NORTH TONAWANDA, N.Y. -- New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's office must decide whether or not to take legal action to get her chief judge nominee Hector LaSalle to a floor vote for Senate confirmation.

This comes after members of her own party in the state Senate Judicial Committee rejected the nomination. Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt, (R) North Tonawanda, believes Hochul absolutely should sue to try to get her nomination to the floor.

Ortt said, after having conversations with LaSalle, the nominee deserves a full vote from the Senate. He also said Hochul needs to make a choice not to let the far left-wing of her party drive major decisions. The minority leader believes his conference would also have standing to sue, but it's not his preference.

"We certainly think he deserves a fair hearing but I don't know that it's our conferences sole obligation here to rescue the governor's nominee. We are looking at that. That is certainly something we considering and we'll wait and see what she ends up doing but this is her nominee and I've always viewed that this is her responsibility to get it to the floor and then obviously our conference gets a chance to weigh in," Ortt said.

He said he does believe LaSalle has a better chance of confirmation if there is a full vote of the Senate. If all Senate Republicans decide to support the judge, he would only need 11 more votes from Democrats.