Tag: Vito Fossella

Jonah has the whole sordid story in the diaries, but let’s take a look at this new curve ball. From the New York Post:

Republican Robert Straniere, who’s running for Rep. Vito Fossella’s seat, was nominated as a Manhattan judicial candidate last night – a move that could pave the way for the disgraced congressman to get back on the ballot and run for re-election.

Several Republican sources said the New York County GOP made the nomination with the understanding that Straniere would accept it.

The move was apparently made with the backing of former Borough President Guy Molinari and state Sen. Andrew Lanza, who hope to entice disgraced retiring GOP Rep. Vito Fossella back into the race. With Straniere accepting the judgeship nod, he would be wiped off the ballot and the local GOP could appoint a replacement candidate. The only problem? For now, at least, Straniere says that he won’t play ball:

But Straniere, a former Staten Island assemblyman who’s been at odds with fellow Republicans, hasn’t been contacted about the judicial post and “unequivocally” plans to turn it down, his spokesman told The Post.

“He’s heard rumors, but he doesn’t know anything about it,” spokesman Marco DeSena insisted. “There is no chance . . . If contacted, he will say no and he very much expects to be the next congressman from Staten Island and Brooklyn.”

And Fossella himself? Still not sounding eager:

“I’ve maintained all along that I’m not a candidate,” Fossella (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) said in a telephone interview. “That’s still the case now. Very simply, nothing has changed.” […]

Given the turmoil in the markets, Fossella said he listened to entreaties from Molinari and others “out of respect.”

Said Fossella, “A lot of good people have again urged me to reconsider. I’ve been very blessed and humbled by that. I’m grateful. But at the end of it all, I’m still not a candidate.”

We’ll find out in short order if Molinari and the boys are able to strong-arm Straniere from this race; as the Advance reports, Straniere has until midnight to accept and be placed in nomination. It seems unlikely, but you just can’t predict what’s going to happen next in New York’s 13th, home of the greatest political soap opera of our time.

So there are three ways Bob from Manhattan can get off of the ballot, death, moving out of the state and being nominated for a judgeship.  Last night he was nominated, possibly against his desire, for a judgeship position.  From the NY Post;

Republican Robert Straniere, who’s running for Rep. Vito Fossella’s seat, was nominated as a Manhattan judicial candidate last night – a move that could pave the way for the disgraced congressman to get back on the ballot and run for re-election.

Several Republican sources said the New York County GOP made the nomination with the understanding that Straniere would accept it.

But Straniere, a former Staten Island assemblyman who’s been at odds with fellow Republicans, hasn’t been contacted about the judicial post and “unequivocally” plans to turn it down, his spokesman told The Post.

There are very mixed signals here. Earlier last week there was polling going around indicating Fossella or someone close to him were looking to see if he could win re-election, if only he could find a way back on the ballot.  We had a quick New York civics lesson on how you replace a nominee on the ballot when Paul Atanasio, the Conservative Party nominee in this race was nominated for a judicial position, allowing the state party to then replace him with some no name.

Bob Straniere is saying he doesn’t want the judgeship and is running for Congress.  Bob can simply not accept it and this farce of a Fossella comeback is dead.  It looks like this is the most likely situation, but certainly if Fossella wants in you never know what offer Straniere might get.  

This simply could just be a lot of political pressure and maneuvering by a party that  has lost its leadership and is falling apart or this potentially, and I say this with much hesitation, could open up the seat for Fossella to be renominated.  I don’t see a path for Fossella to win if he goes down this road.  He does not have the Conservative Party line and at this point can not get it.  He has a trial date later this Fall in October for his DWI arrest.  It would take immense arrogance on his part to jump back in.  Since the Republican Party has been a joke in this race for months now I am not ruling it out.

stay tuned…

What next? In New York’s 13th Congressional District, there’s always something next.

Here’s the first curveball: Just days after word leaked out that disgraced GOP Rep. Vito Fossella was exploring a comeback attempt this fall, Conservative Party nominee Paul Atanasio is dropping out and seeking a judicial nomination:

Brooklyn Conservative chairman Jerry Kassar has told the Advance that congressional candidate Paul Atanasio, who is bailing out of the campaign, will have his name put into nomination for a Brooklyn state Supreme Court judgeship at the party’s judicial nominating convention tonight.

If Atanasio’s nomination is approved, which looks to be a formality, the coveted Conservative line in the race would officially become vacant, with the party’s state executive committee set to make a new endorsement next week.

Could this be the opening that Vito needs in order to get himself back on the ballot? It’s there for the taking, if the Conservative “bigwigs” want to play that game of tiddly winks. Whatever the case, they will most certainly not endorse Republican Bob Straniere:

The Brooklyn party organization has already rejected Democratic candidate Michael McMahon, and Kassar today said, “I don’t see any interest among my members in recommending to the state party that we endorse [GOP candidate] Bob Straniere.”

“That would do nothing for us,” said Kassar. “He hasn’t really put together much of a campaign despite winning the Republican primary.”

And just when things couldn’t get nuttier, defeated GOP primary candidate Jamshad “Jim” Wyne is running as a write-in candidate.

(Tip o’ the cap: NY-13 Blog)

This is a truly astonishing race — one that has proved extraordinary in its ability to keep getting weirder by the week. The latest curveball:

Don’t count out disgraced Rep. Vito Fossella just yet.

Four months after a DWI arrest and revelations about an out-of-wedlock child forced him to forgo a run for reelection this fall, the shamefaced Staten Island Republican is looking for a way back on the ballot.

“It’s absolutely true,” a source close to Fossella said of rumors that Fossella and his allies are quietly plotting his comeback.

Voters in the 13th Congressional District got polling calls about Fossella this weekend, the Staten Island Advance reported Sunday.

The only problem for Vino Vito? The ballot is already set. Just like Jon Powers on the Working Families Party line in NY-26, Robert Straniere, Paul Atanasio, and Carmine Morano have the Republican, Conservative, and Independence lines locked. As the NY Daily News writes, the only way to pull a switcheroo would be for one of these candidates to get nominated to run for a judgeship (or move out of state or pull a Frank Powers). The Straniere campaign says “no way”, and I’m inclined to believe them. After being tarred and feathered by the Staten Island GOP establishment repeatedly, does the hot dog king of Manhattan strike you as being a team player? Didn’t think so.

(H/T: Jeremiah the Messiah)

UPDATE: Fossella says that he’s “not a candidate“, but The Hill calls this an “ambiguous denial”.

SSP currently rates this race as Likely Democratic.

Ok, just read a Daily News report about Frank Powers’s funeral, which occured today.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new…

Apparently, his son and erswhile political opponent Frank Powers Jr. was arrested for punching a cop during the funeral after accosting his step-mother.

The confusing thing about the article is that it states that Frank Powers Jr. was the one who was taken away in an ambulance screaming “I’m not crazy!” … but the picture indicates “Robert John Powers” being taken into custody, and shows a man with, uh, far less hair than his older brother.

So clearly the Daily News has got something mixed up – but clearly something funky’s going on in Staten Island.

Only way this could get stranger is if the Republicans actually nominated Curtis Silwa (potential candidate, right-wing talk radio host, and founder of Guardian Angels) and he began staging vigilante interventions on the Staten Island Ferry to get himself some press…

The Staten Island GOP is scrambling to find a replacement to run in NY-13, following the untimely death of ex-Wall Street exec Francis Powers, who had been slotted in by the local party as Vito Fossella’s replacement. Previous top-tier Republicans under consideration (city councilor James Oddo, state senator Andrew Lanza, district attorney Daniel Donovan, and perplexingly, Fossella himself) all politely declined.

Out of relatively nowhere, former Assemblyman Matthew Mirones has suddenly taken the conventional wisdom by storm. Mirones has two advantages: he’s a well-off businessman who can self-finance, and he used to represent the Island’s East Shore and parts of Brooklyn from 2002 to 2006.

Mirones also has one disadvantage: he and the local GOP don’t like each other much.

But another Republican said Mirones might have some fences to mend with the borough GOP.

“He completely disappeared after he retired,” he said, “and he had some negative stuff to say about people in the party.”

Mirones was believed to be irked that he was passed over by the GOP for a shot at Republican John Marchi’s state Senate seat.

Mirones also clashed with party leaders on other political matters.

“I’m not saying anyone’s closing anything out,” the Republican continued. “But Matthew would have to rebuild things to a comfort level that does not exist right now.”

The Staten Island Advance also reports that NY-1 reporter Lisa Giovinazzo, who was considered the front-runner for a period of about 12 hours before the baffling decision to give the endorsement to Powers several weeks ago, has also moved back to the head of the list. Under consideration, also, was cross-endorsing Paul Atanasio, who is the nominee of Brooklyn’s Conservative Party.

In another indication of how far Republican fortunes have fallen in this district, a bizarre scenario has apparently at least been floated:

While some observers have mentioned the possibility of a GOP cross-endorsement of [Democratic endorsee Michael] McMahon, borough Democratic chair John Gulino said that no one on the Republican side had approached him about it….

The very thought of a McMahon cross-endorsement chilled some Republicans.

“They can’t do that,” said one. “They might as well dissolve the party. It’s the biggest seat in the county. It would be like cross-endorsing Obama.”

In a tragic turn of events, Francis H. Powers passed away in his sleep, apparently from natural causes. Powers, 67, a former Wall Street executive, was selected by the GOP to run for the seat of retiring Congressman Vito Fossella.  All politics aside, our thoughts are with Powers' family at this sad time.

With the Democratic Party coalescing behind City Councilman Michael McMahon, and the GOP similarly backing former Wall Street executive Frank Powers, the race for what was once a safe Republican seat has now been rated a toss-up, according to Congressional Quarterly. 

The semi-suburban nature of the district gives it a stronger Republican lean than any other part of New York City, but that advantage is countered by the fact that McMahon is an elected official, representing the northern third of the district on the City Council, while Powers has never held elective office. 

Further complicating matters is the fact that Powers still has time to make himself known to voters before November, and McMahon faces a primary challenge from lawyer Stephen Harrison, who ran against the now-scandal-plagued retiring Republican Rep. Vito Fossella in 2006.  The district has consistently voted for Fossella over the past few elections, but has split its presidential votes; in 2000, Al Gore won the district with 53% of the vote, but George W. Bush defeated John Kerry there in 2004, with 55%.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_…

Hidden amidst  the news that the GOP lost its two top contenders for Fossella’s seat was city councilman Vincent Gentile’s declaration that he’s going to run.

This took me by surprise because he seemed to be the only NY-13 candidate who hadn’t been discussed for a potential run. But he does have more experience in political office than most people in the area – he served in the state senate (in my girlfriend’s district) from ’96-’02 before losing to Republican Marty Golden, and proceeded to win the special election for Marty Golden’s city council seat in ’03.

He is a Brooklynite, and in the Daily News article offers that as a reason for his run, “saying he doesn’t believe the “myth” that a candidate from outside Staten Island can’t win.” I would suggest that the fact that he’s term-limited out of the council in ’09 is probably his real reason behind an unlikely run. Although his prior career as a prosecutor may make him a good match for the district, where lots of policemen live and “tough on crime” attitudes were what made Donovan so attractive a candidate for the GOP.

I don’t know too much about his politics – he did support the corrupt homophobe Noach Dear for Civil Court Judge despite the fact that Dear was not licensed to practice law, lumping him together in the same undesirable company of some other Brooklyn pols such as Marty Markowitz and former NY-13 candidate Domenic Recchia.

http://www.dailygotham.com/blo…

Anyway, I doubt he’s particularly progressive or electable given geography and associations – so I guess we’re still waiting on the two Michaels – McMahon and Cusick – to figure out which one is gonna run.

From The Hill:

Rep. Vito Fossella (R-N.Y.) is expected to announce this week that he will not seek reelection, according to two sources.

The announcement could come as early as Tuesday but is expected before Congress adjourns for its Memorial Day recess at the end of this week.

It is unclear if Fossella will finish out his term or opt to resign before the end of the 110th Congress. One source said he will complete his sixth term.

As nrafter530 writes in the diaries, expect a full-court press to ensue for a Staten Island-based pol like state Sen. Diane Savino, Assemblyman Mike Cusick, or NYC Councilman Mike McMahon to run for the Democrats in this D+0.8 district.

SSP currently rates this race as a “Tossup“.

UPDATE (David): The AP is saying the same thing.

UPDATE II (James): It’s official — Fossella will retire at the end of his term.  The Politico has Fossella’s statement.

UPDATE III: Elizabeth Benjamin picks up buzz that Councilman Domenic Recchia (D-Coney Island) will drop out of the race:

On the Democratic side, a source confirms the rumor that Councilman Domenic Recchia is NOT expected to follow through with his nascent bid for Fossella’s seat, despite the fact that he is sitting on some $325,000.

Recchia is apparently friendly with Savino and McMahon, so this could be a sign that one of these candidates is planning a bid.