NYT profiles AD-54
9:56 am • 3 September 2011
I found the New York Times profile of the special election in the 54th Assembly District to be a very even-handed and comprehensive summary of the race:
But in this corner of Brooklyn, everybody is connected to somebody.
For three decades, two rival Democratic factions have waged an uneasy peace: the family dynasty led by Edolphus Towns, who is in his 15th term in Congress, and the Brooklyn machine controlled by Vito J. Lopez, a powerful state assemblyman and the borough’s Democratic chairman.
Now an unexpected vacancy in the overwhelmingly Democratic 54th Assembly District, and the entry of Mr. Gonzalez, who is backed by the labor-allied Working Families Party, have set off a scramble for survival and legitimacy, turning an otherwise sleepy special election into a three-way fight.
