Margarita Lopez Torres

Here's a rare glimpse at the usually invisible inter-borough jockeying between two Democratic machines:

It's a check from the Bronx Democratic machine to the campaign of Margarita Lopez Torres, an insurgent Brooklyn surrogate court candidate who has been a huge thorn in the side of the Brooklyn Democratic machine.

Torres not only won the seat and beat the machine, but she led the lawsuit in which Judge John Gleeson wrested control of judicial politics away from county leaders by declaring all judicial conventions unconstitutional [pdf].

The back story here is the rivalry between the two county leaders and colleagues in the Assembly: Vito Lopez in Brooklyn and Jose Rivera in the Bronx, each of whom is jockeying to be the go-to ally of Queens organization.

And there's a personal angle: Lopez donated money to his friend who ran for Assembly against Rivera's daughter, Naomi.  read more »

One final, bizarre note -- and the reason this move was below the radar for so long: the check was never cashed.

UPDATE: The Lopez-Torres campaign and Bronx County officials agree the check was never delivered to the campaign, but disagree on whether the campaign knew the check existed. More on Monday. -- Azi Paybarah

The Hill reports today that House Republican aides and government watchdog groups are taking Rep. Nydia Velazquez to task. The topic? A press release issued by her congressional office on July 15th, which announced plans to endorse Judge Margarita Lopez Torres for the cushy seat of surrogate court judge of Brooklyn.

"We don't believe this advisory is kosher," said Celia Wexler of Common Cause. "The use of congressional staff, congressional equipment, a congressional address, is all not in keeping with the whole policy that you don't use government resources for purely political purposes."  read more »

The Hill also noted that a similiar press release, trumpteting a Torres endorsement back in 2002, was still up on Rep. Velazquez's website at press time. But it's gone now.