Yet another reason to dislike the Brooklyn Machine, that corrupt wing of the local Democratic Party that the Working Families Party decided to ally with in 2009. Wonder what WFP and Steve Levin think about this little inside rumor. Source is the Post, so take with a grain of salt. But then again, Vito Lopez has a record of backing conservatives like Noach Dear and Pataki.

B'klyn Dems eye Ford in drive vs. Gilly
January 18, 2010, Fredric U. Dicker, INSIDE ALBANY - NY Post

The powerful Brooklyn Demo cratic organization may be about to throw open the door for Harold Ford Jr.'s challenge to US Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, The Post has learned...

"I just think that somehow, Gillibrand doesn't connect to the voters, and I believe that's what's making her as vulnerable as she is. Harold Ford seems very gracious, he's a very nice talker, and is an impressive personality," Lopez said.

"I want to meet with him and begin a dialogue. He called me last week and asked if we could talk. If he decides he is running, and if the dialogue we have with him is a good one, we're going to move ahead," Lopez continued.  read more »

I got a fair amount of crap from people about my coverage of the Working Families Party scandal, wherein WFP was caught red handed violating campaign finance laws. Several people told me to lay off them because they are progressives. To me, though, corruption by people I agree with on policy is worse than corruption by Republicans, who I expect it from. So I covered the WFP scandal despite attacks from fellow progressives.

Well, now WFP and one of their star candidates, Developer Shill Bill de Blasio, have been subpoenaed by the U.S. Attorney's Office. So folks, it isn't just me who thinks WFP, Developer Money, and Bill de Blasio are rotten to the core despite their progressive rhetoric. From the New York Observer:

The Working Families Party has received a subpoena from the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District seeking information in connection with its efforts in the 2009 elections, a spokesman for the labor-backed party confirmed...  read more »

“He’s one of the most incredible people I’ve ever met, unbelievable,” he said. “Vito Lopez has brought so much dignity and political acumen and respect to the borough of Brooklyn.”

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/election_2009/2009/09/15/2009-09-15_coun...

--Steve Levin, newly elected City Councilman from Park Slope, praising his mentor, corrupt Party Boss Vito Lopez

On Tuesday Vito Lopez reasserted his power with a big win in Park Slope. Vito Lopez's own aide, Steve Levin, won a hotly contested race for City Council, reversing a losing streak for Vito that led some of us to write extensively about his losing his grip on power.

Here is what I wrote one year ago, noting Vito's loss of power but also his ongoing corruption:

Clarence Norman, the former head of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, is currently in jail for grand larceny and coercion of judicial candidates.  read more »

I recently wrote about the fierce competition between corrupt Party Boss Vito Lopez's aide, Steve Levin, and social conservative Isaac Abraham for the conservative votes in the 33rd City Council district while progressive reformers Jo Anne Simon and Ken Diamondstone fight over the majority progressive votes. Interestingly, my piece got picked up by several Hasid-targeted blogs as a way of plugging Isaac Abraham among the conservative voters. (The other part of the article covered the 39th district where a parallel fight between Dov Hikind-endorsed Brad Lander and social conservative John Heyer is taking a similar course with progressive reformers Josh Skaller and Bob Zuckerman battling over the progressive majority votes).

Here's what I wrote (in part) about the 33rd District race:

In the 33rd district, Isaac Abraham is a Satmar Hasid who is running on a combined platform of opposition to Vito Lopez (hence technically reform) and what, for the district as a whole, would be extreme conservativism. Isaac Abraham has been a supporter of Connectitcut Senator Joe Lieberman, the former Vice Presidential candidate who became a McCain supporter in 2008. Abraham, who is running in the Democratic primary, has gone on record urging Jewish Democrats to re-register Republican. Abraham supports tax-payer funded school vouchers for private schools, a tradtionally Republican stand. Abraham is also opposed to gay rights and is anti-choice. These stands put him at odds with most of the voters in the district but is in sync with the orthodox Jewish and old-school Catholic neighborhoods. I have met Isaac Abraham and he is a dynamic community activist and entertaining speaker. So he combines a certain odd charisma with activism and...extreme social conservativism.

Competing with Abraham for these conservative votes is the machine candiadte Steve Levin whose boss, Vito Lopez, has connections in the conservative neighborhoods and is pulling strings to get the conservative vote for Levin over Abraham and is exploiting personality conflicts among the Hasids to siphon away votes from Abraham. So Hasids have the choice of voting their values (and so voting for Abraham) or voting according to political alliances and exchange of political favors (and so voting for the machine's Steve Levin). It should be noted that Levin's boss has had a history of supporting Republicans over Democrats before he became Party Boss, and even after that has had a history of actively discouraging challenges to Republicans in Brooklyn, so Vito Lopez certainly has his connections to conservatives. For those who aren't familiar with the Brooklyn machine, keep in mind that the former boss, Clarence Norman, is in prison for corruption and Vito Lopez should also be in prison. Steve Levin, as Vito Lopez's right hand man, cannot have been innocent of the corruption Vito Lopez is known for (for more info, see here here, and here)...

Meanwhile the true progressive reformers, like Jo Anne Simon and Ken Diamondstone in the 33rd...compete over the majority of the district with eachother and with the machine candidates who try to downplay the scandals their respective machines are associated with.

The Villiage Voice has an article that goes into some detail about Steve Levin's candidacy and how it represents a power play by Party Boss Vito Lopez. Here's what they have to say about this race:  read more »

Got this from DDDB:

BROOKLYN, NY (August 4, 2009) — Raising substantial questions about bias and corruption in decision-making by the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, and 25 community group co-petitioners, filed a brief with New York's highest court. The co-petitioners are asking the New York State Court of Appeals to hear their appeal on an adverse ruling on their case challenging the ESDC's Environmental Impact Statement and Blight Study for Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards development proposal.

A key issue in the case is the ESDC's designation of Ratner's handpicked development site as "blighted." The "blight" determination made by the ESDC in 2006 is required to proceed with a Land Use Improvement Project under which most of the Atlantic Yards development proposal is designated.  read more »