Jeff Gottlieb (photo: jeffgottliebforcongress.com)

Political operative Jay Golub is primarily handling the signature gathering operations for Jeff Gottlieb's congressional campaign in Queens, but he also seems to be handling the press at this point, and earlier this morning, he repeatedly told The Politicker that the various allegations against the campaign will be responded to, just not now.

Notably one of Mr. Gottlieb's rivals for the Democratic nomination, Assemblyman Rory Lancman, has argued not only that Mr. Gottlieb is part of a plot orchestrated to split the district's Jewish vote, but is "one of the hackiest hacks in all of hackdom.”

"And what Lancman said about him ... I respect the Assemblyman, but his comments have gotten a little too aggressive," Mr. Golub said. "But Jeff will have a response to this in due time."

"I mean, he's only 6 days into this, 7 days," Mr. Golub further explained when asked why the campaign had been publicly silent until blog reports emerged yesterday morning. "There'll be more than enough time for him to make announcements later on."

Mr. Gottlieb's campaign itself came about rather suddenly. Indeed, he was collecting signatures for one of the other Democrats in the congressional race, Assemblywoman Grace Meng, up until last week. When asked what brought about Mr. Gottlieb's abrupt decision to campaign for the race himself, Mr. Golub again urged patience.

"This is the kind of thing he'll address after the petitioning process is over," he said. "The one thing I can say is he looked around, looked at the candidates who are running, and thought he'd be a very good candidate."

When asked about City & State's report that, according to sources, "Meng backers" attempted to recruit another Jewish candidate into the race before settling on Mr. Gottlieb, Mr. Golub again suggested Mr. Gottlieb's answers would be coming at a later point in time.

"I really cannot comment on what the Meng campaign did or did not do," he said. "From my contact with Jeff, he never mentioned it."

Daniel Peterson (Photo: Facebook)

Two candidates, one Democrat and one Republican, each have opened committees and are looking at possibly running for term-limited Queens Councilman Peter Vallone's seat in 2013. Democratic District Leader Costa Constantinides and former New York Young Republican Club President Daniel Peterson are both actively considering campaigns while declining to officially declare their intentions to run.

In a recent interview, Mr. Peterson, who also sits on the Queens Republican Executive committee, confirmed that he's exploring a bid for the Council seat but stated he hasn't made a definite decision yet.

The Republican indicated that his largest concern is the ideological direction of New York City and the lack of conservative voices to balance the overwhelmingly Democratic City Council.  "New York City leans too much one way politically, and there needs to be a little more moderation to balance it out," he said. "I don't think 5 -- now 4 -- [Republican] Council Members is enough to bring that balance."

Although every elected official in northwestern Queens is Democratic, Mr. Peterson says he would have a decent shot at victory. "It is going to be an uphill fight, but it is more of a moderate Democratic district. It voted for Bloomberg and it supported Giuliani."

If Mr. Peterson does enter the race, he could easily be running against a Democrat who's been exploring a run for a bit of time already, and who's raised over $20,000 so far: Mr. Constantinides.

"I've been working for the Council for five and a half years. I know how to get things done for this community," Mr.  Constantinides said in a recent interview with Roberto Perez when asked to give his pitch to voters for a hypothetical candidacy. "I understand the needs of the neighborhood because I'm out there every single night, every single day, talking to the people of this district, finding out the things that they need. I think I can deliver those things based on my experience."