Francis Powers died of natural causes in his sleep, at the
age of 67, Republican Party leaders said. Being a board member of the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Powers was recommended and supported by
the Republicans, late this month, to challenge the Democratic candidate, Council
Member Michael McMahon, for the Staten Island and
After he was arrested on May 1 on charges of driving while
intoxicated and admitted he has a three year old daughter from an extramarital
relationship, Vito Fossella, the only Republican member of
Although several other Republicans had targeted the seat, party leaders decided on Powers, who engaged to support himself by laying out hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money and elaborate his own fund-raising network.
Considered an underprivileged in the race, Powers was promptly hindered by a report that his own son took into consideration challenging him as a Libertarian Party nominee.
As the Republican leaders say two leading candidates are Powers’ replacements. One is Joseph Maltese, an acting state Supreme Court justice, and the other is Paul Atanasio, a retired investment banker.
Atanasio was a municipal bond manager at UBS before retiring
several months ago. He also served in the Marine Corps as a helicopter pilot. In
1980 he closely lost a congressional bid to unseat Democratic Leo Zeferetti. He
also functioned as a Governor Pataki designee to the School Construction
Authority Board, resigning as a trustee in 1999 after a 16-year-old girl was
killed in a construction accident at a
First elected as a