Stephen Harrison

Many city Democrats are heading out to Denver in the next few days, but not Mike McMahon.

A spokesman for the councilman from Staten Island, who is the party and New York Times-backed candidate in the 13th District Congressional race, said he'll be campaigning in the district instead.

McMahon's chances in the race look good--he's leading primary opponent Steve Harrison by a huge margin (64-18 percent) and neither of the Republican candidates for the open seat are particularly promising.

In a contrasting example, Representative Ed Towns, who is also facing a challenger, is very much going, as part of an ongoing effort to associate himself publicly with Barack Obama after having endorsed Hillary Clinton.  read more »

Here's a little more evidence of how frenzied things are getting in Staten Island, now that Representative Vito Fossella's seat might be up for grabs in the fall.

Yesterday I reported that, according to Independence Party state executive committee member Frank Morano, the I.P. is interviewing candidates for Fossella's seat on May 25.  read more »

The jockeying to run for Republican Vito Fossella’s suddenly winnable congressional seat has opened a bit of a rift between Brooklyn and Staten Island Democrats.

The seat is mostly in Staten Island, but for years, Democratic elected officials there have taken a pass at challenging Fossella since that would have meant giving up their own safe re-elections in order to run (and probably lose). The result was a string of unmemorable candidates who got slaughtered by Fossella and his Republican predecessor, Susan Molinari.

The Brooklyn side, at least, has produced some feisty challengers, namely Frank Barbaro and Steve Harrison. This year, in addition to Harrison, the Democratic field will include Councilman Domenic Recchia, who has even more campaign money at his disposal than Fossella. The Brooklyn Dems, in other words, would seem to have a pretty good chance of producing the nominee this year.

But now it's gotten more complicated. There’s blood in the water, thanks to Fossella’s love child scandal (not to mention a pretty good Democratic trend nationwide), and Staten Island Democrats are looking for someone to get in on the action. This is particularly significant because if Fossella resigns, designating a Democratic challenger for the resulting special election will fall to the folks on Staten Island.

Will Brooklyn get edged out?

Here's how Council member Vinny Gentile made their case: “It seems to me that to suggest that it’s a Staten Island seat, if you look at the last three Brooklynites who were the nominees, they did as well if not better than the State Islanders who were nominees."  read more »

The Staten Island chapter of the Independence Party, which supported recently arrested Republican Congressman Vito Fossella in 2006, is interviewing “all prospective candidates” who want to seek their endorsement this year.

Interviews will take place on May 25, according to Frank Morano, an executive committee member of the New York State Independence Party.

Morano said Fossella “would have a shot at the nomination,” but also said that it would not be “a lock."  read more »

Last week I reported that an endorsement vote at a Democratic Club in Bay Ridge was split evenly between Vito Fossella's two official Democratic challengers, Domenic Recchia and Steve Harrison.  read more »

The Brooklyn Democrats for Change, a reform club in Bay Ridge, held their endorsement meeting last night to decide which Democrat to endorse against Republican Vito Fossella.

The club’s decision was an even split.

According to a political operative who attended the meeting but is not actively working for either campaign, there were 25 votes for each of the two declared Democratic candidates, attorney Steve Harrison and City Councilman Domenic Recchia.  read more »

One of Vito Fossella’s Democratic challengers, Steve Harrison, just released a public statement saying that if Fossella runs for reelection, “The people will decide in November if his recent behavior and revelations should disqualify him from continuing in office.”

It's a slightly different approach than Harrison took yesterday, when he told me Fossella's D.U.I. arrest spoke to the congressman's "character" and decision-making ability.

Here’s the statement:  read more »

Vito Fossella’s spokespeople won’t say whether he’ll run for reelection, according to an item in Crain’s today.

“Politics is not what he’s focused on now,” Susan Del Percio--Fossella’s political consultant--is quoted as saying. “He’s focused on doing his job.”  read more »

Unlike Councilman Domenic Recchia, Democrat Stephen Harrison isn't hesitating to talk about the arrest of Republican Congressman Vito Fossella..

“I would like to have this race decided by the issues, like the war, health care, the economy, jobs, things of that nature--all of which are important.  read more »

Congressman Vito Fossella’s recent arrest for driving drunk has Democrats thinking they might get a better chance at taking the only congressional seat in the city held by a Republican. (The district includes Staten Island and part of Brooklyn).  read more »

Here’s an invitation to Democratic congressional candidate Stephen Harrison’s February 27 fund-raiser at Social Bar in Midtown West.
 read more »

Is it just me, or does Vito Fossella sound Spitzer-esque in this ad?

"When I go to Washington, I don't ask what's the party position. I ask what's right for the people back home."

(As compared with Spitzer: "I never asked if a case was popular or unpopular. Never asked if it was big or small, hard or easy. I simply asked if it was right or wrong.")

The ad is designed more to do bring down Fossella's association with Republicans than his Democratic opponent, Stephen Harrison. The DCCC may already have taken care of that.

-- Azi Paybarah

I just got off the phone with Rep. Vito Fossella, who seems to be cruising to re-election over cash-poor Democratic challenger Stephen Harrison.

As such, he's sticking to the basic safe-GOP-incumbent-campaign template, saying that his number one issue is security against terrorism. (For the record, he supports the Patriot Act and the White House's electronic surveillance program, although he seemed to deviate somewhat from the administration's line on interrogation of detainees.)

Fossella kind of ducked a question about whether America would actually be less safe if the Democrats take over Congress.

Same thing on a question about whether the heads of the police and fire unions are justified in their criticisms of Rudy Giuliani.

("This race isn't about Rudy Giuliani," he said, noting also that more than a few of his constituents are cops and firefighters.)

And, for that matter, on a question about why he's not identified on any of his campaign literature as a Republican.

("All I can say is I've been an independent fighter, putting the people first.")

As for the Mark Foley page scandal and how the House Republican leadership has handled it, Fossella is not calling for any resignations. Yet.

"Who knows what the facts are? I know I don't know what the facts are. There's a lot of speculation about who knew what and where and when. But let the investigation play out...I'd be curious to know who sat on this information and let the chips fall where they may. Let's see where that leads us."

Luckily, there will be plenty of opportunities to hear more about all of this when Fossella and Harrison meet up for their five -- yes, five -- debates between now and Nov. 7.

"How many debates were there for the mayor's race?" Fossella asked at one point. "One, two?"

Quite right.  read more »

For those of you who just can't wait, an audio clip of the 20-minute interview is here.

-- Azi Paybarah

The much-anticipated interview with the city's only Republican congressman, Rep. Vito Fossella of Staten Island and Brooklyn, will be taking place in about a half hour.

Starting Monday, Fossella will be debating his Democratic opponent, Stephen Harrison five times before the Nov. 7 elections. A complete list of debates is here.

So, this is your last chance to tell me what should I ask Fossella.

-- Azi Paybarah

Next week, I'll be interviewing the city's only Republican congressman -- Vito Fossella.

It's always been a tough to be a Republican in New York, and in a year in which some people are predicting a Democratic takeover of the House, now should be as tough a time as ever.

But so far, Fossella looks safe. None of the recognizable Democratic officials in his district opted to make a run for the seat, including Bill de Blasio, who decided not to enter the race despite the entreaties of the DCCC.

Enter attorney and community board member Stephen Harrison.

Energetic and substantive -- but under-funded and ignored by the national party -- Harrison seems to regard the DC-based Democratic leadership as a bigger obstacle than Fossella, who he believes will be vulnerable to attacks on national issues like Iraq and free trade.  read more »

Anything else I should ask Fossella about this race, his voting record, his general outlook on life?

-- Azi Paybarah

We missed this until this morning:

The Staten Island Advance reported on Friday that Vito Fossella raised $184,800 and spent $152,000 from January through March, bringing his war chest to $606,000.

His opponent, Stephen Harrison, has not filed but is expected to raise $250,000 in the next few months.

—Nicole Brydson