The recent vote by the Democratic County Committee to fill Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer’s abandoned State Assembly seat was dominated by issues of loyalty, power—and romance. Instead of supporting Marc Landis, his longtime campaign treasurer, Stringer joined with Congressman Jerrold Nadler to support a senior Nadler staffer, Linda Rosenthal, whom Stringer once dated. Stringer and Rosenthal, director of Nadler’s Manhattan office, were an item more than twenty years ago, a Stringer spokesman says, and Stringer’s decision to push for her in the Dems’ secretive vote was based “on merits and nothing else.” Landis says he’s not sore, but one Dem insider saw it this way: “Now, that was a fucking . . . Marc has been drinking Scott’s Kool-Aid longer than anyone.”

Related:

• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Geoffrey Gray
• Table of Contents: February 13, 2006 issue of New York | Subscribe!