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."
Lopez, who is about to go into the hospital for additional cancer treatment shortly, faces a raft of questions about his non-profits that have led the city and state to freeze funding for his Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council and its affiiliates while investigations continue.
So you can see why a Cuomo-Lopez run-in would be... awkward: As our Ken Lovett reported recently, "The state Attorney General's Office is reviewing a new audit submitted by the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council. The audit showed that Lopez's girlfriend and campaign treasurer -- who are staffers at the nonprofit -- were paid $40,000 more than previously reported."
Also accompanying Lopez, I'm told, was protege Councilman Steve Levin.
Now I'm told Lopez went to the Rabbi Zalman Teitelbaum event on the invite of Rabbi David Niederman of the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg, with whom Lopez has close ties, but did not attend the meeting with the other faction.
More photos here and here and here.
Said a Cuomo spokesman: "It was a meeting with the leaders of the Jewish community in Brooklyn attended by over 50 people and he [Lopez] was invited by the Hasidic leaders who organized it."
Apparently, Lopez was in enough of a hurry to make it to one of these meetings that he ended up parking in a bus stop.
More updates from a source who's helping me out on this:
<*>"From all the evidence, seems that Cuomo [didn't know] ahead of time," that Lopez would be on the scene, but after the first surprise, so to speak, they visited [more] rebbes together. Lopez arrived late the first destination (at Satmar-Zalman). He asked, after each gathering, from the rebbe a blessing for his cancer treatment that he will start soon... The last visit was a hostile area for him (it's the Satmar-Aaron faction), so he didn't go. Instead, a newly elected district leader (one of the reform-anti-Lopez-candidates,
Lincoln Restler) was there since they are supporting all the anti-Vito efforts."
