Lopez could represent Ridgewood on Council

From the NY Times:

A criminal investigation into allegations that he sexually harassed subordinates did not deter him. Nor did civil suits accusing him of groping and other unwanted intimacies. Nor censure by the State Assembly, nor the clamor of fellow Democrats that forced him to resign as the party’s chairman in Brooklyn and step down from the Legislature.

The former assemblyman, Vito J. Lopez, is running again, this time for City Council, and despite the lingering scandal, he has at least a fair chance of winning. He is campaigning in Williamsburg and Bushwick in Brooklyn, and in Ridgewood in Queens, working-class neighborhoods where many people have known him for four decades, since he arrived as an energetic young social worker, and where many are grateful for the thousands of apartments and the centers for the elderly and other social services that blossomed during his 28 years in the Assembly.

Frank Carone, a leader of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, which is supporting Mr. Lopez’s chief rival, Antonio Reynoso, admits that Mr. Lopez’s chances are “extremely strong” in an off-the-radar election in which he can, the old-fashioned way, turn out beneficiaries of his largess to cast ballots in the primary next Tuesday.

“He’s pulling out every trick in the book to hold onto some semblance of power,” said Lincoln Restler, a founder of the progressive New Kings Democrats, a group that is also focused on defeating Mr. Lopez.

As evidence, Mr. Restler points out that 6 of the district’s 34 polling places are in properties managed by Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, a nonprofit organization which Mr. Lopez founded in 1973 and which sponsored many of his housing projects. One building has a bronze bust of Mr. Lopez and another a permanent sign over the entrance: “Thank You Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez.”

Mr. Restler and Mr. Reynoso said that when campaign workers tried to knock on doors at Lindsay Park, a 2,700-unit co-op complex and beneficiary of Lopez assistance, security guards warned them that only workers for Mr. Lopez could enter.

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Tony Avella explains why he dropped out of BP race

Click here for audio.

I got the below literature with this note:

"Is it just me, or does this latest mailing from Peter Vallone, Jr., all but imply that he has Tony Avella's support?" - anonymous



Someone's got a really big pair.

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District 19 residents revolt against Vallone tactics, but he won't stop

At noon yesterday, 4 out of the 5 Democratic candidates for City Council gathered near the Bayside LIRR station with State Senator Tony Avella to call Paul Vallone and Jobs for New York on the carpet for the attack mailers against his opponents. This "anybody but Vallone" moment was brought to you by Bayside Patch.

UPDATE: Here's video:



At least one candidate has struck back with his own mailer explaining who Vallone is loyal to. Shafran's piece is the first, but likely not the last.




This was the scene outside the Bay Terrace Commmunity Alliance's Candidates' Night last night:










Yet Vallone and Jobs for New York (REBNY and Parkside) won't stop the repetitive hit pieces.
I like the new spelling of "embarrassment", myself.


Since when are there only 4 options? Why is he omitting John Duane, the only current candidate to have actually served in office previously?

Now, check out what a candidate in the 35th Council District in Brooklyn said about Jobs For New York endorsing her:

...the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts founder wants voters to know she did not ask for the PAC's support, nor does she want it.

Cumbo said she has asked Jobs for New York to "immediately discontinue spending any independent funds in support of [her] campaign."

"Now, some of my supporters are beginning to question my integrity and are asking themselves if I am a development candidate, easily bought and sold. I am not."

"This is horrible," Cumbo added. "Their so-called support of my campaign has done more harm than good in the community."

If Paul Vallone was smart, he would be taking the same position. But instead he claims he has no control over what Jobs For New York is doing, and won't denounce their tactics. I guess their money is just too good for him to pass up, especially since he blew most of his coin on lame expenses before petitioning was over and now has less cash on hand to spend within the limit than any other candidate.

This is the same guy who puts his banners on the construction fences of teardowns and then poses in front of them. No wonder REBNY loves him.

Looks like Coach Paul really "screwed the pooch" on this one. (Poor doggie.)

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Astoria candidate doesn't play by the rules

Astoria attorney John Ciafone is running for City Council District 22 (Astoria) to replace outgoing Peter Vallone, Jr. He has run previously for the council as well as for the assembly. He dropped out back in 2010, and he may have dropped out this time around as well since there are no CFB filings from his campaign on file.

What you may not know is that Ciafone currently appears on Public Advocate Bill DeBlasio's slumlord list. To his credit, he is on the "most improved" list, having reduced his violations from 195 to 2. He tried to donate to DeBlasio, but it was returned. Local council member/Vito Lopez protege Steve Levin and Queens BP candidates Peter Vallone and Melinda Katz apparently have no qualms about keeping his money, however.

Ciafone currently has ads on residential buildings in the Williamsburg-Greenpoint area.

They appear on 202 Franklin Street, 119 Freeman Street, and 199 Green Street, among others.

No permits are on file, so far as I can tell, that allow commercial signs on these buildings.

It's all about who you know, and who you give money to.

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And then there were 3

From the Daily News:

The once-packed Democratic race for Queens Borough President is turning into a duel.

State Sen. Tony Avella, the maverick politician who cut his teeth as a Queens civic leader, has dropped out of the contest.

“I will never stop fighting and advocating for all residents of Queens,” Avella said in a statement released late Wednesday afternoon. “Yet, at this time, I believe I can best serve the people of Queens by remaining a state Senator.”

Avella’s departure leaves City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. and former City Councilwoman Melinda Katz in a battle for the Democratic nomination. Businessman Everly Brown will also be on the Sept. 10 primary ballot.

Despite "dropping out", Avella's name will still appear on the ballot September 10th.

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Speaker wannabe Weprin throwing a lot of money around

From DNA Info:

The race to become the next speaker of the City Council is a costly one. Queens City Councilman Mark Weprin, in particular, has recently been spreading his campaign wealth around to key players in next year’s speaker battle.

Since the mid-March filing Weprin has made three donations of $10,000 each to the Bronx and Brooklyn Democratic Parties, as well as to the influential Working Families Party, according to New York City Campaign Finance Board records.

Weprin also spread tens of thousands of dollars to other council candidates for a total payout to political allies of $53,500.

Speaking of the Working Families Party, did you know that they endorsed Austin Shafran in the CD19 race, but won't allow him to run on their line? What's up with that?

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Paul Vallone plans to use Independence line as a bartering tool

Remember the revelation that Paul Vallone's name is on a list of potential judges even though he alleges that he's been focused since 2009 on running for City Council? Well, as expected, the judgeship is plan B. As per Crains:

If Mr. Vallone wins a hotly contested Democratic primary in September, the Independence Party ballot line would be a major leg up in a battle against Mr. Saffran, as Republicans often rely on votes from the Independence line in Democrat-heavy New York City. But if Mr. Vallone does not win the Democratic primary, his presence on the Independence line in November could split Democratic votes between his supporters and those of the Democratic nominee. Mr. Vallone's main opponent in the race appears to be former Empire State Development spokesman Austin Shafran, who has lined up the bulk of the labor support in the race, as well as the Working Families Party endorsement.

As an attorney who has been a member of the New York bar association since 1992, if Mr. Vallone lost the Democratic primary, he could be nominated for a judgeship and cede the ballot line in the council race to the Democratic nominee. Asked if Mr. Vallone would definitely run on the Independence line in November, a campaign spokesman answered obliquely.

"When Paul Vallone wins the Democratic Primary in September, he will occupy both the Democratic and Independence Party lines in November," the spokesman said.

The Independence Line almost always goes to the Republican in the race. Last time Dennis Saffran ran, he got their endorsement, so it doesn't make sense that they wouldn't give it to him this time. Therefore, Joe Crowley must have made a deal with the Party. As he made a deal with the Vallones. Let's not forget that the GOP was once considering giving Paul Vallone their line and he was once considering accepting it.

Best quote ever: “Paul is really like a kindred spirit,” said Halloran.

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Rest in peace, Walter McCaffrey

From CBS New York:

Former long-serving New York City Councilman Walter McCaffrey has died at the age of 64.

Mr. McCaffrey died Wednesday morning at Mount Sinai Hospital, according to longtime friend Martin McLaughlin. He had recently been ill, but the nature of his disease was not specified.

Mr. McCaffrey, a Democrat, served in the City Council from 1985 until 2001. He represented the 26th District, which includes parts of the Long Island City, Sunnyside and Woodside sections of Queens.

He counted among his successes legislation that banned or restricted adult entertainment venues from residential neighborhoods.

Mr. McCaffrey also wrote legislation that mandated security cameras at automated teller machines.

After leaving public office, he started a lobbying firm, McCaffrey Group. Among its issues was the fight against congestion pricing.

Mr. McCaffrey was born and raised in Woodside.

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Term limits and temper come back to bite Quinn in the ass

From the NY Times:

In the Bayside section of Queens, a volunteer had barely begun her sales pitch for Christine C. Quinn’s mayoral campaign when the middle-aged man who answered the door cut her off. “She was the one responsible, in the City Council, for giving Bloomberg a third term,” he barked. “I hold that against her.”

The volunteer calmly countered that it was New Yorkers, not Ms. Quinn, who “voted the mayor back in.”

In Astoria, Queens, a woman in her 30s told another Quinn volunteer that the candidate’s sometimes brash personality had rubbed her the wrong way.

The volunteer gamely explained that Ms. Quinn’s flashes of temper “come from a place of love and passion.”

For all its financial might and political firepower, Ms. Quinn’s once high-flying bid for mayor has suddenly plummeted back to earth, shedding its coveted front-runner status and foreclosing the possibility of a painless path to City Hall. So with two months left in an increasingly unpredictable Democratic primary, she is dispatching a volunteer army unlike any in the race to every corner of New York City, determined not just to promote her campaign, but also to systematically ferret out and rebut voters’ reservations and resentments toward her.

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Weiner first in polling

From NBC:

Democratic mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner has surged ahead of his opponents in a new NBC 4 New York/Wall Street Journal poll, transforming himself in just a few weeks from disgraced has-been to mayoral front-runner.

Weiner, who entered the race two years after resigning his congressional seat amid a sexting scandal, now leads City Council Speaker Christine Quinn in the crowded Democratic primary, setting up a new phase in what could end up being a remarkable political comeback.

Weiner leads Quinn 25 percent to 20 percent among registered Democrats, the poll by Marist found. That's a flip-flop from the last survey in May, when Quinn, the longtime front-runner, led Weiner 24 percent to 19 percent.

Just as telling is the number of registered New York voters who said they might vote for Weiner. Forty-nine percent said they’d consider it, up from 40 percent two months ago, before Weiner entered the race. Those who said they wouldn’t consider voting for him dropped from 52 percent to 45 percent.

The next closest contender in the Democratic primary is former Comptroller Bill Thompson, with 13 percent of registered Democrats saying they'd vote for him, up 2 percentage points from May. Public Advocate Bill de Blasio follows with 10 percent, who dropped 2 points. Then comes current Comptroller John Liu at 8 percent, Staten Island minister Erick Salgado at 2 percent and former City Councilman Sal Albanese at 1 percent.

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CD19 palm card poll

Just thought you might want to see the literature that is being handed out about each candidate. Some are clearly done quite professionally, and others, not so much. I'll let you vote on which is the best.

Free Web poll for your Web site - freepolls.com

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Dromm defends Silver

From the Politicker:

At a Democratic club meeting in Queens last night, Councilman Danny Dromm said progressives should “thank God” for embattled Assembly Speaker Sheldon Speaker, not revile him.

“Thank God for Shelly Silver,” Mr. Dromm said to his group, the News Visions Democratic Club in Jackson Heights, when the discussion shifted to Albany politics. “A lot of conservative stuff that might have happened didn’t happen. I don’t know what his prospects are for the Assembly, but we’ll see.”

Mr. Silver has faced a barrage of criticism for his handling of sexual harassment allegations against ex-Assemblyman Vito Lopez. While Mr. Silver has since apologized for quietly settling several cases against Mr. Lopez with $100,000 in public money instead of flagging them for investigation, many editorial boards and two Democratic Assembly members have called for him to step down as reports continue to swirl that Mr. Silver, who has held his post since 1994, may be facing growing backlash from his typically loyal members.

Mr. Dromm, however, reiterated to Politicker that he believes Mr. Silver’s presence is crucial in Albany.

“Shelly has held the line on a lot of progressive issues and I’m appreciative of that,” he explained. “I don’t want to see a lot of things that have been passed or proposed by the Republican Senate be put into law.”

Well, that's certainly interesting. More than half of NYers want Silver gone.

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