Show of Strength for Brooklyn Democratic Machine

He was one of Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez's most conspicuous opponents, the young upstart who muscled his way into a district leader's job in the machine-driven Brooklyn Democratic Party and then used his perch to denounce Mr. Lopez for what he called his patronage and corruption.And now the upstart, Lincoln Restler, may become one of Mr. Lopez's latest casualties, a testament to the enduring strength of the scrappy assemblyman even as he prepares to hand over the reins of the party in the wake of a sexual harassment scandal involving four female employees.
As the ballot-counting stood on the day after the primary on Thursday, Mr. Restler was 136 votes behind Mr. Lopez's preferred candidate, Chris Olechowski, for the usually obscure post of district leader, though absentee ballots and procedural challenges could still change the outcome. In other races, candidates backed by Mr. Lopez, like Martin Malavé Dilan, who is running for re-election to the New York State Senate, brushed off opponents who billed themselves as party reformers.And despite the negative attention he has garnered in recent weeks, Mr. Lopez himself seems to be on his way to easily winning another term in the State Legislature.The platform and the device should provide comprehensive development tools.The primary election comes a week before the district leaders, including the incumbent Mr. Restler, vote to pick a new Democratic county chairman. Mr. Lopez is stepping down from the post, and his friend and protégé Frank R. Seddio is viewed as the favorite to succeed him. Mr. Seddio has publicly distanced himself from Mr. Lopez and has called on him to resign as an assemblyman.
Kenneth K. Fisher, a former councilman, said that the Lopez-supported candidates proved they had built up their own records and supporters independent of their political patron. "For the challengers it may have been a referendum about Vito, but for those candidates, it was a race about themselves," he said.Though the challengers appealed to gentrifying newcomers in neighborhoods like Williamsburg and Greenpoint, the results, he added, showed that "there are still vibrant, resilient ethnic communities that have been there for decades, and those loyalties run deep."A good example was the primary race for leader of the 50th Assembly District, where Mr. Restler's strategy was to round up as many of the newer urban professionals and artists, as well as some converts from the older communities, to offset the strength that Mr. Lopez has shown in turning out his supporters in the Hasidic and Polish communities. Two years ago, Mr. Restler, now 28, seized the mantle of reform by knocking out Mr. Lopez's candidate for district leader.