Charles Bilal, an unsuccessful City Council candidate in Queens, was fined $14,650, including $10,000 for “fraud and/or misrepresentation.” He was also fined for having “$35,000 in non-campaign related expenditures.”

Felipe Luciano, an unsuccessful City Council candidate in Manhattan, was fined $51,690. Most of it, $48,190, was for “exceeding the expenditure limit by $19,276” [name fixed].

And Inez Dickens, who won her 2005 City Council race in Manhattan, was fined $2,657, mostly for filing a financial statement 13 days late.

The former 1199 staffer prevailed over Felipe Luciano by 84 votes.

Mark-Viverito's win, along with Darlene Mealy's win in central Brooklyn, is a mark of how powerful the "progressive" wing of the labor movement, and its agent, the Working Families Party, have become in local races that have dropped off the radar for unorganized citizens and other interest groups.

Some commentators, notably Fred Siegel, are dismayed at this trend, but at this rate, the City Council may just have to declare itself an 1199 local one of these years.