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NY-13: Fossella Admits to Affair and Fathering Child

by: Ben

Thu May 08, 2008 at 12:06 PM EDT


Via the NYT, a statement from Vito Fossella:

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.

Still no official word yet on whether he will resign or retire, as is widely expected.

On the web: Vino Fossella

Update (James): John Boehner is asking Fossella to make a decision on his political future over the weekend.  Will Fossella bother to follow the hapless Boehner's timetable?  Remember, Rick Renzi flipped the bird to Boehner when he asked the embattled Arizona incumbent to step down earlier this year.
Ben :: NY-13: Fossella Admits to Affair and Fathering Child
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NY-13: Fossella Admits to Affair and Fathering Child | 28 comments
Any Dem opponents yet for November?
Given the +1 Dem PVI, I imagine we could get a non-Blue Dog addition to the caucus to balance out the ones we've recently added.  That's the hope at least.
Harrison and Recchia
Steve Harrison ran in 2006 and got 43%, highest ever for a Dem against Fossella.
Recchia currently holds more cash on hand than Fossella, a $100k advantage.
[ Parent ]
Better candidates are sure to come forward I'm sure
now that it is almost assuredly an open seat.
[ Parent ]
Not sure
The DCCC would have to interject and they have been very good at not doing that so far.  Despite reports that they are supporting Recchia behind the scenes they are letting the race play out.  If they get involved they will cross Rep. Nadler unless Recchia decides to drop out for the good of the party.  Curiously Recchia has not officially declared so he could easily slide out of the race without causing any waves.  Then again  why push out candidates with money for someone who has to start fresh?
[ Parent ]
Top tier
This has got to be a top tier pick up now.  
Limited bank account
Fossella has a limited bank account.  The crisis manager and legal help have to be costing him a bundle.  I suspect he will see how his eight planned fund raisers go before ducking out.  The number of fund raisers alone suggests that he has burned through most of his $248 K cash on hand.  I would guess he's paid some large retainers already.  Look at how Don Young burned through a much larger cash stash.  He's probably paying DC and NY prices for the lawyers and that's not cheap.
cash squeeze

His Staten Island developer buddies will probably pony up some more, if only for old times' sake.  But at NYC and Beltway prices, paying both lawyers and PR costs...throw in court-ordered or "voluntary" alcohol counseling or rehab at a minimum, along with running alimony and child support on his own dime....  Seems like the party's over for Vinnie.

A DUI is one thing, a post-divorce affair marginal, but I doubt the illegitimate child will play well at all with the very Roman Catholic Italian-American women whose votes he utterly depends on.

[ Parent ]
he's divorced?
before this scandal came out, he'd already proved himself a hypocrite by using campaign funds to take his family on skiing trips... i assumed they were still together...

It is difficult to get the news from poems, but men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there. --William Carlos Williams
[ Parent ]
He is married
that may change, but legally he is still married.  They may have been referring to Laura Fay.
[ Parent ]
A Child?!?!?!?!
If sex scandal = front page news, what does this equal?

I mean, wow! I am really shocked and feel bad for the guy. Just wow.

26, Male, Democrat, TX-26

Feel bad for the guy? Feel bad for his wife!
The tell came earlier in some article I won't be able to find again, but right after the arrest it said that Fossella's wife was shocked, because she didn't know he had a car in DC.

Whoops.

He had the car so he could drive out to his mistress' house in VA.  

I don't think the wife knew about the mistress.

And I'm pretty damn sure the oldest child, who was confirmed yesterday, didn't know about the three year old sister.

There are four really disillusioned people on Staten Island this week.  Feel bad for them.  Vito's had a whole other family for four years plus.  I don't feel very bad for him at all.

28, gay guy, Democrat, CA-08

[ Parent ]
word
We always forget about the other people that these scandles effect. Man, just goes to reinforce my 'people suck' theme. lol
[ Parent ]
Check this out!
Once again, I don't have the link handy, but turns out Fossella had told the second woman he was separated (although perhaps not formally divorced).  She didn't know he was still actively married until she saw his press release!

That's almost too much to believe (why could she never go to Staten Island with him if he was divorced/divorcing?).  Maybe she's just covering her ass / setting herself up for the alimony/childsupport hearing.  But, if true, it means Fossella was lying to BOTH women... not just little lies, but BIG ones.

No wonder he thinks he can run for re-election.  He is living in an alternate universe.  To maintain all of that lying in a natural and convincing way, you probably have to segment your mind very thoroughly; now, he apparently can't find his way back out of the crazy reality he built for himself.

===============

PS -- I wish there was a way to search the full text of one or two days' worth of your internet history.  It'd be so much easier to find links like this one.

28, gay guy, Democrat, CA-08

[ Parent ]
Oh please, please stick it out and run for re-election Vito
At least pull a Larry Craig and stay around till November so voters have a constant reminder of how many hypocrites are in your party.
According to one of the news articles...
The woman in question was having an affair with Vito while she was working at the Pentagon as a a liason.  Isn't that grounds for an investigation of some sort?
The colonel
Went on a PR trip with Denny Hastert and some Republicans to Europe and neither she nor Vito could be found for hours at a time.  As the Air Force's liaison to the House she was supposed to stick like a glove to the Speaker.  The result was that she got pushed out of her cushy job back to intelligence and very shortly she retired.  She also was pretty promptly divorced.  I'd say she paid for this in spades.  
[ Parent ]
Actually was referring to Vito more than his lady friend...
couldn't democrats start House investigations if he doesn't resign quick?
[ Parent ]
would a special election be better or worse
if we can win LA-06 and hasterts old seat, a D+.01 would probably be a landslide.

Top ten signs you're an SSPer #1: your favorite song is "Panic At Tedisco" and no one understands what you mean.
better
If he resigns before July 1 Gov. Paterson can call a special election.  Given the cash advantage of the DCCC they could easily drop a million dollars on this race and Republicans would not be able to compete.  The NRCC is polling the district today, and wasting even more money without actually helping a candidate.  

This is one of the districts where a Clinton nomination would have been better than Obama for down ticket races so waiting until November could be be harder.

[ Parent ]
And unlike MS-01 and LA-06...
I'm assuming this is a VERY expensive market that would drain the the RNCC badly.
[ Parent ]
no way
There is no way that at present the RNCC could afford the NYC media market. lol Completely unreal.
[ Parent ]
They'd spend anyway
They have an advantage here in that they have strong candidates. They can keep this seat, even narrowly, and keep it for a long time. I live in New York and know this district. I'm a huge Obama supporter, but Obama is poison here, Clinton is not and McCain is frightningly popular. I suspect the RNCC would try to tie whoever the candidate is to Obama ans trump up McCain.  

Liberty Avenue Politics - a place for politics in Southern Queens
[ Parent ]
LA-06
That didn't work for Jenkins tying Obama to Cazayoux in a much more conservative district so I don't see why it would work here.  
[ Parent ]
White flight
NY-13 is a white flight district with little African-American population. This is, unfortunately, quite a racist district. It's not that it's conservative here, it's that there is a lot of racism. Wright may not have hurt Obama in most of the country, but it killed him here.  

Liberty Avenue Politics - a place for politics in Southern Queens
[ Parent ]
if they do
That just means millions of millions of dollars that won't be spent elsewhere.
[ Parent ]
A long time?
Democrats are most likely going to control redistricting in 2012.  Would it really be all that hard to turn this district from marginally R to pretty solid D?  Also, 2 seats will need to be eliminated anyway in 2012.
[ Parent ]
It wouldn't be hard
but it would require ridding the city of another Democrat and combining this one with another one.

In the past, Staten Island has been put in the same district as Manhattan and in order to get more Brooklyn Democrats, you may have to cut into some black neighborhoods, which won't happen. Southern Brooklyn is surprisingly conservative.  

Liberty Avenue Politics - a place for politics in Southern Queens

[ Parent ]
NRCC*

[ Parent ]
NY-13: Fossella Admits to Affair and Fathering Child | 28 comments

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