NEW YORK
The New York Times
By DANNY HAKIM
Published: August 24, 2012
ALBANY — Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez, one of the last powerful Democratic Party bosses in New York City, was abruptly stripped of his committee chairmanship and censured Friday after he was accused of sexually harassing two women who worked in his district office this summer.
Mr. Lopez, 71, is a longtime fixture of Brooklyn politics, and an irascible kingmaker: he has served in the Assembly since 1984, and has headed the Brooklyn Democratic Party since 2005.
But on Friday, he faced what had once been unimaginable: widespread calls for his resignation, after charges that he verbally harassed, groped and kissed the women without their consent.
Sheldon Silver, the Assembly speaker, who has in the past been criticized for mishandling sexual misconduct claims against lawmakers, surprised the local political world Friday with a sharply worded rebuke of Mr. Lopez, who had been an ally. Mr. Silver not only removed Mr. Lopez as chairman of the Assembly’s Housing Committee, but reduced the size of his staff, barred him from employing interns or anyone under the age of 21 and denied him any perquisites he had accrued based on his seniority.
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