Lopez could represent Ridgewood on Council

From the NY Times:

A criminal investigation into allegations that he sexually harassed subordinates did not deter him. Nor did civil suits accusing him of groping and other unwanted intimacies. Nor censure by the State Assembly, nor the clamor of fellow Democrats that forced him to resign as the party’s chairman in Brooklyn and step down from the Legislature.

The former assemblyman, Vito J. Lopez, is running again, this time for City Council, and despite the lingering scandal, he has at least a fair chance of winning. He is campaigning in Williamsburg and Bushwick in Brooklyn, and in Ridgewood in Queens, working-class neighborhoods where many people have known him for four decades, since he arrived as an energetic young social worker, and where many are grateful for the thousands of apartments and the centers for the elderly and other social services that blossomed during his 28 years in the Assembly.

Frank Carone, a leader of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, which is supporting Mr. Lopez’s chief rival, Antonio Reynoso, admits that Mr. Lopez’s chances are “extremely strong” in an off-the-radar election in which he can, the old-fashioned way, turn out beneficiaries of his largess to cast ballots in the primary next Tuesday.

“He’s pulling out every trick in the book to hold onto some semblance of power,” said Lincoln Restler, a founder of the progressive New Kings Democrats, a group that is also focused on defeating Mr. Lopez.

As evidence, Mr. Restler points out that 6 of the district’s 34 polling places are in properties managed by Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, a nonprofit organization which Mr. Lopez founded in 1973 and which sponsored many of his housing projects. One building has a bronze bust of Mr. Lopez and another a permanent sign over the entrance: “Thank You Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez.”

Mr. Restler and Mr. Reynoso said that when campaign workers tried to knock on doors at Lindsay Park, a 2,700-unit co-op complex and beneficiary of Lopez assistance, security guards warned them that only workers for Mr. Lopez could enter.