A reader passed along the following invitation to a fundraiser hosted by Brooklyn Councilwoman Diana Reyna which features Council Speaker Christine Quinn as a host.
Normally, a fundraiser for a council member headlined by the leader of the body would hardly matter for much, but in this case Reyna is a sworn foe of powerful Brooklyn Democratic Party head Vito Lopez.
Quinn and Lopez have had a strained relationship for a while now, but fundraising for Reyna could only further antagonize a power broker in Quinn’s expected 2013 mayoral campaign.
Reyna served as Lopez’s chief of staff for a number of years before winning a Council seat herself in 2001. During her council tenure however the two had a falling-out, and Lopez ran a candidate, Maritza Davila against her in 2009. Reyna, with Quinn’s backing, won by a few hundred votes, then fended off Davila again when she ran in the general election on the Working Families Party line.
Reyna will be term-limited out in 2013, and some of Brooklyn’s good government types–who viewed Reyna as a hero for her public fight with Lopez–have urged her to run against Lopez for his Assembly seat, something a good fundraising figure could encourage.
Quinn could figure that Lopez will not support her for mayor regardless, especially with a Brooklynite like Bill de Blasio in the race. She could figure that the more distance she has from the Kings County Democratic leader the better, especially after a series of unflattering stories about him in the tabloids last year cast doubt on some of the practices of the massive non-profit he runs, the Ridgewood-Bushwick Senior Citizens Council. Earlier this year, Quinn and the Council took some heat when they sent over $600,000 in pork money to Lopez directed non-profits.
There is also a decent chance that Lopez is no longer the power-broker then that he is now. He has been fighting a resurgence of cancer, and a group of insurgents have been angling to take over the county party.
The Reyna soiree will set partygoers back a cool $250, and will be held later this month at The Beekman in downtown Manhattan.
Details below:
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