from office in August while facing impeachment. At a special meeting earlier this month, JCOPE commissioners also voted to hire an outside law firm to investigate other circumstances of the staff's approval of the Cuomo book deal. Read the full story in the Times Union.