Gustavo Rivera, Ari Hoffnung Make '40 Under 40' List

Photo illustration courtesy of City Hall

Last week, City Hall published its annual list of rising political stars - the so-called "40 under 40."

A few Bronxites made the grade, including Gustavo Rivera (who trounced State Senator Pedro Espada, Jr. in last month's Democratic primary) and Ari Hoffnung, a Riverdalian who has twice run against Councilman Oliver Koppell (most recently last year when he dropped out before the primary). Hoffnung currently works for the New York City Comptroller Office where he's the Assistant Comptroller for Budget/Chief Policy Officer.

Angel Audiffred, a former aide to Councilman Joel Rivera who's now Manhattan Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez's chief-of-staff, is also on the list.  And so is Rachel Mann, who works for the Advance Group, a political consulting form, and is described as a "Bronx native." (There may be others with Bronx links, but it's unclear where everyone lives or grew up.)

Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. doesn't get a mention because he appeared on a previous list. Ditto several other young(ish) Bronx pols such as Assemblymember Vanessa Gibson and Councilman Joel Rivera.

Click here for City Hall's 2009 list, and here for its 2008 one. 

The Capitol, a sister publication of City Hall, published its own "40 under 40" list back in June.

Four More Years! Koppell Likes the Idea.

Oliver Koppell, one of 35 Council members who will be otherwise employed on Jan. 1, 2010 thanks to term limits, brushed off rumors that he’s going to introduce a bill to extend term limits, according to the Daily News. The law now restricts citywide elected officials, borough presidents and Council members to two four-year terms. But lately there’s been talk, mostly fueled by some New Yorkers’ desire to see Mayor Bloomberg continue in office, about efforts to extend the limits by one more four-year term.

Koppell told the Daily News that he did request that the Council bill-drafting division come up with a bill extending term limits two years ago but that it never went anywhere. But it’s clear that Koppell is a supporter of adding on another term and he thinks voters would go for it if they knew it meant four more years of Bloomberg.

"He's quite popular, and I think people should have the chance to vote for him," Koppell said.

(Somehow, we have the feeling that Anthony Wiener, Christine Quinn and Bill Thompson would beg to differ.)

Extending term limits would upend what is already proving to be a lively race to replace Koppell (not to mention similar efforts in 34 other Council districts). There are now five candidates (including Koppell staffer Jamin Sewell) all from Riverdale, in the mix, and there may be more. They’ve already held fundraisers, launched Web sites, and hit the streets.

We saw a crew of Ari Hoffnung supporters outside the C-Town on Sedgwick Avenue last week. They were wearing orange t-shirts emblazoned with the question, “Got Parking?” and asking passersby to sign a petition calling on Mayor Bloomberg to reduce the number of alternate-side parking days.

All this campaign activity is a year out from next year’s election.

But it will be for naught if the Council succeeds in extending term limits.

Stay tuned.