On the last City Council session that he attended as a visitor, Steve Levin stood outside the Council chambers and received congratulatory fist-bumps from residents of the north Brooklyn district he was soon to represent.
The occasion was the passing of a plan to build housing at the Broadway Triangle, a desolate stretch of land in Williamsburg. Levin had worked on the plan since he began as chief of staff to Vito Lopez, the Brooklyn Assemblyman and head of the county Democratic Party.
“I remember looking at this on the calendar two years ago,” he said. “This is very gratifying.”
Levin enters the Council under the widespread assumption that he will be little more than Lopez’s man in city government.
It is not a point that Levin disputes.
“I have a tremendous amount of respect for Vito Lopez,” he says. “I treasure the time I spent in his office. He taught me everything I know about politics, and I will look to him for guidance, no doubt about it.”
Levin credits his former boss with being instrumental in his decisive victory in the September primary. He says Lopez spent most of his evenings in the campaign headquarters, making phone calls and devising a canvassing strategy. They would break for the Yankee game, then work until 1 or 2 o’clock in the morning.
“When Vito supports you, it’s more than just writing your name on a piece of paper,” Levin said. “He was there with the campaign every night. I am someone he really believes in, and this is something he wanted to be successful.”
Levin’s campaign split the district. Most of newspaper editorial boards shied away from Levin because of his ties to Lopez. The political clubs and good government groups went with JoAnn Simon, a district leader from the brownstone belt, or Evan Thies, a former aide to the previous officeholder, David Yassky.
“His opponents attacked Steve not on the issues but because he’s associated with me, and you can’t campaign on that,” Lopez said. “The ‘boss’ issue didn’t resonate that well. They played only one card and that card didn’t resonate.”
But those ties proved a boon to Levin as well, scoring him high-profile endorsements from such luminaries as Chuck Schumer and Carolyn Maloney, neither of whom wade much into the murky waters of local elections.
Levin received help from other political bigwigs as well. He is related to Michigan Sen. Carl Levin and U.S. Rep Sander Levin, and spoke for an hour with the congressman when he was deciding whether or not to jump in the race. (He had briefly considered going to law school instead.)
Levin says that his focus in the Council will be on the economy, increasing affordable housing, and limiting rampant development in the neighborhood.
And he says he looks forward to getting started.
“When put into the world of politics, I’ve always felt like I could hold my own.”
