Dateline: Still on Vacation and Still in Brooklyn.
It appears to be all over but the shouting (which will probably get louder) and Frank Seddio appears to be the next Brooklyn Dems Leader.
"Meet the New Boss," says Colin, uttering an old cliché implying that there is really nothing new, but for reasons of temperament alone (not that there aren't other reasons), I suspect that a Seddio administration augers return to the days where the County Leader was more of an honest broker than an enforcer.
My feeling is that we are returning to the days of a more decentralized party. There are some downsides to that, but it is clearly a time for a course correction.
Let every neighborhood find its own way. Let a thousand flowers bloom!
Whether other problems frequently raised by "reformers" and others will be addressed remains to be seen, though it should be noted that among Seddio's allies were some of the Regulars most sympathetic to process reform.
I expect a few big symbolic gestures, a few small incremental changes, and an effort to avoid unnecessary fights and unnecessary embarrassment. No Consensus for Camara; Seddio Seems Set to Replace Vito Lopez politicker.com
Seddio calls on Lopez to resign from the Assembly.
Some thoughts.
1) Some have tried to dismiss the significance of this, noting it came with an "if"; however, some of these same people were not nearly so reticent about so characterizing the Governor’s statement of a few days ago even though it was similarly conditional.
2) Lopez resigning is problematic.
If Vito resigned today, he would still be the Democratic candidate in November, and would still win.
There are three ways Lopez could potentially be removed from the ballot.
However, not being a lawyer, Lopez can't be nominated for a judgeship (and even if he could…) and dying seems unlikely, for despite his many long and short-term illnesses, Lopez will probably outlive us all.
The third option would be for Lopez to move out of Brooklyn.
Upon opinion and belief, he's already done that and it's had no effect whatsoever.
Anyway, if he did give up the nomination and threw in his District Leadership as well, Lopez would still control his area's County Committee and therefore would be able to handpick the eventual nominee, so I still say NKD and Nydia should still find a write-in candidate, and all things being equal, I think Lopez would be easier to beat in that manner than anyone he handpicked.
At any rate, expulsion seems likely either based on a JCOPE investigation or by building upon the existing ethics committee report. Such a possibility might be the one thing which could spur a post-election resignation.
A post election resignation would result in a special election in which Vito would control the Democratic nomination, but at least someone could then put their name on the ballot against whoever that would be. Such a person would be far more likely to be beaten in a low turnout special election than anyone Vito substituted now to be on the ballot during a Presidential election.
Bottom line to NKD: if you don't want to run a write-in candidate in the fall, hold your horses on really pushing for that resignation in earnest until after the general election (though doing so before the primary for show is perfectly understandable). Frontrunner candidate for Brooklyn county chair calls Vito Lopez to resign from his Assembly seat www.nydailynews.com
Based on this Juan Gonzalez column, "Run Diana Run" is an idea which may have been superseded by "Talk Diana Talk," but the case for a write-in campaign against Lopez (if not Reyna, perhaps Evelyn Cruz) gets more compelling by the minute.
Run Somebody Run! It's time for City Councilwoman Diana Reyna, the former chief of staff for Vito Lopez, to speak up a www.nydailynews.com
The fact that Lopez did not want to settle and was bashed into submission by Shelly to keep things quiet, the fact the settlement agreement forced the women into silence on the threat of financial penalty, and the fact that the Speaker and his staff have blatantly lied about who the confidentiality agreement was really to benefit, reveal an Assembly Leadership intent upon holding its power by indebting its members to the Speaker in the manner of an offer which could not be refused.
I'm not saying Lopez should not resign (although I have issues with the timing)–I am saying that, given the collapse of Lopez's power is already a work in progress and near completion, his resignation seems to be small potatoes compared to the one we should be discussing. Vito Lopez staffers initially demanded $1.2 million hush payout: sources www.nypost.com
Though neither personal knowledge nor wrongdoing has been established, it is hard to believe that Schneiderman and DiNapoli would not have been briefed about their offices' involvement in something of this nature. The public really has a right to learn what (if anything) they knew and when (if at any time) they knew it. Officials Briefed on Lopez Settlement online.wsj.com