U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand believes Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is able to perform the largely ceremonial roll of announcing New York’s delegates to re-nominate President Obama this evening, even as the scandal surrounding the Vito Lopez case continues on.

“I believe the speaker is perfectly poised to be able to offer our votes and he will do so proudly on behalf of our state. I think what’s happened with the allegations concerning Vito Lopez are alarming, are disgraceful, are disgusting, are things that have no place in public life. Certainly no place in our Legislature and we need transparency and accountability and I think it’s important that we get transparency and accountability going forward. I think the investigations are important and they will go forward and we will see the facts as they go along.”

The roll call is a perfunctory action, but it’s a prominent role for New York and comes with a view seconds of TV time, making Silver the face of the state as he faces local troubles.

Gillibrand spoke to the New York delegation this morning at their daily breakfast in Charlotte for the Democratic National Convention and is due to speak to the Iowa delegation on Friday.

Her Republican opponent this fall, attorney Wendy Long, has hammered away at the Lopez case, saying that Silver should step aside while the investigations in to sexual harassment claims move forward.

In a statement, Long says Gillibrand should get “off the sidelines” and call on Silver to at least temporarily step down from his powerful post during the inquiries.

“As New York Democrats rally in Charlotte and attempt to distract attention from jobs and the economy with talk of a phony ‘war on women,’ they turn their back on systematic and government-sanctioned sexual harassment back here in New York. It’s time for Senator Gillibrand, self-anointed protector of women’s rights, to get ‘off the side lines’ and call on Speaker Silver to step aside while investigations by JCOPE and Staten Island District Attorney Donovan proceed.”

Silver approved more than $100,000 in settlement money for the alleged harassment victims of Lopez, a once powerful Brooklyn assemblyman who has been stripped of his Housing Committee chairmanship and resigned from his county Democratic leadership post. Both jobs had made him a power broker both in Albany and in the borough.

Silver has asked Lopez personally to resign, but was rebuffed. Lopez released a statement yesterday saying he would not resign and that it was up to the voters to determine whether he should return to Albany.

Gillibrand told reporters today if the allegations are true, then Lopez should leave office (a stance held by Gov. Andrew Cuomo). But when it comes to Silver’s future, Gillibrand said she disagrees with Long.

“I do not share my opponents view with regard to the speaker,” she said.

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