Alice Cancel has been dogged by allegations all year that she is Sheldon Silver’s hand-picked successor. Win or lose, she’ll be unable to escape that shadow now that Silver’s political allies in the local Democratic club have gone public with their support.
A flyer this weekend from the Truman Democratic Club — the Silver-Rapfogel Grand Street political machine — announced its official endorsement of Cancel.
Cancel won the Democratic nomination in February for the special election in a closed party process that many decried because of the influence of cooperator Judy Rapfogel, Silver’s chief of staff. When voters had their say in April, Cancel won the 3-way race but, notably, lost East River to Yuh-Line Niou. After convictions of Sheldon Silver and William Rapfogel, Tuesday’s vote will be another big test of whether the local club still has political influence on Grand Street.