Vito Lopez, Facing Possible Expulsion, Says He'll Resign State Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez, the once-powerful Brooklyn Democratic leader who has been accused of sexual harassment by multiple women, said on Friday that he would resign. But his offer only inflamed an uproar over his behavior because, a few words later, he said the resignation would not take effect for five weeks, and then he would run for a seat on the New York City Council. The Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, whose own handling of the initial allegations against Mr. Lopez has been widely criticized, vowed to press ahead with an effort to expel Mr. Lopez from the Legislature immediately. And the Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, called for an all-out effort to prevent Mr. Lopez from winning election to that body this fall. "Vito Lopez should not spend another day in office, let alone a whole month," Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said in a statement. He should resign effective immediately, and if he does not, he must be expelled. The denunciations from the state's leading Democratic officials demonstrated the remarkably steep fall of Mr. Lopez. Until he was publicly accused of harassment, he had been a political boss with considerable influence in Brooklyn, where he controlled a sprawling nonprofit agency, the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, that served as a de facto political machine for him and his allies, and in Albany, where he had clout as chairman of the Housing Committee. Mr. Lopez's determination to run for the Council also served as a reminder of the extraordinary staying power of incumbents in New York. Mr. Lopez was easily re-elected last fall, against only nominal opposition, even after he had been censured by the Assembly, and few are ruling out the possibility that he could win an election this fall to the Council. The allegations against Mr. Lopez first became public last August, when the Assembly censured him for sexually harassing two women who worked for him. The New York Times later reported that the Assembly had previously settled two other harassment allegations against Mr. Lopez, but had not made those settlements public and had not referred the allegations to a legislative ethics committee. Then this week, the anger over Mr. Lopez's conduct intensified after the state's Joint Commission on Public Ethics issued a report detailing the behavior alleged by multiple women, and on Thursday, Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Silver, both Democrats, said they wanted the Assembly to expel Mr. Lopez. On Friday, facing rising calls for his ouster from the Legislature, Mr. Lopez, who is 71 and was elected to the Assembly in 1984, tried to quiet the uproar by issuing a seven-sentence statement in which he said he would resign on the last scheduled day of the current legislative session. "Because the citizens of my district voted me back into office last November by an overwhelming majority, I feel obligated to serve out this session of the Assembly," he said. I therefore announce that as of June 20, 2013, the last day of the session, I resign my position. That date was too far-off for many. The Assembly minority leader, Brian M. Kolb, a Republican from Canandaigua, said that "immediate action is required, not a prolonged exit from the halls of the Legislature." Mr. Kolb said: "The process by which this has been handled has been riddled with delays, missteps and decisions that have eroded the public trust. June 20 is not good enough - the time for Mr. Lopez to leave is now. Several rank-and-file lawmakers also said they wanted Mr. Lopez ousted immediately. Assemblyman Brian P. Kavanagh, a Manhattan Democrat, wrote on Twitter: Some lawmakers were even more blunt. "Lopez is living in la-la land if he doesn't think his actions warrant immediate resignation," said Assemblywoman Linda B. Rosenthal, a Manhattan Democrat. His lack of shame is almost as repugnant as his behavior. A lawyer representing Victoria Burhans and Chloë Rivera, two of the women who said they were harassed by Mr. Lopez, said the assemblyman's "many victims deserve an immediate vote on his expulsion." And the National Organization for Women not only asked for expulsion, but also assailed Mr. Silver for what it called "his shameful cover up and protection of a serial harasser" and said "up to this point, Speaker Silver has failed the many women who were harassed by Mr. Lopez, in turn failing every woman who walks the halls of the Capitol." Javier C. Hernández contributed reporting.