Just last week, Assembly Member Dov Hikind appeared to be preparing to back Noach Dear for the City Council seat being vacated by Simcha Felder. Simultaneously, Hikind was said to be urging Joe Lazar not to run.

That was last week.

At an event on Thursday night in Brooklyn for Council Member Brad Lander, Hikind indicated that he will back Lazar, a longtime local government employee and the man Hikind was backing for the seat before the term-limits extension, according to a source briefed on the event.

Reached by phone, Lazar said that though Hikind had not made a formal endorsement, one is expected when Lazar officially kicks off his campaign in the coming days.

“We have not formally announced an endorsement, but I expect to be formally endorsed when I do announce,” Lazar said.

Previously, Hikind has said that he would endorse either Lazar or Dear, the former Council member and current Brooklyn Civil Court judge, to replace Felder. Hikind said his main goal was to unite Boro Park in opposition to David Greenfield, another candidate in the race who is seen as the strongest contender in the areas outside of Boro Park. Some political insiders believed Hikind would end up backing Dear for the seat.

But although Dear was seen by many as the most formidable candidate to run against Greenfield, given his decades of building name recognition on the Council, he has been slow to announce his intentions for the race, and as a sitting judge has been unable to formally campaign. In addition, Lazar already has over $116,000 in his campaign account for the race. Greenfield has a formidable treasury as well.

Insiders in the neighborhood see Dear as unlikely to give up his lucrative judgeship unless he is assured a clear path to the Council seat, so Hikind’s support of Lazar could lessen Dear’s chances of running for the seat.

Lazar said he did not know whether Dear still has any plans to run for the seat. Reached by phone late Thursday, Hikind declined comment.

Dear could not be reached for comment.

Greenfield is Hikind’s former chief of staff, but the two have had a distant relationship in recent years. In response to the news of the forthcoming endorsement, a source close to Greenfield quipped: “Yesterday Dov was with Noach, today Lazar. At this rate, the Assemblyman could be supporting David in a few weeks.”