Louis knocks out the competition in council race

We might have been a bit premature with our suggestion that the New York City Council speaker is already mayor. But with the city’s real mayor – Bill de Blasio – officially launching a long-shot bid for the White House, there’s going to be an even bigger political and policy vacuum at City Hall, and Johnson’s just the man to fill it. If he can come up with viable strategies to combat homelessness, fix public housing and figure out what to do with Rikers Island, it’ll only help him in his effort to officially replace de Blasio in 2021

Say orevwa to Miami, the new Little Haiti is in Central Brooklyn after former Jumaane Williams staffer Farah Louis emerged victorious in a special election Tuesday to fill the ex-councilman’s empty seat. She may be part of the growing Haitian-American bloc in local politics, but she won thanks to a multicultural coalition … that she’s hoping will stick together when she has to defend her seat in the primary election, just a month away.

Goodbye bureaucracy, hello political freedom! OK, presidential campaigns have rules to follow too, but we’re betting de Blasio’s top campaign aide is happy to be leading BdB’s rag-tag band of campaign staffers, even if it’s heading towards likely defeat in the Democratic primary. And who in their right mind wouldn’t take an all-expenses paid trip to the Iowa State Fair?

The third-most important Trump kid won some brownie points from daddy this week after getting into a Twitter spat with Mayor Bill de Blasio. The mayor had wanted to talk about how the president’s buildings are emitting too many greenhouse gases – but was overshadowed by protestors and Tony Bennett blasting at full volume in Trump Tower. Then Eric Trump baited the mayor into a social media squabble that showed once again how much Hizzoner and the Donald have in common. 

We’re not sure we’ve ever had a sex offender as a winner before, but there’s a first time for everything … not that we’re planning to make this a trend. But as of this week, Weiner is officially a free man after getting released from his halfway house. Sure, he’s a registered sex offender, but freedom! Who knows what the future holds for Weiner now? Perhaps very little, given his record. But for now, he can enjoy the simple pleasures, like procrastinating making his sex offender status official.

The CEO of the Williams Companies will head back to the drawing board after the Cuomo administration blocked a proposed natural gas pipeline between New York and New Jersey. A lobbying effort featuring Maggie Moran, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s 2018 campaign manager, didn’t make a difference, but the company can still apply again for state approval. However, the resistance to the pipeline and other fossil fuel projects show that environmentalists are not about to go easy on Armstrong, nor the Oklahoma-based energy company he leads.

To U.S. Rep. Chris Collins, nothing shows “absolute poor judgment” like the use of a private email server to conduct public business. That, at least, is what he said about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016. But as the indicted congressman fights insider trading charges, his lawyers are bringing up his use of private email for public business in an attempt to shield some some communications from being brought into evidence. Unlike Clinton, Collins is still in office, but he shouldn’t be surprised if a chorus of “Lock him up!” follows him around in 2020.

New York City Councilman Barry Grodenchik is just the latest public official to fess up to sexual harassment in the workplace, admitting this week that he paid unwelcome and inappropriate attention to a female staffer. Grodenchik stepped aside as parks committee chairman and agreed to pay for his own sexual harassment training, meaning the councilman is losing two things all politicians love: power and money.

In yet another reminder of the way that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio runs things, Jeremiah Reichberg was sentenced this week to four years in prison for various pay-to-play schemes involving the NYPD and City Hall. Remember when Reichberg’s pal Jona Rechnitz testified that they used to collect illegal straw donations for de Blasio? Or when he hosted a fundraiser for de Blasio at his Brooklyn home and was placed on his inaugural committee? Move along, nothing to see here.

Until very recently, John Stemen had been a longtime aide to Rep. Anthony Brindisi. That changed when he got charged with patronizing a prostitute who was 40 years his junior. Not only did Stemen get arrested, but he lost his job too. It’s too bad for him that the push to decriminalize sex work, including for the johns that pay for it, hasn’t advanced in Albany yet. It wouldn’t have made this 57-year-old’s relations with a 17-year-old any less skeevy.