From the Staten Island Advance:
The Democratic County Committee a short time ago nominated North Shore City Councilman Michael McMahon for Staten Island’s Congressional seat, which will be vacated by Vito Fossella in January. The vote was 131-40 with 4 abstentions.
This is great news. The GOP has been struggling hard to find a credible candidate here after Richmond County DA declined the race and state Sen. Andrew Lanza sending out signals that he’s not interested.
More as we get it.
UPDATE: From the NY Times:
Mr. McMahon, who has represented the North Shore of Staten Island for the last seven years, said he had already received the support of the Brooklyn Democratic Party leader, Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez, as well as other Democratic elected officials who had considered running for the seat. The district includes all of Staten Island and portions of Brooklyn.
“I am humbled by this responsibility, and I’m very optimistic about the new beginning in this district,” Mr. McMahon said in an interview on Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, Stephen Harrison is intent on being a pain in the neck:
Mr. Harrison has made it clear that he would remain in the race, despite any decision made by party leaders. Mr. Harrison was defiant after Wednesday night’s meeting, calling Mr. McMahon an “opportunist” who had entered the race only after Mr. Fossella had announced his decision. In contrast, Mr. Harrison said, he had been a candidate when Mr. Fossella had been expected to run again.
“This is simply a matter of the machine being at work,” Mr. Harrison said in an interview after the meeting. “Not only is he a Johnny-come-lately,” he said of Mr. McMahon, “he is not going to resonate with the voters in the Democratic primary.”
this will put this race in play for sure.
Let’s take this one and come closer to making all of New York blue!
…since the language is confusing. He was endorsed for nomination. There is still a primary fight between him and Harrison. And that race has the potential to turn negative rather quickly. Harrison attacked McMahon for supporting tax increases and congestion pricing as a member of the New York City Council at the convention where McMahon unveiled his candidacy.
That said Michael McMahon running is great news. He’s one of the strongest candidates you could run in the district.
Lean Dem. They probably planned out that Cusick or someone will run for the senate seat if Lanza runs against McMahon.
In regards to the comments about Steve in the post I wanted to offer my take. I got to know Steve through his 06 campaign and he has been higher responsive and supportive of my blogging about the race knowing my intent to stay neutral on the democratic side. Steve took on Fossella in 06 when everyone took a pass on the race and said it was not winnable until redistricting. I don’t agree that this gives him a clear pass to the nomination again but it does deserve some respect. We are trying to compete everywhere and that means even in the backyard of some of our most blue districts. Our elected officials took a pass on this race for several terms, the last one I believe to run was in ’97 in the special election Fossella won. That said I think McMahon has the potential to be a great candidate in this primary but with the same reasoning we can not just give him a pass clear to the November election. I come from the progressive side of politics as I imagine most of us do. While McMahon is going to put the Conservative Party line in play for us, Harrison comes at this race from a more liberal side. Harrison has wrapped up the local DFA endorsement and well as PDA nationally and locally as well as several local clubs. I look at how this primary is shaping up and see aspects of the IL-14 race. We had a more progressive candidate in John Laesch who ran in ’06 against Hastert and showed the district was winnable and a more centrist Foster who could bring money to the district. If we could choose which we wanted to put in Congress I think many of us would pick Laesch looking at Foster’s record so far. We can’t do that there and we can’t do that in NY-13. But we can run a primary and at the very least hold McMahon to the left. We are facing third and fourth tier Republican recruits and have a seat the DCCC wants to get behind. So I have no problems with a primary that let’s the voters of the district pick where in the spectrum they want a candidate from.