Scott Levenson

It was a split decision yesterday for Brooklyn Democratic County Leader Vito Lopez, who backed one winning judicial candidate (Noach Dear) and one losing judicial candidate (Shawndya Simpson) in yesterday’s primaries.

It was a mixed result in another way, too: Dear was panned by the New York City Bar Association and the New York Times, Lopez’s other judicial candidate won more support from those same institutions.

So, how should we interpret yesterday’s results, in terms of the Brooklyn party organization?

Democratic consultant Scott Levenson, who has won his share of races in that borough, told me last night,

“It’s not just machine politics in Brooklyn. Thinking voters voted for an under-funded candidate with less name recognition [Diana Johnson] because she was more qualified and not the machine candidate. Other insurgent candidates will take notice.”

Another observer of the political scene, who prefers to go by the name Kilgore Trout, emailed me this morning to say,

“I think that this proves that Brooklyn is completely up for grabs by the non institutional players. Neither the Times nor the party hold enough sway to be deciding factors these days.”

Also: after the jump is a roundup of how a handful of brave politicos did in guessing last night’s election results.  read more »

Mathieu Eugene was just sworn into the City Council, according to a reader who, unlike me, is at City Hall today.

Interestingly, though, Eugene still hasn't signed the Council's official paperwork affirming that he is eligible to hold office. Eugene, you'll remember, had some trouble meeting Council requirements after he first won election to the office.

"They're satisified he met all the requirements to hold office," Eugene spokesman, Scott Levenson, just told me, referring to the City Council.

Speaker Christine Quinn is expected to address the matter at a press conference before today's meeting of the full Council.

And for anybody keeping track, score one for Eugene's main adviser, Una Clarke.

An informed reader tells me that a federal judge in Brooklyn is hearing testimony from a consultant to Mathieu Eugene and a high-ranking City Council aide to determine whether Eugene got an unfair advantage in his second run for City Council.

Eugene, for those of you who haven't followed this strange tale, won an initial special election for a council seat in Brooklyn, but didn't take office after he was unable to prove that he was a resident in the district.  read more »

The City Council is doing things a little differently these days, ever since Mathieu Eugene won the vote but failed to prove he met the residency requirements to take office.

After the re-run special election in April, before anybody is sworn in, they'll have to submit documentation to the Council that they meet various requirements to hold office, including not only local residency, but U.S. citizenship.

That last part made one of Eugene's backers, Una Clarke, incensed when I spoke with her recently.

"I would never ever allow him to do that," she told me.

The information is public, she explained, and the Council staff should be able to get it themselves.

Clarke also had this to say: "I am angry about the issue because whenever you are an immigrant you have to go through more scrutiny than anybody else to make sure that you give to America what it gives to you in return. And how many other immigrants have they ever asked? Is it because he's a black immigrant that he would have to do that? Is it because he's a Haitian that he would have to do that? Or is it because he comes from the Caribbean that he be asked to do that?"

A spokesman for Eugene, Scott Levenson, indicated the candidate probably won't be taking Clarke's advice on this.

"Mathieu Eugene will gladly comply with any requests required by the Council in order to fill in the seat," he said.

-- Azi Paybarah

Councilman-elect Dr. Mathieu Eugene, while not conceding that he didn't meet residency requirements to hold office, said today he wants the mayor to call another special election for the seat. And yes, Eugene will be a candidate in that race.

Eugene read from a statement and was surrounded by a cadre of supporters who quickly ushered him away from reporters without taking questions.

Later, Eugene's spokesman, Scott Levenson, said the "lack of clarity" in this part of election law is to blame.

UPDATE: From Bloomberg spokesman John Gallagher:

"Once the Mayor receives written correspondence from Mr. Eugene confirming that he is not taking the seat he is certified for, he will call a special election."

FURTHER UPDATE: According to the city Board of Elections, the soonest this election could be held is April 24.

-- Azi Paybarah

Okay.

A spokesman for Councilman-elect Mathieu Eugene just told me -- not for the first time -- that Eugene absolutely possesses a lease that should clear up the issue of whether or not he had established residency in his district by the time he was elected.

"I did see a lease dated February 1st," said the spokesman, Scott Levenson.

But as stories about the issue have noted, the campaign will not make that lease public. Levenson explained the decision not to display the lease -- which, it seems, would be the easiest way to make all of this go away -- has to do with the fact that the Council is actively investigating Eugene's claim of residency on what the Eugene camp believes to be faulty grounds.

"We disagree with the Council position that he had to be a resident of the district on the day of the election," Levenson said. "Now that the Council had made a ruling that differs from our interpretation, that is our sole focus. Because if you uphold our position, that residency is required prior to certification, none of this becomes an issue."

Levenson said the dispute will likely be resolved in court.

-- Azi Paybarah

Why is this so difficult?

Here are some accounts of the explanations from the campaign of Councilman-elect Mathieu Eugene about when he moved into the district that just elected him.

His campaign spokesman told me shortly after his election that he had signed a lease at an address in his district at the beginning of February.

Then this, from Dave Seifman in the Post:

Eugene's campaign manager, Joe Placide, said Eugene had signed a lease for an apartment in the 40th District on Feb. 1 - nearly three weeks before the results of the election were in.

And a series of odd no-comments to Errol Louis:  read more »

There's no question that Eugene, the first Haitian-born candidate elected to the Council, was living in Canarsie - miles south of the 40th Council District in Flatbush - during his campaign for the office.

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In case you missed the 11:00 news on WNBC last night, producer Jamie McShane emails over a snippet of their story on Bloomberg's threats to back a Queens Democrat for a State Senate seat.

"In conversations, the've made it clear that there are other seats they're looking at," says the Democrat's consultant, Scott Levenson.

Wednesday, April 30By now every television critic, pop-culture theorist, political hack, sociology s  read more »