Gifford Miller, the City Council speaker, came to the Bronx Sunday morning bringing a gift to voters in Riverdale, a community with a tendency toward huge turnouts in Democratic primaries. Mr. Miller is one of four Democrats running for mayor, and Riverdale is an area that either he or Rep. Anthony Weiner is likely to win in September’s primary election.

Mr. Miller has found $200,000 in his budget to pay for improvements to the ball fields of Seton Park, at the heart of the community. That’s the reason he was standing in a muddy field on a rainy Sunday. In tow was the area’s council member, G. Oliver Koppell, who has become fast friends with the speaker.

For years they were at odds. Mr. Miller shut Mr. Koppell out of committee chairmanships, in large part at the instruction of the Bronx Democratic organization, from which Mr. Koppell has – until recently – been estranged. The Bronx organization delivered the votes that made Mr. Miller speaker, passing over a Latino candidate from Brooklyn, Angel Rodriguez, who has since left the council and is currently in prison. In gratitude, Mr. Miller tapped the son of County Leader Jose Rivera – Joel Rivera – who was then just 23, to be the majority leader of the council.

Despite 23 years’ experience in the state Assembly and a brief stint as the state’s attorney general, the high achieving, Harvard-educated Mr. Koppell couldn’t get the time of day from the speaker.

That was then, and this is now.

In running for mayor, Mr. Miller can’t possibly expect any help from a Bronx Democratic machine whose strings are still pulled by Fernando Ferrer’s campaign chief, Roberto Ramirez, the former party boss. With the shoe on the other foot, it is Mr. Miller who courts Mr. Koppell. So earlier this year, Mr. Miller found a subcommittee for Mr. Koppell to head.

Now the city coffers are opening to him as well.

Mr. Koppell does need a favor. He faces a challenge from the president of the Riverdale Jewish Community Council. Ari Hoffnung’s long-shot campaign rests upon two issues.

One is Mr. Koppell’s opposition to any and all development in Riverdale, a stance that does not sit well with the fast-growing Orthodox Jewish community, whose members are eager to alter and expand their properties and presence.

The other issue involves parks. The Bronx has come into a windfall on capital funds for its extensive parks system. Pressured by federal directives and court rulings on drinking-water quality, Mayor Bloomberg offered Bronx politicians a quarter of a billion dollars in parks funds in exchange for their support for building a mandated water-filtration plant under Van Cortlandt Park.

Mr. Koppell and his Riverdale colleagues, alone among Bronx politicos, refused to go along.

After the dust cleared, it remained for the victors to divide the spoils, depriving Mr. Koppell and Riverdale of millions in park improvements. At least that is what Mr. Hoffnung, who also is chairman of the community board’s parks and recreation committee, charges.

So it is in Mr. Koppell’s interest to start bringing Riverdale some more city money, and in Mr. Miller’s interest to try to win support in a community that all perceive is up for grabs.

That is where the speaker hopes Mr. Koppell and his possible endorsement fit in.

That is not to say Mr. Koppell will go along. In a just world, the council member would milk the speaker for every last cent and then cut him off, just as Mr. Koppell was cut off these past three years by Mr. Miller. But it is more likely that Mr. Koppell will stick with the speaker.

It may be yet another case where Mr. Koppell goes it alone.

Last year he fell out of sync with political allies Rep. Eliot Engel and Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz over a number of Bronx races. So even if Mr. Koppell ends up backing Mr. Miller, Messrs. Dinowitz and Engel may endorse Mr. Weiner, or even the surging C. Virginia Fields. The payoff for the candidate backed by Mr. Dinowitz and the Benjamin Franklin Reform Democratic Club is a trove of thousands of iron-clad petition signatures that will help a mayoral candidate get on the ballot.

Tomorrow night, Ms. Fields comes to Riverdale for coffee with Mr. Dinowitz and his allies, a stop already made by Mr. Miller and Mr. Weiner. Mr. Ferrer has been invited but hasn’t responded. All four Democratic hopefuls have agreed to appear May 11 at the Ben Franklin club’s Mayoral Forum. In the meantime you can expect to continue to find Mr. Koppell’s hand (among others) picking Mr. Miller’s pocket, looking for more goodies to bring to constituents.