[1] A Democrat, she was the only openly gay Puerto Rican politician on the City Council for some time.
In 2005, López entered the race to succeed C. Virginia Fields as Manhattan Borough President.
Due to a series of articles published in the New York Post, she came under fire for connections to the controversial Church of Scientology, whose members donated sizeable amounts of money to her campaign.
Due at least in part to the bad press generated by these stories and the Church of Scientology's views on homosexuality,[2] she lost the Democratic primary election to win her party's endorsement for the general election in November of that year.
In 2006, Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed López to a seat on the board of the New York City Housing Authority.