The New York Post seems to think so:
Defying disgusted constituents and angry Republican leaders, disgraced Rep. Vito Fossella has told pals he plans to seek re-election.
And, shockingly, the Staten Island pol is feeling “pretty good,” he confided to friends.
“I got every indication that he plans to run again,” said Guy Molinari, Fossella’s political mentor, who’s been in close contact with the embattled 43-year-old politician.
Fossella is up for re-election in November.
“He’s not just inclined to run. He plans on running,” said Molinari, a former congressman and Staten Island borough president who was succeeded by Fossella as the de facto leader of the borough’s GOP.
This doesn’t jive with earlier reports saying that Fossella would resign by Monday.
The Staten Island Advance has its own take:
Fossella did not return a call for comment last night, and it’s very possible that the posturing could merely be a trial balloon to gauge whether Fossella could realistically continue in office.
A Fossella spokeswoman did issue the following statement on his behalf at 12:15 Sunday morning: “Congressman Fossella appreciates the support of so many people, including Guy Molinari, but he has not made any decision yet. And he continues to spend time with his family.”
The Advance also reports that state Sen. Diane Savino, Councilman Michael McMahon, and Assemblyman Michael Cusick are all actively considering the race on the Democratic side.
(H/T: NY13 Blog)
sure hope so.
GOP is applying a different rule to Rep. Fossella. Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana has acknowledged fathering a child out of wedlock and he was a Committee Chairman when GOP had majority and is the Ranking Member now. A former GOP House leader, then Republican Conference Chair J.C. Watts of Oklahoma, acknowledged fathering two children out of wedlock and remained a House GOP Leader. Louisiana GOP U.S. Senator Diaper Dave Vitter was embraced with open arms by Sen. DeMint and the far right of GOP Senators after revelations of his years of prostitutes (only women hookers acknowledged so far) in DC and New Orleans. Fossella should hang in there. Why is Diaper Dave Vitter still considred a “family values Republican” but Fossella would get the boot – a GOP double standard.
…but that doesn’t mean he gets a free pass.
He’s still a politician spouting moral values who went and drove drunk.
Oh, and he also fathered a child out of wedlock while making a big deal about family values.
Now, on the other hand, if we could get Larry Craig to re-enter himself into the running…
Fossella would rather go down fighting than to succumb to the will of the netroots and radical left wing bloggers, who are obviously no friends of his.
Did you see the SUSA poll from the 8th?
74% of Reps, 61% of Dems, and 57% of indies in his district approve of him.
66% of Reps, 55% of Dems, and 52% of indies think he should stay in office.
53% of the district (Majority of Repubs, and large minority of Dems and Indies) think he should run again.
He hasn’t lost the support of his district.
pasuburbdem1,
I really think the underlying issue here is not his affair, but rather his DUI. If this was just an affair, there wouldnt be the push against him to retire or resign like there is now.
Im fed up with corrupt members of my party. The NRCC needs to law down the law, and if Fossella does not retire, there should be an active effort to denie him re-nomination.
I too would want to wait and see a poll from next week, rather than as soon as this scandal is happening. See what voters think when they have time to hear all of it and consider it for a bit.
Venslor,
Whos your Congresswoman? Im not a huge fan of my Congressman, but the likely GOP nominee is well….very underimpressive.
Glenn,
Im in WA-3, Brian Baird’s district.
…I should have done my research better. I’ll get around to assessing this race at some point.
vito fossella refuses to attend family events if his sister will be present with her partner.
moral political posturing is one thing… excommunicating family members over it is another level of low.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new…
Currently the New York State Senate is split as follows: 32 Republicans and 30 Democrats. The New York Observer writes on February 26th following the special election of Darrell Aubertine. “This officially reduces Joe Bruno’s Republican control in that house to just one seat.”
Staten Island contains two districts (mostly). Republican Lanza won his by a 34,160 to 23,497 margin, 10,663 votes; Democrat Duane Savino won hers unopposed. Savino, however, outpolled “Blank, Void and Scattered” by just 23,497 to 15,132. Since only 3900 BVS votes were cast in all of Staten Island for the Governor’s race, it is assumed that she beat a non-existent Republican by only 8,365 votes. That may be a stretch but … Nearly half of Savino’s district, btw, is in Brooklyn (17,804 in Brooklyn; 20,825 in Staten Island).
The Senate Majority Leader becomes the Acting Lt.-Gov. with the resignation of Spitzer and the elevation of Paterson to Gov. Yet another reason we want to flip this job. We are one privately funded $2 million “investigation”/witch hunt away from a Republican Governor in NY installed by coup.