Vito Fossella

Vito Fossella, Jr.
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 13th district
Incumbent
Assumed office  November 4, 1997
Preceded by	Susan Molinari
Succeeded by	Incumbent
Born	March 09 1965 (1965--) (age 42) New York City, New York
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Mary Patricia Rowann
Religion	Roman Catholic

Vito John Fossella, Jr. (born March 9, 1965), is a Republican politician from the state of New York who has represented the state's 13th Congressional district (map) in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1997. The district includes Staten Island and the Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst and Gravesend neighborhoods of Brooklyn. Fossella, A Staten Island native, was born to a family that included several politicians. Fossella initially took office in 1997, after winning a special election held to replace the resigning Susan Molinari. He is currently in his sixth term, having won re-election in 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, and again in 2006. Fossella is the only Republican Congressman from New York City.

Early life, education, and family

Fossella was born on Staten Island into a Roman Catholic family of Irish and Italian descent. His great-grandfather, James A. O'Leary, represented Staten Island in Congress from 1935 to 1944. One of his uncles, Frank Fossella, was a prominent Staten Island Democrat who was a City Council member for four years, ending in 1985.^[1] His father served in various appointed positions in the city administrations of Democratic Mayors Edward I. Koch and Abraham D. Beame, then became a successful construction engineer.^[2]

Fossella, the fourth of seven children, was a basketball player at Monsignor Farrell High School, where he got his first political experience in the student council. He attended Iona College in New Rochelle, then transferred to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in economics in 1987.^[2]

After college, Fossella worked as a management consultant at the accounting firm Deloitte & Touche, then attended law school.^[2] He received a Juris Doctor from the Fordham University School of Law in 1993, and worked as an associate at a medical malpractice defense law firm Schiavetti Begos & Nicholson.

In 1990, Fossella married Mary Patricia Rowan. They have three children and live in the Great Kills neighborhood on Staten Island.

New York City Council

Early political work; election

Fossella was a political protégé of Michael J. Petrides, a member of the city's School Board and a Staten Island political strategist. In 1990, Fossella switched his affiliation from Democrat, to become the family's first Republican. "I found myself voting more and more for Republicans," he said in 1997. "For the most part, my family reacted well. But still, I would love to have been a fly on the wall."^[2]Under Petrides' guidance, he joined the 1992 re-election campaign of Staten Island Congresswoman Susan Molinari and, in 1993, the mayoral campaign of Rudy Giuliani.

Fossella's political career began in April 1994, when he won a special election to the New York City Council, representing Staten Island's South Shore and Mid-Island section. He replaced Councilman Alfred C. Cerullo 3d, who had left to become Commissioner of Consumer Affairs in the Rudy Giuliani administration. Fossella spent $92,000 in the election, in which he had five opponents.^[3]

In November 1994, Fossella was reelected to the remaining three years of Cerullo's term, defeating Democrat Rosemarie Mangano. He served on the Council until November 1997.

Council initiatives

Fossella's council initiatives included:

• Authoring the legislation that led to the agreement to permanently close the Fresh Kills Landfill
• Conceiving the idea of the South Richmond Rezoning Study, a comprehensive rezoning initiative on Staten Island
• Securing funding for the construction of P.S. 56 and P.S. 6, the first new schools to be built on Staten Island in over a decade.

United States Congress

Initial election

In June 1997, Fossella was selected by executive committee of the Staten Island Republican Party as its candidate to run for the Congressional seat being vacated by Representative Susan Molinari, who was resigning to become a Saturday morning news anchor on CBS.^[1] Fossella won the special election in November 1997, defeating Democratic Assemblyman Eric Vitaliano with 61 percent of the vote.

During the special campaign, Fossella received a huge financial boost from the national GOP.^{[citation needed]}

Re-elections

In November 1998, Fossella won a full term with 68 percent of the vote. He was re-elected in 2000, winning 65 percent of the vote against Democrat Katina M. Johnstone even as Al Gore carried the district. In 2002, he was re-elected with 70 percent of the vote, defeating Democrat Arne M. Mattsson.

In 2004, Fossella faced his first close contest against former state assemblyman and judge Frank Barbaro. Barbaro actually won the Brooklyn portion of the district by seven points, the first time Fossella had not won that area; Barbaro had represented much of this area in Albany for 23 years. However, Barbaro performed poorly on Staten Island, and Fossella won there by 26 points—enough for him to win a fourth full term with 59% of the vote districtwide. He was likely helped by George W. Bush's 13-point win on Staten Island.

In 2006, Fossella defeated Democrat and Brooklyn attorney Steve Harrison 57%-43%. Fossella squeaked by in Brooklyn by just over 200 votes, while Harrison easily won Staten Island's more liberal Northshore by a 2-1 margin. Fossella won the contest by trouncing Harrison in Staten Island's staunchily conservative Southshore, although his margin in that region shrunk a bit from previous elections. Hillary Clinton and Eliot Spitzer carried the 13th by overwhelming margins.

Committees

Fossella is a member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. He serves on three of its subcommittees - the United States House Energy Subcommittee on Environment and Hazardous Materials, the United States House Energy Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, and the United States House Energy Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection.

Political positions

Unlike most Republicans from New York, Fossella is seen by some as being strongly conservative because of his lifetime rating of 87% from the American Conservative Union the third highest out of New York State's 29 congressmen, behind Randy Kuhl (92%) and Tom Reynolds (88%).^[4] By comparison, Fossella's predecessors, Guy V. Molinari and Susan Molinari, were leading moderate Republicans.

Democrats make up a substantial majority of registered voters in the 13th. However, they are somewhat conservative on social issues, which has helped keep the district in Republican hands since 1981.

Conversely, Fossella's lifetime rating from the American Civil Liberties Union sits at 9%.^[5]

In August 2002, appearing on CNN's Crossfire, Fossella argued for Social Security choice. He said "I happen to think the President is on the right side of history here. And I think the more you empower American people, the more you give them the opportunity to invest on their own and being in control of their own destiny and their own retirement, the better off we'll be."^[6] In a standardized constituent letter in February 2005, Fossella said "We need to examine the viability of voluntary personal savings accounts in which young people would have the opportunity to invest a small portion of their savings."^[7]

Representative Vito Fossella (R-NY) with men stationed atop the roof of Chemical Ali's house in Kirkuk, Iraq

In June 2003, Fossella wrote an op-ed for the Washington Times, in which he said "The claims that progress is too slow, the situation unstable and the United States lacks the expertise to get the job done does not reflect reality on the ground in Baghdad, Kirkuk and beyond. Indeed, the critics who complain that the seeds of democracy will not take root in the sands of a desert where tyranny ruled are as wrong today as the pessimists were in 1945." The final sentence of the column was "The United States will fulfill its commitment to Iraq, and then we will depart, having liberated a nation, freed a people and established a democracy of the people, by the people and for the people."^[8] In August 2006, Fossella said that leaving Iraq now would "do a disservice to the noble sacrifice that the troops have made on behalf of our national security."^[9]

Fossella has a record of working with Democrats. After the 2007 State of the Union Address, Fossella joined with Senator Hillary Clinton to raise awareness for health issues that responders to the 9-11 events have had to endure. Fossella is quoted as saying "We have made progress over the last year to begin getting the resources necessary to help our 9/11 heroes. However, we now need a significant investment by the federal government into health monitoring and treatment for those who are sick or injured. In addition, the federal government must develop a comprehensive plan to address the health impacts of 9/11. We continue urging the White House to provide adequate funding in the 2008 budget to help all those who are sick or injured as a result of the terror attacks." ^[10]

Fossella has spoken out against the Bush Administration's handling of appropriating Homeland Security funds.^[11]

Legislative initiatives

Fossella's legislative initiatives include the following:

• Securing $32 million to help purchase three new Staten Island Ferry boats, (amounting to roughly $16 per constituent)
• Negotiating and securing an agreement between the State Department, the City of New York and the United Nations requiring foreign diplomats to pay motor vehicle citation fines, several million of which were in arrears.
• Introducing, but failing to pass, legislation withholding US funding to any United Nations Commission that is headed by a nation on the State Department's list of terrorist nations.
• Helping to establish the Congressional Caucus on South Korea and serves as the body's co-chair. The caucus is a conduit for strengthening U.S.-South Korea relations and also is an "information society" for developments in the North Korea situation.
• Obtaining federal funding to help repair the 86th Street subway station in the Bay Ridge area of Brooklyn. This station serves as a transfer point where passengers connect to bus service to Staten Island over the Verrazano Bridge.^[12]
• Authoring a law to return over $700 million to individual investors by eliminating fees by the SEC with the Investor and Capital Markets Fee Relief Act. The Act was signed into law by President Bush on January 16, 2002.^[13]

Controversies

Top aides with their own consulting business

Fossella chief of staff Thomas Quaadman and spokesman Craig Donner run a firm called Danton Communications Group, based in Alexandria, Virginia. Between its inception in 2002, and mid-2006, the firm had revenues from local candidates of at least $150,000, including about $40,000 from Fossella.^[14]

In August 2006, the Staten Island Advance reported that the two had ignored guidelines from the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, which "strongly" recommend that all House employees maintain "careful records" of political work they do, paid or otherwise. The rules state that "Maintaining such records helps to ensure that no campaign work is done on 'official' time, i.e., time for which the individual is compensated with House funds." Donner said that "There is no requirement to do it," and that the two would consider keeping a formal record of the hours they spend doing political work in the future. Donner added that "We follow the rules rigorously," and "Everything I do is after hours, when I'm home."^[14]

Donner's wife separately billed the Fossella campaigns for more than $20,000 of services and supplies between 2004 and mid-2006.^[14]

Use of campaign funds

In March 2005, the New York Post reported that Fossella had spent more than $20,000 of campaign funds to pay for restaurant meals during his 2004 re-election campaign. The funds paid for more than 100 meals at restaurants in Washington D.C., New York, and elsewhere. Members of Congress are allowed to bill their campaigns for meals if the dinners are for fund-raising or strategy sessions. Fossella spokesman Craig Donner said the purpose of the dinners complied with those guidelines.^[15]

In June 2006, the New York Daily News reported that since 2000, Fossella had spent $53,000 in campaign funds on trips to luxury resorts in Las Vegas, Colorado and Florida, often accompanied by with his wife and children. Campaign funds also paid for attending a Jets playoff game in Pittsburgh, playing 18 holes of golf in Key Biscayne, and ski school for his wife and children.^[16]

The Daily News investigation also found that Fossella often failed to identify the nature of the expenses and several times did not disclose who was paying for his trips; as is required by law. For example, he failed to disclose who paid for a February 25–28, 2001, trip with his wife and children to a conference outside Palm Springs that cost $2,082. Donner stated the trip was paid for by the U.S. Telecom Association, and that omitting the name was "an oversight". In another example the paying organization was not disclosed on another trip, this time in early 2003 to La Hague, on the coast of France.^[17]

Fossella insisted that all expenses were for legitimate campaign events or fact-finding missions that are part of his duties in Congress. Donner would not provide the names of donors or what he termed "potential donors" that Fossella met with that justified the campaign expenses.^[16]

After the Daily News submitted written questions to Fossella about his financial reporting, he amended 18 disclosure forms that he had previously filed with the Federal Election Commission, dating back to 2000.^[16] Fossella also said he fired the accountant who was responsible for reporting his campaign contributions and expenses.^[18]

Fundraising

In April 2006, Donner said Fossella would likely raise a record $2 million for the current two-year election cycle, which ends on December 31, 2006. Fossella raised $184,000 in the first quarter of 2006^[19] and had raised $1,025,000 through the first five quarters of the cycle. In the second quarter of 2006, Fossella raised $157,000, bringing his total for the cycle to $1,172,000. As of June 30, 2006, he had $520,000 cash on hand.^[20] As of October, Fossella's total raised was $1.3 million, compared to the original $2 million prediction, but Harrison had only raised about $100,000.^[21]

Debates

In a letter dated July 27, Steve Harrisonchallenged Fossella to debate him. Harrison listed eight dates for Fossella to choose from in the letter. The Congressman's camp initially denied receiving the letter, accusing Harrison of only sending it to the media. (Staten Island Advance 7/28/06)

In mid-August, Harrison invited the media to accompany him to Fossella's campaign office to deliver the letter to Fossella again. Fossella campaign manager Matt Mika, seeing his opponent's entourage and the reporters from the Staten Island Advance and two of the Brooklyn weeklies, quickly typed a response to the letter and faxed it over to Harrison's Brooklyn office at 2:08 pm, eight minutes after Harrison began briefing the press. Mika's response indicated that Fossella would be in Washington during all of the proposed dates and that they would try to come up with alternatives (Staten Island Advance 8/21/06)

In September, Fossella agreed to four debates, more than Susan Molinari and Fossella had been in during all their previous election campaigns combined.^{[citation needed]} In early October, the number was increased to five.^[22]

Issues with constituent mailing

On June 29, 2006, the New York Daily News reported that Fossella's campaign had violated House rules by using at least three photos in campaign flyers and in free mailings to constituents that were also on the campaign website.

One of the photos was a shot of Fossella with Muppet characters Elmo and Rosita. The News noted that Fossella would need to claim that the two Muppets were people in order to avoid violating another Congressional rule. That rule says that members of Congress can use only one photo of themselves alone in any single constituent mailing — but the mailing also showed Fossella standing by himself by the Verrazano Bridge.

A third problem raised by the Daily News was whether a member of Fossella's Congressional staff took the pictures, a House violation because taxpayer dollars cannot be spent on campaigns.^[23]

After the story appeared, Harrison filed a complaint with the Commission on Congressional Mailing Standards, arguing that the four Fossella mailings, which he estimated cost $161,000, contained 14 violations. Donner, said the mistake was "inadvertent," the photos had been taken from the internet, and the flyer with one of the photos, of firefighters, would no longer be distributed.^[24]

In August, in his response to the investigation by the commission, Donner said, in a sworn affidavit, that the two shots were different photos in sequence from his personal digital Sony DSC-P100 camera. Fossella said in his response to the commission that although Donner, his press secretary, had taken the firefighter photos, "no official funds were used to shoot the photos or to cause their reproduction." Donner did not respond to written questions from the Daily News about how he was able to take campaign and congressional photos within seconds of each other without violating the rule barring staffers from doing campaign work.^[25]

Shore Parkway seawall and bike path

In August 2006, the local Courier-Life reported that Harrison, then chair of CB10, and then-District Manager Denise Virga visited Fossella's chief of staff, Tom Quaadman, in 2001 to discuss board priorities, including its number one priority, the repair of the seawall. Harrison said that they "were told it wasn't a federal matter. We received no assistance, not even any interest, from the congressman."^[26]

In December 2003, Fossella wrote CB10 that he had "requested $16 million in the Transportation Equity Act currently being developed to be allocated for this specific project."^[26] In July 2005, Fossella issued a press release that he had obtained a $5 million federal authorization for the project.^[27]. In April 2006 another press release mentioned the authorization, adding "An authorization represents the first step in securing funding for a project, but does not represent an allocation of money."^[28].

Actual funding for the project has only come from city and state sources. Mike Mika, campaign spokesperson for Fossella, acknowledged in August 2006 that no federal money had yet been forthcoming for the project, but said that Fossella had, indeed, been instrumental in getting the repairs done. Mika said that "the seawall crumbled during Steve's tenure as Community Board chair. It was Vito Fossella and Craig Eaton (the board's current chair) who worked together to secure the agreement to get the seawall and bike path repaired." Eaton credited the site inspection by the Army Corps of Engineers, which he said Fossella had arranged, as the catalyst for the repairs. Eaton also stated that "Fossella and the community board made the case to the comptroller's office and officials at City Hall that the deteriorating conditions posed a serious threat and that repairs needed to be made immediately."^[26] However, Eaton is hardly non-partisan. Eaton is the chair of the Brooklyn Republican Party.

References

External links

• Representative Vito Fossella's House website
• Detailed map of New York's 13th Congressional District (pdf)
• Vito Fossella's 2006 campaign website
• Summary of Vito Fossella's positions
• SourceWatch Congresspedia - Vito Fossella profile

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