Gotta love this arcane election law. I hope Hoffman’s supporters do as he asks. Good for him, I’m pleasantly surprised.
Lazio has a snowballs chance to hell to win in the Bronx especially given that he won’t actually even be trying to win but would that ever be funny.
Lazio doesn’t want to be a judge, and knows he won’t win a judicial election in the Bronx, which is why he was nominated there and not in, say, the Southern Tier (where the R label is a feature, not a bug). If he someone won the election, he would resign before taking office.