Jimmy Oddo

The death of Frank Powers means Republicans on Staten Island are, again, looking for someone to run for Vito Fossella’s seat.

So, who’s on the list?

Scratch off District Attorney Dan Donovan, whose spokesman said he hasn’t changed his mind from last month about not running for the seat. Also not interested in running is City Councilman Vinny Ignizio. When I asked him to appear on video saying he doesn’t want to run, he declined, calling it “a moot point.” City Councilman Jimmy Oddo and State Senator Andrew Lanza haven't changed their minds either.

Who does that leave?

One local Republican isn't worrying too much about John McCain's oratory skills, despite wide-ranging criticism of the nominee's speech last Tuesday, especially compared to Barack Obama's speech.  read more »

Republicans are having some trouble finding a candidate to run for the Congressional seat Vito Fossella is planning to vacate at the end of the year.

Could they find a solution by turning to … Fossella?

A couple of political consultants I talked to think the idea is at least theoretically plausible. He has, they point out, managed to get through the worst of the press coverage without disappearing entirely from the public eye. (He has been maintaining a surprisingly unremarkable presence at parades.) And he'd sort of be operating, if he chose to renew interest in running on the Republican line, in a vacuum. As Dan Gerstein put it, Fossella “may be able to get the G.O.P. nomination since they can't seem to give the seat away on that side.” (This, in a district in which George W. Bush won 55 percent of the vote in 2004.)  read more »

In his first appearance since being arrested in Virginia for drunk driving, Republican Congressman Vito Fossella said he’s not resigning and he hopes the residents of his Staten Island-Brooklyn district forgive him for what he said was a one-time mistake.

“It was a big mistake and I made it and I’m here to apologize to the people I represent,” he said, speaking at the Hilton hotel on Staten Island. “I was brought up man enough to know it’s time to admit mistakes and apologize.”

Fossella spoke for about six minutes, and walked away when I tried asking if he would enter rehab. An aide said later there was no need for it.  read more »

City Councilman Jimmy Oddo, who has been critical of the city's Department of Buildings for years, said that getting rid of the commissioner, as Michael Bloomberg just did, should just be the beginning.

“You can replace [Commissioner] Patricia Lancaster with the most talented person in the world, and if you don’t provide this department with resources to put boots on the ground, you’ll have the same results for the last couple of years,” Oddo said.  read more »

 

Congestion pricing isn't popular in Staten Island. So yesterday, when Staten Island Councilman Michael McMahon at the last minute decided to vote in favor of congestion pricing, it was a big deal in some circles, especially because his likely opponent in the 2009 borough president race, Republican Jimmy Oddo, voted against it.  read more »

Sally Goldenberg reports that Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf will be the lead consultant to Republican Jimmy Oddo’s campaign for Staten Island Borough President.

Oddo's likely opponent, Council member Mike McMahon, played Sheinkopf's reputation (he worked on Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign, among many others) in a tongue-in-cheek effort to position himself as the earnest underdog.

"I am just a simple, plain City Councilman working hard to represent the people in my district -- I don't know anything about those high-powered consultants like Hank Sheinkopf," McMahon told the Staten Island Advance.

When I spoke to Sheinkopf, he told me he hasn't actually signed contract yet with Oddo. He also took issue with McMahon's comments.

"There's nothing high-falutin' about me," Sheinkopf said. "I'm an ex-cop with a C.U.N.Y. degree who couldn't afford anything else."

More after the jump.  read more »

Here's Republican City Councilman Vinny Ignizio of Staten Island praising Rudy Giuliani and saying that “those who are having a good time dancing on his grave” don't "have the likability factor themselves.”

If these unnamed people were more likable, Ignizio says, “they’d have offices somewhere in this building."  read more »

The votes are still being counted in Florida and it's still to close to call a winner on the Republican side--John McCain and Mitt Romney are about three points apart. But for Rudy Giuliani, the verdict is clear--he's been projected to come in no better than third place.

I emailed the ever outspoken Jimmy Oddo, Republican Minority Leader in the City Council, for his thoughts on Giuliani. Here’s what he wrote:  read more »

Here's Republican Jimmy Oddo, commenting on Michael Bloomberg's State of the City speech.

Oddo, the City Council Minority Leader and a Rudy Giuliani supporter, said he didn’t know who Bloomberg was talking about when he referred earlier today to "those politicians who, all of a sudden, have embraced xenophobia.”

"I don't know who he was aiming at. Kevin [Sheekey] might know though," Oddo said. "And when you find out, and when Kevin tells you who he was aiming at, let me know."

“Well, you’ve uncovered my, until now, secretive plot to be a Bloomberg guy,” said Republican City Councilman Jimmy Oddo, who is supporting Rudy Giuliani, but wasn’t named as one of his delegates.

He went on, “Look, it’s no big deal. I haven’t talked to anybody about it [being a delegate] for six months, so I didn’t even know it was happening until you called. Whatever. I’m still a 100 percent Rudy guy.”

What about Michael Bloomberg getting into the race?

“The political junkie in me loves it. How could you not?”

He added, “I don’t think necessarily is a bad thing for either party to have the beginnings of a viable, truly viable, national third party. Listen, I’m a guy who comes from a healthy two-party system, the only borough [that has a real Republican presence], and I see the value of it, for the constituents. You raise your game. You have to be good.

“Maybe a third party out there reminds us who we are.”  read more »

James Oddo done a handful of televised interviews since that little incident with the Norwegian fake-news reporter. Here's one with City Hall gadfly-blogger-reporter Rafael Martinez Alequin in which Oddo goes into some depth about his now-famous ejection of the offending would-be journalists from his office.

Here’s Republican City Councilman Jimmy Oddos’ take on the whole Spitzer affair.

“I just think that my party needs to play this one smart and not to overplay their hand. With some prodding, I would continue to allow the governor to inflict these wounds to himself. If we overplay our hand, the public will say, ‘a pox on both your houses.’”

I asked him what he meant by “overplay” ?

“If our focus is 100 percent on this, and we forget to do policy, it’ll come back and recoil. We should be doing a nice mix of policy and substance as you help the governor self destruct,” he said.

Writing about the other scandal of the day, Blair Horner thinks the indictment of labor-leader and Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin "should be an indictment of Albany's political culture. A culture that is far more interested in maintaining a clearly ethically challenged status quo than working for change."

George Pataki is going to Harvard. For a speech.

In the exciting world of federal interest rates...nothing changed.

Grand Army Plaza gets some changes that should make pedestrians happy.

Alan Hevesi will be greeted by the Young Republicans outside the NY1 studios, and from every reporter in New York.

Ben notices an interesting headline swap after the same-sex/gay marriage ruling.

A reader emails to report that Charles Barron gave Jimmy Oddo an ovation because Oddo, the Republican minority leader on the council, criticized Rush Limbaugh.  read more »

And above is Alan Hevesi in happier times.

-- Azi Paybarah

Azi, a few weeks ago, remarked on one of the odder uses of taxpayer money: bolstering incumbents with token challengers.

The Campaign Finance Board gave out $352,735 to five such incumbents yesterday.

Before Charles Barron, Andy Lanza, Mike Nelson, Jimmy Oddo and Larry Seabrook could get their money, however, each filed a statement of need. Below, in their own words, are some of their reasons.

Seabrook: "My general election opponent is...the nominee of both the Republican and Conservative parties and has the backing of Mayor Bloomberg's high-spending mayoral re-election campaign."

That opponent, George Rubin, hasn't gotten a single dollar from Bloomberg or any other contributor. Seabrook raised $38,817 and got $66,405 yesterday. Maybe it'll go to his consultant, Oliver Seabrook?  read more »

Lanza: "I seek election in a district where the voter registration is divided nearly evenly between Republicans and Democrats. It is important, as one of only three Republican n the City Council, that I am able to get my message out to voters." Lanza got $78,577 yesterday in addition to the $46,582 he raised, all in to ward off Neil Schlanger, who banked $2,600. Oddo: My opponent [in the previous race - corrected] "failed to qualify for matching fund[s] by falling one contributor shy of the required amount. It strikes me as odd that his family, friends and party...would have allowed this to take place. If there was a genuine intention to qualify, surely one person among these groups would have contributed the necessary nominal amount." Oddo raised $65,975 and got $71,003 yesterday. His opponent, David Ceder, has $7,445.

The Bloomberg Administration has taken a "no big deal" line on its quiet policy shift toward education and away from work for some welfare recipients. But conservative critics seemed to think it was important, and Jimmy Oddo wrote a harsh letter to Verna Eggleston about it. And now the move is winning praise in liberal policy circles.  read more »

We explore the Democrats' Rudy problem, and Mike's complex relationship with his predecessor. Note Wolfson's musings, Jimmy Oddo's letter to Verna Eggleston, and cameos from people named Tomasky and Thrush.

Matt Schuerman explains what that Freedom Center thing is, and says it's going well.

Simon Doonan demands you stop whining about the Plaza.

Sheelah Kolhatkar has a counter-intuitive look at the recently controversial shortage of female newspaper columnists.  read more »

And our editorialists congratulate Joel Klein on the test scores.