The Village Independent Democrats held their annual awards celebration at Tio Pepe restaurant, at 168 W. Fourth St., Thursday evening. Political buttons from campaigns past were among the items in a silent auction. So were two loaves of delicious home-baked bread by former club president Jonathan Geballe. Honorees included Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society of Historic Preservation; Kevin Finnegan, director of politics and legislation for 1199 SEIU United Hospital Workers East; Kate Linker, community organizer with Greater NYC for Change; and Michael McKee, treasurer of Tenants Political Action Committee. The guest speaker was John Strausbaugh, author of “The Village: 400 Years of Beats and Bohemians, Radicals and Rogues, a History of Greenwich Village.”
