Vito Lopez and his Hour-of-Power

Politico
by Maggie Haberman
October 5, 2010

For our latest installment on Andrew Cuomo's visit to Hasidic Brooklyn, a reader forwarded this fresher YouTube video of him visiting the Pupa Hasidic sect on Sunday. At the 56-second mark, he says, "The Assemblyman is my good friend, we do a lot of good work together," as he gestures across the table.

I've asked Cuomo's campaign if there was any Assemblyman there other than Assemblyman Vito Lopez, the Brooklyn Democratic Party chairman who's currently being investigated by the city and the feds. ADDED: A source familiar with the meeting says he was referring to Lopez, the only Assemblyman there. (read more and watch video after the jump)

The Brooklyn Paper
By Aaron Short
October 6, 2010

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.

Look at the photo two stories below -- of Vito about to get in his car.

The story says:

"Over four days, Lopez parked his gray Acura - with its special Assembly license plate, No. 25 - in a reserved spot in front of Battaglia's six-story Glenridge Mews building. Battaglia parked her blue Honda - with Assembly plate 25A - right next to it."

Those Assembly plates are a perk for Assembly Members such as Lopez. But Angela Battaglia? She may be his main squeeze, but they aren't married, and officially they don't live together.

So why is she getting the benefit of special license plates? Can't she afford regular plates on her $350,000 salary?

The New York Daily News had a photo of Vito Lopez using of a Court Officer parking pass when he crashed the meeting yesterday between gubernatorial candidate and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Brooklyn Jewish leaders.

Problem is, it's likely illegal.

One of our sources stated, "The use of a court officer placard in the photo yesterday may be a crime. There is a number on that placard, which could be traced if someone filed a complaint with the NYPD, who could then figure out who it was issued to (and why they "lent" it to Vito) or whether or not it was a fake."

New York Daily News
by Joe Jackson, Erin Durkin and Adam Lisberg
October 4, 2010

Outside of Ridgewood, Queens, home where Vito Lopez spends a lot of time with Angela Battaglia.
Home that Lopez claims as official residence (below) is in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

The head of the Brooklyn Democrats lays his head in Queens.

Assemblyman Vito Lopez, the party boss who was born and raised in Brooklyn, says he lives in Bushwick, which he has represented in Albany since 1985.

That's news to some of his neighbors on the Stanhope St. block where he says he lives. They say they rarely if ever see Lopez around - and couldn't identify him in a photo.

"I know most of my neighbors, but him I've never seen," said Oscar Rodriguez, 32, who lives two doors down.

"I've never seen him," added Patricia Fernandez, 31.

"I've never seen that face," said Jose Torres, 51, who moved out two years ago but comes back every day to visit. "Believe me, we sit here, we watch everybody go up and down the block."

Instead, the Daily News found Lopez arriving at night and leaving in the morning from a condominium owned by his longtime girlfriend, Angela Battaglia - in Ridgewood, Queens.

Capital New York
by Tom McGeveran
October 4, 2010

Each day, the New York tabloids vie to sell readers at the newsstands on outrageous headlines, dramatic photography, and, occasionally, great reporting. Who is today's winner?

The New York Post: The Bushwick patronage mill long associated with Assemblyman Vito Lopez has been getting him in a lot of trouble with the tabloid press these days. Of course, Lopez' office disclaims any direct involvement in the Ridgewood-Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, which has a lock on the development of "affordable" housing in a neighborhood rapidly filling up with valuable hipster tenants. That he was its founder, that his longtime girlfriend works there, and that his campaign treasurer is its executive director, and that its board is made up mostly of senior citizens, at least one of whom was granted the position without her knowledge, is the reason newspapers must resort to the "closely linked" language to describe Lopez' relationship to the organization, despite the fact that locals think of it as belonging fundamentally to him.

But this time it appears that the Feds are dupes in what looks on its surface like a legal if questionable deal, in which Lopez received 25 buildings abandoned after a scam on a Housing and Urban Development department program to refurbish dilapidated and abandoned buildings in the neighborhood. He paid $10 for the buildings, and received millions in federal funds to refurbish them. The only suggestion of wrongdoing is that the work was shoddy, and therefore shouldn't have cost so much, which is apparently enough for investigators (now the Feds are in on Lopez) to look for evidence of kickbacks to construction firms or pocketing of profits by the not-for-profit organization. (Lopez' two "friends" in the organizations have insanely high salaries.)

New York Post
by Tom Topousis
October 4, 2010

A federal housing scandal that left thousands of New Yorkers living in ramshackle homes turned out to be a pot of gold for a not-for-profit group closely linked to powerful Assemblyman Vito Lopez, The Post has learned.

New York Post
by Sarah Ryley
October 3, 2010

Dozens of addicts living at a Brooklyn rehab facility funded by Assemblyman Vito Lopez clocked 16-hour shifts door-knocking, passing out fliers and singing songs of praise to help the embattled lawmaker get re-elected as district leader last month, sources told The Post.

New York Daily News
by Celeste Katz
October 3, 2010

Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Andrew Cuomo, who's been making the rounds of various ethnic constituencies (African-American leaders, Latino leaders) today made his appeal to the Orthodox Jewish community.

And by his side (not by Team Cuomo's invitation)? Embattled Brooklyn Democratic party boss and Assemblyman Vito Lopez.

Although the meetings were listed on Cuomo's public schedule as private, my source tells me Cuomo went to visit both Rabbi Zalman Teitelbaum and Rabbi Aron Teitlebaum, who, as you may know, are the heads of two Satmar factions.

As Maghabe reports, Cuomo also met with the Pupa Grand Rabbi and the Vien Hasidic sect.

According to my source, Cuomo -- perhaps understandably -- "said specifically he [didn't] want to have any pictures with Vito Lopez." (Well, as the philosopher Jagger once said, you can't always get what you want, as evidenced by the above source-supplied pic of Cuomo and Lopez outside Rabbi Zalman Leib Teitelbaum's home.)

Among the topics of discussion, the source said, were the TAP program -- more to the point, the part referred to as "Rabbi TAP," which "guarantees grants of up to $5,000 a year to at least 3,660 students at a few dozen rabbinical schools in the city and suburbs."