Council Candidate Steve Levin: Bored by Nydia, Unenthused by Reform

Though the Optimist used his post yesterday to sneak over the Pulaski Bridge from his home in Greenpoint and weigh in on Queens politics, rest assured, dear readers, that doesn't mean he has stopped paying attention to the important affairs of his own community.

Quite to the contrary, the Optimist has been keeping careful watch on the Council race to succeed David Yassky. That's why David Michaelson's account of this weekend's Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats (CBID) Annual Dinner was of particular interest to him.

The following is an excerpt from Michaelson's (a.k.a. Mole333) account of the event, in which he describes Council candidate Steve Levin's reaction to our Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez's speech about the excitment of the new Obama Administration. If you've never heard Levin's name, you may have nonetheless seen him joined at the hip to his boss Vito Lopez. Personally, every time I see Levin, who is in his late 20s, he strikes me as a person who has sacrificed his youth to the cold, calculating cynicism of old age. I'll let you decide for yourself. Here's Mole:

An interesting side note was that Steve Levin, Vito Lopez's candidate for the 33rd City Council district (where I have endorsed Jo Anne Simon) was in attendence. I was across the room from him during Nydia's speech on helping small businesses and on the thrill of being a Democat with Obama as President. I was struck at how bored and unenthusiastic he seemed on these subjects. I had heard that, despite being Vito Lopez's pick for the seat, he was a nice, decent guy. Yet there he was looking like a teenager someone had dragged to a political event, bored and surly. He would pointedly not clap or clap sarcastically while everyone else was enthusiastically applauding Nydia and Obama. What was up with him?

Then I realized. It was the fact that he WAS Vito Lopez's kid, and Vito Lopez HATES Nydia Velazquez. You'd think Levin would prefer, at a reform Democrat event like CBID's dinner, to show he is NOT so intimately linked to the corrupt Vito Lopez, but instead he chose to emphasize that Vito's petty grudges are his petty grudges.

Either that or he just had indigestion. But the impression he made was not a good one at a moment when the rest of the crowd was quite enthusiastic as progressives and as Democrats.

My Morning Read

Happy President's Day. I hope everyone has the day off! My poor fiancée had to slog to work, so I figured I'd bite the bullet too. But for those of you at home, here's some stuff to occupy your time:

Via Katharine Jose's morning round-up at the Observer's political blog, I found this story in the Washington Post about Governor Spitzer's proposed tax on illicit drugs. The idea isn't quite as wacky as it sounds, but it's still leaving lots of people in Albany, like Brooklyn State Senator Martin Golden, scratching their heads. Look for this to end up the latest legislative (and public relations) disaster for the Spitzer Administration. It's already being derided as the "crack tax".

Mole333 reports at The Daily Gotham that Gloria Steinem is hosting a fundraiser on February 27th for Democrat Steve Harrison in his bid to oust Republican Congressman Vito Fossella of Brooklyn and Staten Island. Suggested donations start at $100.

"Breakfast Beer Run in Brooklyn Turns Heroic". The Gothamist's headline says it all.

Pardon Me For Asking informs her readers that the films of comic genius (and the world's first action star) Buster Keaton are coming to Cobble Hill.

The much-anticipated 15th Annual Book Sale at Park Slope United Methodist Church is this weekend, so sayeth Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn.

The Purchase Building in DUMBO will soon be leveled to improve the view of the planned Brooklyn Bridge Park, according to McBrooklyn.

And Rumproast has ten reasons why life is worth living.

Victories for Vito

Just when you thought Don Vito was out, he keeps pulling himself back in.

2008 has been a good year so far for Kings County Democratic Chairman Vito Lopez. First, Governor Spitzer, who used to rail against machine politics before the machines humbled him, went out of his way in his State of the State Address "to thank Assemblymember Vito Lopez for his career of leadership on the issue of affordable housing."

Then this week, the Gov went one better and ponied up the patronage, filling three out of the four vacancies in the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division with Brooklyn justices. Of course, the U.S. Supreme Court could have struck down New York's backward, boss-driven way of selecting judges based on the orthodoxy of their allegiance to the party machines, but yesterday the Court unanimously ruled in favor of our State's systemic cronyism.

Everybody's favorite Justice (everybody, that is, who eats babies) Antonin Scalia wrote in the court's decision, "Party conventions, with their attendant ‘smoke-filled rooms’ and domination by party leaders, have long been an accepted manner of selecting party candidates." Justice John Paul Stevens quoted Thurgood Marshall in a concurring opinion: "The Constitution does not prohibit legislatures from enacting stupid laws." That much is for certain.

It is no surprise that this lawsuit originated in Brooklyn, since, as mole333 reminds us at The Daily Gotham, our borough's system of picking judges has long been marred by scandal. Now, with the Supreme Court validating this process, there may be no end in sight for this corruption unless our elected officials defy their party leaders and enact legislation changing the system. Even The Optimist has trouble being optimistic about the likelihood of this happening.

But back to Vito. Not only has Lopez won over Spitzer of late, he also has achieved some hard fought victories over his rival, Bronx Democratic Leader Jose Rivera, blocking some of Rivera's handpicked nominees from scoring choice City jobs.

Vito's recent success has him giddy. Today in the Observer, Lopez declares, "Brooklyn is back."

Yeah, but to what? The days of Clarence Norman?

Josh Skaller Raising Dough to Replace DeBlasio

Renowned progressive blogger mole333 has been plugging hard to raise funds for his friend Josh Skaller's 2009 City Council campaign to replace Bill DeBlasio in the 39th District. Having already hosted a fundraiser at his apartment, mole333 (a.k.a. David Michaelson) is now pushing the next Skaller event, which will be held on January 27th.

Skaller is President of Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats (CBID), one of the borough's most potent political clubs, as well as a board member and field director for Democracy for New York City, the local chapter of the national PAC that grew out of Howard Dean's failed 2004 presidential run. Based on these connections, Skaller should be in the thick of the race for DeBlasio's seat, which covers much of Park Slope, Cobble Hill, and Carroll Gardens, but the field is shaping up to be a dense one.

Already there are two other declared candidates: longtime Community Board 6 district manager and New York City Hall of Famer (not for sports!) Craig Hammerman and Brad Lander, director of the Pratt Center for Community Development and former executive director of the Fifth Avenue Committee.

Lander, like Skaller, is new to running for office, but Hammerman ran against DeBlasio in 2001. He'll have to hope to fare better than last time when he finished 6th out of 6 (ouch!) in the Democratic primary. For the record, I think the election results that year went DeBlasio in 1st, then Steven Banks, then you, then your dog, then your dog's brother's third cousin, twice removed, and then Craig Hammerman.

The Optimist doesn't have any word yet on any Hammerman or Lander fundraisers, but if you want to go to Skaller's, here's the nitty-gritty, compliments of mole333:

Host: Wayne Brooks
Location: Wayne's apartment
262 Court Street #2/Butler Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231 US
When: Sunday, January 27, 3:00PM
Phone: 347-645-0581

Norman Siegel Fundraiser Recap Part II

Just as exciting for The Optimist as being introduced to the candidate at yesterday's fundraiser for Norman Siegel in Brooklyn Heights was meeting many of the borough's political advocates that The Optimist has admired from afar.

First, there was David Michaelson (a.k.a. mole333), Managing Editor of the national progressive blog Culture Kitchen, whose own blog Mole's Progressive Democrat - which overlaps with his work on the Daily Gotham - was one of The Optimist's chief inspirations when he decided to venture into the blogosphere. Michaelson, who had his cute 3-year-old son Jacob in tow at the event, co-hosted the fundraiser with his wife Joy Romanski, the Corresponding Secretary of the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, a political club which meets in Park Slope.

The Optimist was also pleased to make the acquaintance of Ken Diamonstone, who is still considering whether to make another upstart bid to unseat the long-entrenched incumbent for his State Senate seat in the 25th District. Diamonstone, who garnered the endorsement of The New York Times and a host of heavyweights in his 2006 bid, was edged out by Connor in the Democratic primary by a miniscule 59 votes in Brooklyn (although he was trounced in the Manhattan portion of the district by over 2000).

Also in attendance at the event were Charlotte Phillips, Chairperson of Brooklyn for Peace, political activist for Democracy for New York City and rumored Queens City Council candidate Dan Jacoby, and the delightful Olga "Pete" Valentine, an off-and-on resident of the same house on Willow Street in Brooklyn Heights for 80 years.

Last but not least was community leader Marjorie Gersten, who graciously opened her wonderful apartment for the fundraiser. Seeing Gersten's apartment was reason enough to attend her superbly organized event.