Congressman Michael Grimm and BYR Treasurer Glenn Nocera

Michael Grimm’s election in the 13th Congressional District on November 2, 2010 was a showcase of fine Republicanism and grassroots activism. This was the target race in all of New York City, if not New York State. What made Grimm’s campaign important was that he was part of the Republican insurgency of the House of Representatives to defeat Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi and introduce a different breed of conservatism in Congress. The seat, formerly held by Michael McMahon, is strategic to conservatives in New York. Why? Because it covers vital Republican strongholds located in Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights. The location was the decisive factor in helping Michael Grimm get elected, which included Brooklyn Young Republicans who, by pounding pavement, helped spread the word.

Michael Grimm’s election, however, was one of the very few Republican victories in Brooklyn. While he and Nicole Malliotakis claimed victory Tuesday night in large part due to many Republican votes from the larger Staten Island portions of their districts, other Brooklyn Republicans went back to their homes to no avail. Phyllis Carbo lost with only 34% of the vote in the 47th Assembly District.  Brian Doherty lost with 38% in the 48th AD.  Peter Cipriano also lost with 38% in the 49th AD.

The 58th and 59th Assembly Districts had no Republican candidates running.

And, my favorite: the 46th Assembly District attempted to run a Republican Candidate against Alec Brook-Krasny, but was swiftly knocked off the ballot and Brook-Krasny ran essentially unopposed. Needless to say, those District Leaders in the 46th have some explaining to do.

The numbers can be upsetting.  After all, Republicans do have a lot to offer to New York City and to Albany. Free markets, low taxes, a revamped welfare system, and transparency all contribute to good government. But with election numbers this low in Brooklyn in one of the best years for Republicans in quite some time, a few things come to question.

1) How does the Chairman allow Democrats to run unopposed in districts, especially Democratic Chair Vito Lopez’s handpicked State Supreme Court judge nominees (whom Brooklyn Republicans always cross-endorse)? Republicans are some of the best and brightest in the borough. The question begs, why is there no effort being made to tap into and cultivate a Republican intelligencia?

2) The 46th AD leadership is weak. Not running a candidate is one thing, but dropping a candidate off the ballot is another. With the fervent anti-incumbency feel running rampant throughout the country, District Leaders Clorinda Annarummo and Simon Shamoun had the opportunity to surgically remove a career politician. The question begs, why didn’t they?

3) The low voter turnouts, lackluster campaigns and candidacies, and low vote percentages are unacceptable. For far too long, the Republican Party has been receiving far too few votes in virtually any election. The question begs, why is the Chairman doing nothing to change this?

And so, the question ultimately begs, what are Brooklyn Young Republicans willing to do to fix this?

Two Bushwick centers affiliated with Assemblyman Vito Lopez — one of which that’s already under investigation played host to serious election fraud that helped secure a Lopez victory last month, poll workers charged this week.

A Primary Day poll worker at the Hope Gardens MultiService Center asserted that other workers hired by Lopez ignored homecare aides employed by the Lopez-affiliated Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Homecare Council who escorted seniors into the voting booth and marked their ballots for Lopez.

Hon. (?) Vito Lopez

“The home attendants went into the booth with every one of them,” said the source. “Sometimes there were two attendants. They even pointed to the [Lopez] box to fill in. One time, a senior voted for Lopez’s opponent and they brought the ballot back and said, ‘He made a mistake.’ ”

State election law allows a resident to be assisted in marking a ballot by a person selected by the resident. But the law prohibits a voter’s assistant from “seeking to persuade or induce the voter to vote any particular ticket or for any particular candidate.”

The source also charged that a translator, hired by Lopez as a poll worker, was telling seniors how to vote — and who to vote for.

Read the rest here.

Brooklyn Dem Boss Vito Lopez

The investigations are continuing and the reformer effort picked up a few hard-fought district leader wins on primary day. But that does not mean a change will soon be coming to the Brooklyn Democratic leadership, as even those who might like to see one admit.

“I’ve given up predicting the future, especially when it comes to Vito Lopez,” said Council Member Lew Fidler, on his way into St. Francis College for the county committee meeting last Monday, as protesters chanted “Let! Us! In!” behind him.

Fidler, who was one of the lieutenants who helped engineer Lopez’s leadership takeover in 2005 and has since fallen out of favor with the man at the top, pointed out that there is a statutory process to allow the county committee to remove the leader mid-term. Lopez’s re-election victory at the meeting, then, does not necessarily protect him until 2012. Given that even Clarence Norman continued serving for a year and a half after being indicted, though, the only scenario in which a vacancy at the top seems plausible to most people involved with Brooklyn Democratic politics is if he voluntarily abandons the position as part of a deal to avoid prosecution—should any of the investigations yield problematic results.

Still, the speculation and name-bandying has begun.

“This is selecting a new pope,” as one insider put it.

Read the rest here.

Assemblyman Vito Lopez of Brooklyn stands blinking in the spotlight these days — the latest pol to trip while dancing the member-item mambo.

On Thursday, the city finally hit the brakes on new contracts with the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, the social-service operation that forms his political power base and gobbles up nearly $100 million a year in public funds.

The feds are eyeing the nonprofit’s finances, and city investigators are continuing a probe that has already uncovered massive corruption.

As The Post first reported, Lopez has been steering hundreds of thousands of dollars in member-item pork to the council, where his girlfriend and campaign treasurer earn a combined $1 million and where a clueless board rubber-stamps their largesse.

Lopez joins a host of major offenders who’ve pulled similar cons:

Read the rest here.

Assemblyman Vito Lopez “abused” his office when he called a city employee and asked him to provide documents that he wanted to used in a bid to kick a political opponent off the ballot this year.

Good government groups blasted Lopez (D-Williamsburg) for placing a call to Housing Authority Intergovernmental Affairs Director Brian Honan last week, reminding him to appear in court and bring information regarding the leases of his opponent’s campaign workers.

Lopez is head of the Assembly Housing Committee and is invaluable to Honan on a variety of state legislation. That relationship colored the whole interchange, said Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause, a government watchdog.

“The head of the housing committee calling a functionary in an agency over which he has direct oversight is an abuse of power,” said Lerner. “It’s not a courtesy reminder. It is an attempt to use his own personal political purposes for political gain and that’s improper. It looks like an attempt to intimidate the witness.”

Citizens Union Executive Director Dick Dadey agreed, saying that Lopez’s actions in the race were “outrageous” and “mind-boggling.”

“He may have abused the power of his office by requesting a city employee to participate in a political election dispute,” said Dadey. “It crosses a line that should be allowed.”

The concerning incident began last week, Lopez, who is also the chairman of the Kings County Democratic Party, sued Esteban Duran, his primary challenger for a district leader position, alleging that Duran’s nominating petitions contained widespread fraud and should be invalidated.

Read the rest here.

Source: Edward Isaac-Dovere / City Hall News

A collection of elected officials in Brooklyn are backing candidates running against Vito Lopez’s preferred choices for state committee spots, putting them at odds in a race that could ultimately determine who holds the title of county leader in the years ahead.

Jumaane Williams, Tish James and Diana Reyna are endorsing Lincoln Restler, the 26-year-old activist seeking the male state committee spot in the Assembly district represented by Joe Lentol, which covers Ft. Greene, Williamsburg and Greenpoint. Restler is running against Warren Cohn, the son of Lopez ally Steve Cohn, who retired shortly after Restler announced his candidacy earlier this year.

Restler is one of several people hoping to unseat long-serving incumbent members of the state committee in Brooklyn in what amounts to proxy opposition to Lopez’s leadership.

“If there was ever a moment where voters are disgusted with the status quo, it is right now, right here in New York City, in New York State, in Brooklyn,” Restler said Wednesday, during a break from campaigning. “We’re coming full force.”

In addition to the three Council endorsements, Restler has also gotten an unofficial nod of support from Rep. Nydia Velázquez, who, along with James and Reyna, serves on the committee on vacancies Restler has appointed for the petitions he is carrying. Running on a platform of reforming the judicial selection process and getting the county committee to back more committed progressive, Restler said he hopes to repurpose some of the field success and voter engagement of the 2008 Obama campaign in his and other state committee races.

The three endorsements, Restler said, fit with that approach, which he said he hoped would eventually lead to a win in September and, eventually, a replacement for Lopez at the head of the Brooklyn Democratic Party.

Read the rest here.

State Sen. Carl Kruger’s $2.1-million campaign war chest brings new meaning to the phrase “money to burn.”

With no viable competition this year, Kruger (D–Sheepshead Bay) has spent a good chunk of that money on high-priced hotels ($8,630), swanky restaurants ($13,000), his car ($8,939) and even his iTunes account ($302), according to an investigation spearheaded by our sister publication, the New York Post.

But the biggest campaign expenses were saved for a massive renovation of his office on Avenue U and East 22nd Street, on which Kruger spent more than $90,000, including more than $23,000 on office furniture.

He also billed his campaign account nearly $1,000 for plumbing in his office bathroom. Donors also poneyed up the additional $288 that Kruger spent on bathroom supplies.

Read the rest here.

After a week of tight-lipped silence, state Sen. Carl Kruger is finally speaking out about the FBI’s probe into his campaign practices, saying that he’s just an innocent patsy despite allegations that he sold his sizable political clout at high-priced fundraisers.

“All I know is that I’m a victim in this whole thing,” Kruger (D–Sheepshead Bay) said about the arrest of local restaurateur Michael Levitis, who was caught on tape telling another restaurant owner that the senator would take care of his problems if he held a fundraiser.

In this case, though, Levitis was just bragging that he knew Kruger, the senator said.

“This guy went around boasting that he knew me and made representations that the government saw right through,” Kruger said.

Kruger claimed that the federal government isn’t investigating his campaign, even though Levitis, the manager of the Rasputin Supper Club on Coney Island Avenue and Avenue X, allegedly agreed to help funnel $2,000 to Jason Koppel, Kruger’s chief of staff, from the other restaurateur, who was acting as an agent for the FBI.

Read the rest here.

Source: Aaron Short / Brooklyn Paper

A war of words is breaking out between two young challengers for North Brooklyn’s next Democratic District Leader — and Brooklyn’s judges are in the middle of it.

Less than a week after outgoing Greenpoint District Leader Steve Cohn praised Brooklyn’s judges during his political club’s annual fundraiser, insurgent candidate Lincoln Restler slammed both Cohn and his son, Warren, for perpetuating “cronyism” and favoritism within the Democratic Party.

Warren Cohn, a 23-year-old community liaison for Rep. Ed Towns (D-Williamsburg), is hoping to succeed his father, who declined to seek re-election for the largely political seat that he has held for 27 years. Despite the different Cohn running for the seat, Restler, 26, continued to attack the father for his close ties to the county’s judges.

”Of course Steve Cohn loves Brooklyn’s judiciary,” said Restler. “Brooklyn’s highly politicized judicial selection process has allowed Steve Cohn to profit greatly as the longtime secretary of the Brooklyn Democratic Party with a key role in selecting judges, and a lawyer in the Downtown Brooklyn courts system who was at one time the largest single recipient of courthouse patronage.”

Read the rest here.

Source: Tom Tracy / Brooklyn Paper

You’ve heard of “Million Dollar Baby”? Well, meet Democratic District Leader candidate Hope “The Moose” Reichbach — Brooklyn’s $20,000 baby.

The scrappy Reichbach was poised to raise that number on Wednesday night by merging political science and the sweet science during a fund-raiser/exhibition boxing match at the famed Gleason’s Gym in DUMBO.

“I’ve trained at Gleason’s Gym for over nine years now,” said Reichbach, whose vying to unseat Jo Anne Simon as female district leader in Brownstone Brooklyn and DUMBO’s 52nd Assembly district this September. “In one of my college entrance essays, I wrote about how I both boxed and was the captain of the debate team and how the two are intrinsicly linked.”

Read the rest here.