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He’s living large — on the union dime.
Assemblyman Vito Lopez, chief of the Brooklyn Democrats, has used campaign cash to splurge on $3,000 worth of prime beef at world-famous Peter Luger Steakhouse in the last three years.
He spent $790 at Luger’s — where a porterhouse for two runs $90 and a plate of sliced tomatoes costs $15 — in the past five months, according to campaign filings.
Friends of Vito Lopez filed bills for the meals under “constituent services” in the state Board of Elections expense code, which is usually reserved for district office renovations, supplies and telephones.
His campaign committee also shelled out $4,000 at Whitey Produce, a Canarsie grocer, and spent $3,500 on a Long Island clown company that does face-painting.
And this doesn’t include $40,000 in AmEx bills and $12,000 in un-itemized expenses.
Who’s paying for all of it? That would be contributors like Plumbers Local Union 1, the Building and Construction Trades PAC, the New York State Court Officers Association and Genting New York.
So far this year, Friends of Vito has raised $128,000 for the Williamsburg assemblyman.
Lopez refused to comment on the expenses, and the treasurer for his campaign committee, Christiana Fisher, didn’t return calls.
The practice is legal, which, according to good-government advocates like Dick Dadey of Citizens Union, is the problem.
“There’s no effective oversight and enforcement,” Dadey said.