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Harrison Eyes Fossella Rematch
Weeks after losing, 2006 dark horse looks to 2008 race

By Matt Sollars

Stephen Harrison, the Bay Ridge Democrat who lost his bid to unseat Rep. Vito Fossella (R) in November, is already mulling his political future, and a potential 2008 rematch is very much on his mind.

“If I was looking at something, this is the one [race] I would look at,” he said, adding that he would make a final decision whether to run again in the coming months.

Though he would not commit outright to another campaign, Harrison seemed to be in campaign mode already—he quickly points out that his 43 percent of the vote was the largest percentage for any Democrat in the district since Fossella was first elected in 1997. (While Democratic candidates in previous presidential year races received more votes than Harrison, his high percentage reflects Fossella’s scoring the lowest aggregate vote total of his career.)

The district covers Staten Island and parts of south Brooklyn.

The question is whether local Democrats will give Harrison another shot. He ran a vigorous campaign, but his political experience is limited to this year’s Congressional run, and three years as president of Brooklyn Community Board 10 in Bay Ridge. Additionally, he lagged in fundraising this year: campaign finance records show that Harrison raised just over $100,000 compared to Fossella’s $1.3 million.

Several well-known Democrats flirted with the race going into 2006, then passed on it – including Council Members Vincent Gentile and Bill de Blasio, both of Brooklyn.

Harrison and his supporters point to the fundraising disparity and wonder what might have been if the national Democratic Party had provided financial help. Richard Flanagan, a professor of political science at the College of Staten Island, said he believes Democrats will probably want to run – and fund – someone with more political experience in 2008, when presidential year politics may raise the stakes. Flanagan said that someone with more name recognition in Staten Island, like Council Member Michael McMahon (D-Staten Island), would stand a better chance of beating Fossella.

“Fossella’s is just a household name now,” Flanagan said.

However, things could change over the next two years, especially now that Fossella will be in the minority for the first time in his Congressional career. Flanagan said Fossella “has been very good at bringing home the goodies.”

However, Flanagan added that with Fossella in the minority, in his opinion, “appropriations for the district will dry up.”

Harrison believes that because of the Democrats’ sweeping victory this fall, “already the complexion for 2008 has changed considerably.”

Other election results on Staten Island show the advantage starting rematches early.

Janele Hyer-Spencer (D) this year won a very tight Assembly race in the borough. After losing to Matthew Mirones in 2004, Hyer-Spencer immediately turned her thoughts to 2006. In the only competitive general election Assembly race in the city this year, Hyer-Spencer defeated Anthony Xanthakis, Mirones’s handpicked successor.

“You’ve got to spend two years talking, two years networking” to defeat an incumbent, Hyer-Spencer said.

For his part, if he does decide to run in 2008, Harrison understands that his party may not hold open the door.

“Institutional memory is a short thing in politics,” he said.