A staffer in embattled Rep. Vito Fossella’s Bay Ridge office says his boss’s tarnished reputation won’t hurt him in his just-announced run for the Assembly.
Bob Capano — currently Fossella’s director of Brooklyn operations — will take on first-term incumbent Alec Brook-Krasny (D–Coney Island) for the 46th District seat, which covers Bay Ridge and parts of Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights and Coney Island.
A longtime political activist who has worked for Democrats and Republicans, Capano said that voters will remember that he’s the one running, not Fossella (R–Bay Ridge).
“I think Congressman Fossella has had many great accomplishments in Brooklyn — he saved the VA hospital and the seawall,” Capano said of his boss, who was arrested for drunk driving on May 1 and subsequently admitted to fathering a child out of wedlock.
“But at the end of the day, I’m running on my personal record,” Capano said.
That record includes working for Fossella and Borough President Markowitz as the Beep’s senior adviser for community relations and legislative affairs.
Capano — who landed endorsements from the Brooklyn Republican and Conservative parties since he announced his candidacy on May 30 — also touted his work as president the 68th Precinct Youth Council, chairman of the Brooklyn Young Republicans, and former committee chair with the Bay Ridge Community Council.
Brook-Krasny — who wouldn’t comment on whether he intends to use Capano’s ties to Fossella as a campaign cudgel — agrees that experience will be the determining factor in this year’s race.
“I have a different kind of experience than Bob Capano,” said Brook-Krasny, a Soviet émigré who came to the United States in 1989.
“I have experience building my life in this wonderful country, starting with only $40 in my pocket,” he said. “I have experience building a business in the community. I have experience being the peoples’ representative. This will be a campaign based on experience, and people will decide whose experience they prefer.”
