The post features a video that appears to have been taken from one of Morano\u2019s own social media livestreams in which the sitting Councilmember praises Colombo\u2019s efforts on the campaign trail and takes what could be interpreted as a veiled shot at the elder Fossella.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is Mike Colombo, he\u2019s running for borough president. He\u2019s doing a really great job. He\u2019s everywhere. He\u2019s the hardest working guy I\u2019ve seen running for borough president this year,\u201d Morano said in the video.<\/p>\n
The praise for Colombo drew the ire of the younger Fossella, who unsuccessfully ran against Morano in an April special election<\/a> and dropped out of the Republican primary for the general election in June.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cCan someone please explain to me why it appears that our current Republican South Shore City Councilman Frank Morano is openly advocating for the far left Democrat candidate and Zohran Mamdani supporter in Mike Colombo?\u201d Fossella wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cThis confirms what we have been saying since day 1: Frank Morano is a complete fraud and not a real Republican (he became one in November of 2024. Where is the Staten Island Republican Party leadership on this matter? Are they going to condemn one of their own for breaking ranks and campaigning for a candidate who\u2019s party chants defund the police and raise taxes on all of us so Mamdani can pay for his slush fund of free handouts?\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n Colombo refuted Fossella\u2019s claim that he supports Mamdani, telling the Advance\/SILive.com that he hasn\u2019t endorsed or supported anyone in the mayoral race and is ready to work with whomever wins to do what\u2019s best for Staten Island.<\/p>\n When reached for comment, Morano told the Advance\/SILive.com that he has not endorsed anyone for borough president, that Fossella hasn\u2019t asked for his endorsement, and that he will only be voting for Republicans in the upcoming elections.<\/p>\n He went on to reiterate his praise for Colombo\u2019s work ethic, noting that he\u2019s seen him at several candidate forums that the borough president did not attend.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve said publicly that Mike Colombo is a nice guy and a hard worker, because he is. He\u2019s attended every single candidate forum I\u2019ve been to, no matter how big or small the crowd. Vito hasn\u2019t shown up to one. Recognizing someone\u2019s work ethic isn\u2019t \u2018endorsing\u2019 them, it\u2019s called being polite,\u201d Morano said in a written statement.<\/p>\n Morano went on to note that the borough president has not issued any endorsements for his fellow local Republicans and has been notably absent from several of their events.<\/p>\n \u201cIf Griffin is really concerned about people \u2018secretly helping Democrats,\u2019 maybe he should ask his father why he hasn\u2019t endorsed a single Republican for any office this year (including Mayor) — or why the only elected officials he seems to do events with are Democrats,\u201d Morano wrote.<\/p>\n A review of press advisories from the borough president\u2019s office showed that no other Staten Island Republican elected officials attended any of Fossella\u2019s public events this year, including the launch of his re-election campaign<\/a>, and it was unclear if they were even invited.<\/p>\n In recent weeks, the borough president<\/a> and the borough\u2019s city Councilmembers<\/a> held separate press conferences to announce funding allocations to renovate the Staten Island Zoo\u2019s Children\u2019s Center, while in the past the borough\u2019s elected officials would typically hold one joint press conference for that type of announcement.<\/p>\n When reached for comment regarding Morano\u2019s comments, David Catalfamo, a spokesperson for the borough president\u2019s reelection campaign, told the Advance\/SILive.com, \u201cThe borough president is not going to dignify the remarks with a response.\u201d<\/p>\n Assemblymember Michael Tannousis, chair of the Staten Island Republican Party, called for the elected officials to put aside their differences and come together in support ahead of Election Day.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe rhetoric needs to be toned down. The Staten Island Republican Party endorses candidates that are proven fighters and that we know will continue to fight for Staten Islanders. We endorsed our candidates months ago and as we near Election Day, this is the time for our party to unite against a very real Democratic Socialist threat. As we have done during the past few months, we are encouraging Staten Islanders to go out and vote for all of our Republican candidates who will fight for them,\u201d Tannousis said.<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A social media post criticizing the South Shore\u2019s Republican city Councilmember for praising a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-23140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n ![\"NYC](\"https:\/\/www.silive.com\/resizer\/v2\/FHU2TVAKB5CKZD4TSAKGPFGXCY.jpg?auth=e964a4adf19040ed57346e1c98b4a51dfb4730b1ceb5f636c21e960459a51c28&width=1280&quality=90\")
\n<\/a><\/p>\n