A DUI, A Mistress & A Kid...

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Staten Island politico, up to his azz in 'gators...

May 8, 2008, 11:18 am Fossella Admits to Extramarital Affair

By Jonathan P. Hicks

Representative Vito J. Fossella answered questions on May 2 about his arrest for driving while intoxicated.

Updated, 3:57 p.m. | Representative Vito J. Fossella, a Staten Island Republican who was arrested on May 1 in Alexandria, Va., and charged with drunken driving, issued a statement on Thursday acknowledging that he had had an extramarital affair with Laura Fay, a former Air Force lieutenant colonel, and that the two of them have a 3-year-old daughter together.

The prospect that Mr. Fossella could face a mandatory jail sentence if convicted had already threatened to bring to an end his decade-long career in the House, where Mr. Fossella is the only Republican representing New York City. The Daily News has reported that Mr. Fossella called Ms. Fay for help after his arrest and told officers that he was on his way to Grimm Street, where Ms. Fay lives, to visit a sick daughter. As speculation swirled over Mr. Fossella’s relationship with Ms. Fay in recent days, his aides said only that they were good friends.

On Capitol Hill, the Fossella story was just more bad news for House Republicans, who are struggling to get off the defensive in the upcoming elections having already lost two special elections in two districts long held by Republicans, with another one at risk in Mississippi next Tuesday.
Party officials and strategists who would not speak publicly to avoid interceding in the case said the general preference was for Mr. Fossella to not seek re-election in November but to finish his term and avoid yet another special election in potentially difficult political territory. But many said they doubted he could survive politically and that it might be better for him and his colleagues if he quit rather than have his conduct become part of the campaign.

Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader, said Mr. Fossella had to make his own choice. “I think Mr. Fossella is going to have some decisions to make over the weekend,” Mr. Boehner told reporters. “And I would hope that and, frankly, expect that this is a decision between he, his family and his constituents.”






In Mr. Fossella’s four-sentence statement on Thursday, he declined to address his political future or specify whether he would seek re-election this fall to a sixth full term:

I have had a relationship with Laura Fay, with whom I have a three-year-old daughter. My personal failings and imperfections have caused enormous pain to the people I love and I am truly sorry. While I understand that there will be many questions, including those about my political future, making any political decisions right now are furthest from my mind. Over the coming weeks and months, I will to continue to do my job and I will work hard to heal the deep wounds I have caused.

Mr. Fossella, 43, was driving with a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit when he was pulled over. He faces a mandatory five days in jail if convicted.

The House ethics committee also could open an investigation into the matter. A spokesman for the committee declined on Thursday to comment on what action, if any, the panel is taking regarding Mr. Fossella. Under a committee rule, the panel must begin an investigation of a House member accused of a crime within 30 days, or report to the House why it is declining to investigate.

Mr. Fossella, the only Republican member of Congress from New York City, has apologized to his constituents on Staten Island and in Brooklyn, but already, there is speculation that his decadelong career in the House could come to an end. After serving three years in the City Council, he was elected to the House in a November 1997 special election to replace Susan Molinari.

In 2006, Mr. Fossella’s Democratic opponent, Stephen Harrison, a Brooklyn lawyer, fared better than any previous opponent, winning 43 percent of the vote.

This year, Mr. Harrison and another Democrat, City Councilman Domenic M. Recchia Jr. of Brooklyn, are in a primary race to challenge Mr. Fossella. Democrats in Washington said the fact that there were two candidates they called credible seeking to challenge Mr. Fossella underscored his vulnerability this year. The Democrats currently hold a 235-to-199 edge in the House, with one vacancy.

If Mr. Fossella resigns or declines to seek re-election, several other Republicans might run to replace him and keep the seat in the party’s hands. They include the Staten Island district attorney, Daniel M. Donovan Jr.; City Councilmen James S. Oddo and Vincent M. Ignizio; and State Senator Andrew J. Lanza.

The Staten Island Advance quoted Guy V. Molinari, a Republican power broker on Staten Island and a former congressman and borough president and mentor of Mr. Fossella’s, as saying, “Vito is going through a very difficult time. I will be by his side regardless of what decisions he makes.” (Mr. Molinari is the father of Susan Molinari and held the House seat himself, from 1981 to 1989.)

Born on Staten Island on March 9, 1965, Mr. Fossella is the son of a construction engineer and a florist and the fourth of seven children. He attended Monsignor Farrell High School and graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1987. He received a law degree from Fordham University in 1994, the same year he was elected to the City Council. Mr. Fossella’s great-grandfather James A. O’Leary, a Democrat, represented Staten Island in the House from 1935 until his death in 1944.

Mr. Fossella and his wife, the former Mary Patricia Rowan, married in 1990. They have two sons and a daughter. On Wednesday, Mr. Fossella attended a confirmation ceremony for his oldest child at St. Clare’s Roman Catholic Church in the Great Kills neighborhood of Staten Island, before returning to Washington.

In the Democratic stronghold of St. George, the neighborhood nearest the ferry to Manhattan, patrons at the Cargo Cafe weighed in on the scandal.
“Vito Fossella’s behavior is a disgrace to himself, his family and to Staten Island,” said an anesthesiologist, Dr. John Ferguson, 44. “Given the fact that he votes along the Bush-Cheney line 90 percent of the time, which means he sees himself as a moral values candidate, I find his behavior completely, but not surprisingly, hypocritical. He should resign immediately.”

On quaint, Victorian, Main Street in Tottenville, at the southern tip of Staten Island, the crowd at B&E’s Neighborhood Pub wasn’t sympathetic.
One patron, a former firefighter named Glen Midbo, 50, said of Mr. Fossella, “Here’s a guy - a politician making all that money, who makes laws and gets driven around in a limo, but he does this and he’ll probably get off. He should be sent to jail and he should resign.” Mr. Midbo was arrested for driving under the influence on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge several years ago and was forced to retire from the city’s Fire Department and to pay a $15,000 fine.

“Three years later, I don’t have my license back,” he said. “Let’s see how long it takes to get his license back.”
Sewell Chan, Carl Hulse and David Stout contributed reporting