Shocking news from the NY-13, Daily Kos and The Albany Project are reporting coverage from the NY Daily News that Republican Frank Powers has died of an apparent heart attack.
GOP and law enforcement sources confirmed Powers, 68, a retired Wall Street executive and MTA board member, died at his Annfield Court home on Staten Island.
“We’re back to square one in terms of finding a candidate,” said one obviously shaken Staten Island Republican. “You go from the bizarre to the surreal around here.”
UPDATE: Powers’ family issued the following statement:
“Our dad Frank passed away early this morning. As you can imagine, this is a difficult time for our family. We would appreciate privacy and time as we make the necessary arrangements.”
“We shall have more information when final arrangesments have been made. We thank you for your kindness and cooperation and ask you to keep our dad and family in your prayers.”
It goes without saying that my condolances go out to the family, however the political reamificatios are huge if local Republicans can leverage is memory to recruit a stronger candidate. Stay tuned.
Not to sound callous, but Powers is not some beloved Staten Island political figure. This isn’t Paul Wellstone or Mel Carnahan dying in a plane crash as sitting officeholders. Staten Island voters have never heard of anyone named Frank Powers, and this does not help the Republicans. Indeed, it hurts badly. They really are back at square one, and there’s no leveraging this private citizen’s death and his family’s grieving into votes.