“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.

That tells you most of what you need to know about the Brooklyn Democratic Party, one of the more corrupt political organizations outside the Republican Party.

Things change and things stay the same. Things change in that yes, Clarence Norman got caught and thrown in prison. But things stay the same. Norman's replacement, Vito Lopez, has carried on in similar fashion, though perhaps slightly more subtle about it.

Things change in that the Party Boss, now Vito Lopez, is slowly losing his grip on judicial elections, having lost both Surrogate Court seats and losing the first Civil Court seat. There are clear signs that Vito Lopez is past the peak of his influence, as covered on Room 8, the Brooklyn Optimist and here on Daily Gotham. I notice that on Room 8, where discussion tends to be somewhat rude and personal, the Party Boss apologists can't seriously disagree with the conclusions by the diarist that Vito Lopez's grip is slipping and so resort to assuming the diarist is Gary Tilzer and attacking him. For those who don't know him, Gary Tilzer is the well known if not terribly well liked political organizer who helped engineer Vito Lopez's resounding defeats in the Surrogate Court races, and who helped Yvette Clarke get elected to Congress. Seems to me like the Vito Lopez apologists get so nasty when discussing Gary Tilzer because they know he has managed to hand them some serious defeats. But they seem unable to debate his facts, so they merely attack him personally. Reminds you of the Republican Party, doesn't it? Yes...in many ways the Vito Lopez machine reminds me more of the Republican Party than the Democratic Party: nasty, corrupt, supporting homophobes like Noach Dear and Roger Adler, and running campaigns that rely on NOTHING but smear tactics (most recently done by Vito's new buddy, Michael Tobman).

But change in the judicial elections doesn't offset how much things stay the same in the judicial convention, that institution that was declared unconstitutional by several courts, then was reinstated by the Supreme Court who called it a stupid system, but couldn't rule it unconstitutional.

Things stay the same in that not only does the judicial election look like the same old Soviet-Style system that merely rubber stamps the Party Boss's choices, but it runs together the "leaderships" of Clarence Norman (remember...now in jail) and Vito Lopez.

I heard about this yesterday from some witnesses to the event. But the Daily News has picked it up.

From Alan Flacks:

I attended the Kings County Democratic judicial nominating convention Tuesday. It was orchestrated "Soviet-style." ...the script called for the eight candidates to be designated or redesignated without opposition, even for supposed "open" seats. Before adjournment, each judge candidate got up and gave a short thank-you speech...One "re-up," John Leventhal of the Appellate Division, Second Department (after inquiring if the press was present) thanked now-imprisoned county leader Clarence Norman as well, and another called Lopez "the greatest county leader ever." After adjournment, I spoke with a number of delegates who voted "automatically" and didn't seem to know for whom they were voting. They didn't know, and were just told for whom to vote.
Alan Flacks

Wow...THIS is how the Democratic Party is run in Brooklyn. And THIS is how our judges are picked: political plums handed out by Vito Lopez and rubber stamped by "delegates" who admit they have no clue who they are voting for. Let me emphasize this. Voters are electing judicial delegates who are not even bothering to familiarize themselves with the candidates but rather merely approve whoever the Party Boss tells them to approve. Keep in mind that our Party Bosses, Clarence Norman and Vito Lopez, often give us unqualified, and even criminal, judges. Most recently we had Noach Dear who Vito Lopez backed for judge even though Dear had never praciticed law in his life. It was nothing but a fulfillment of political favors. THAT is how our judicial system works.

The Daily News follows up in an editorial:

Such a fine felon

NY DAILY NEWS - Editorial - 9/19/08

The party calls it a convention. It's not. It's a charade, currently directed by boss Vito Lopez.

Among those who came up through this system is Supreme Court Justice John Leventhal...

After asking whether the press was there and discovering that it was not, Leventhal expressed gratitude to a man who made him: former boss Clarence Norman, who was otherwise engaged in that he's doing three to nine in the Oneida penitentiary for grand larceny and coercion of judicial candidates.

Interviewed Thursday about his remarks, Leventhal said he merely thanked all the party leaders who had supported him through the years, including Norman. Ugh.

I heard differently. I heard from a couple of witnesses that Levanthal GUSHED enthusiasm for BOTH Norman and Lopez. Either Levanthal loves corruption or he has taken ass kissing to a level where even imprisonment of that ass doesn't prevent him from puckering up. More:

Similarly unseemly was the role played at the convention by Jeff Feldman, a one-time party honcho who was indicted with Norman but won dismissal of charges. No longer exiled from the convention, Feldman helped run Tuesday's show.

And wouldn't you know? The bosses gave a thumbs-up to a new term in Brooklyn Supreme Court to Justice Marsha Steinhardt. Feldman's wife.
Surprise, surprise.

Vito's Charade. Vito's Farce. The more things "change" the more they stay the same. Meanwhile, I really wonder how the national and state level Democratic Party leaders view Brooklyn's farcical Democratic Machine. If they find it as embarassing as we do, they might like to help us out here in Brooklyn as we try and fix the system.

And this is the guy who has now placed his aide, Steve Levin, in the City Council seat representing Park Slope, supposedly an anti-machine bastion. And this is the guy Steve Levin praises. And one of the main things we keep hearing from the machine apologists is that they aren't really corrupt...and yet everyone can see their corruption in the way judgeships are treated as plums given to favorites. Keep in mind, Steve Levin was Vito Lopez's aide during much of this.

The Villiage Voice had a good piece about how this year represented three attempts by Vito Lopez to reassert his authority. Had Vito lost the two City Council races, his influence would have been nearly broken. Instead, he lost one but won the biggest win, taking Park Slope. Despite the Diane Reyna win (where his revenge campaign against a former ally who got too independent failed), winning in Park Slope is what most people will remember. Diane Reyna can join several other strong women who refused to play Vito's game and yet still won, but all attention will be on Steve Levin, Vito's boy and now City Councilman in the 33rd.

How could Vito, a year after many were commenting on his political decline, come back so fast to win in what was once a stronghold of Lopez opposition? I would say three factors contributed to this: the eternal divisions among the reform/progressive end of the Democratic Party, the decision by the WFP to join forces with Vito Lopez's corrupt machine, and, probably most powerfully, voter apathy. Credit of course also goes to Vito Lopez himself who, even after defeat, sits and waits for the oppositioin to once again divide itself and then he QUIETLY moves in and conquers his divided foes.

Steve Biviano, Jo Anne Simon, Ken Baer and Ken Diamondstone were four reformers running for the 33rd City Council district. Of them all, Jo Anne Simon was the only one with even a glimmer of hope of winning. This was true from almost the very start. Baer and Biviano were nobodies who picked up almost no endorsements. Diamondstone might have been a contender had he picked up Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats and Lambda Independent Democrats. Once he lost those two clubs, I knew the writing was clearly on the wall in big bold letters: Jo Anne Simon is the only chance to keep Vito Lopez from electing his aide as the City Council representative from Park Slope.

Progressive reform Democrats are good at one, and sometimes ONLY one, thing: forming a circular firing squad that destroys any chances they have of winning. Reform democrats in Brooklyn spectacularly destroyed themselves and, in the process, handed Park Slope to Vito Lopez all nicely wrapped up with a bow. And, not surprisingly, Steve Levin is thrilled as can be and giving full honors to Vito Lopez. Park Slope is now part of Lopez's domain and we can thank the circular firing squad led by Ken Baer, Ken Diamondstone and Dough Biviano.

But they aren't the only ones to blame. It is true that had they all banded together, uniting behind Jo Anne Simon (or had things been differently, I would have urged them all, Jo Anne included, behind Diamondstone) their numbers would have brought a win over Levin...barely. But even divided reformers could have won had there not been two other factors: WFP's alliance with the machine (thus proving that WFP are machine hacks as of this year) and voter apathy. Without these two factors, Steve Levin would be just a random shiny faced kid that Vito Lopez had failed to foist on Brooklyn.

WFP: you have chosen to side with Vito Lopez and you worked hard to bring the corrupt machine's rule into Park Slope. I'd like to say voters will remember this, because Park Slope does not like Vito Lopez and his corruption. Sadly, WFP gambled on voters basically being too apathetic to care...and they were probably right. Show voters some shiny campaign lit and they don't care if Levin kisses Vito Lopez's ass or not.

Voter apathy...if there is one thing you can always count on in politics, even more than the left's skill at forming a circular firing squad, it is that voters are apathetic and even if a politician is caught red handed breaking laws or shamelessly lying, voters will either not vote or vote for the sleazy bastard anyway. In fact, I would argue that more than any other factor, those voters who DIDN'T bother voting in the primary are most responsible for opening their streets to Vito Lopez. I can't tell you how often people have told me they hate Vito Lopez or that Vito Lopez is an embarrassment or whatever else about Vito Lopez. Yet I bet most of those people complaining about Vito Lopez didn't bother to get their butts to the polls to prevent Lopez from moving his crony into our Council seat. Similarly, liberal, pro-gay pro-reform Brooklynites didn't bother voting or caring when Vito Lopez foisted a homophobic, unqualified man named Noach Dear into a civil court judge seat. The fact that Vito Lopez can pretty much do this kind of thing at will, regardless of scandals or the lack of any real qualifications in his candidates really means reform is useless in Brooklyn. If voters really don't care if Vito Lopez runs our neighborhoods like private fiefdoms that he bestows as will, then no amount of unity or activism on the part of groups like CBID, LID, DFNYC or whoever will be able to stop Vito Lopez.

I should note that in the 39th the lack of unity among the progressive reform candidates was not so much of a factor. It is true that Josh Skaller would have had a better shot had Zuckerman and Reilly endorsed him, but the numbers show even that wouldn't have been enough, and, unlike the 33rd, there was no bashing of eachother among the reformers. So I think the WFP/Vito Lopez alliance of corruption and voter apathy were the two main factors in the 39th.

And Lopez knows it. That is why he really can be quite tolerant of reformers no matter how hard we try to get him indicted, ousted or defeated. He can be tolerant because we are little more than gnats buzzing around him as long as voters don't care. I think WFP finally woke up to that this year and basically cut a deal with Lopez. Why not? Both WFP and Vito Lopez know that violating laws, lying and cheating will, in the end, win you elections in NYC with almost no consequences...and plenty of spoils. Park Slope is now added to Vito's spoils system of running things. And I am sure Biviano will continue to vacuously pretend he invented reform in Brooklyn, but really we have proven ourselves little more effective than his delusions.

Congratulations Vito Lopez. You have become just as effective at turning corruption into political power as any corrupt Republican. Democrats around here have no moral high ground when confronted with the crimes of Republicans because we elect our own sleaze. And you know what? The right wing is catching on to that and using the recent WFP sleaze to attack the left on a national stage. So the left in Brooklyn is split between a corrupt machine that supports homophobes and it's WFP allies whose corruption is now helping the right wing attack national Democrats, and several squabbling factions of "reformers" whose uselessness at the ballot was once again demonstrated. Gee...I am so proud to be a Brooklyn Democrat.