Vito Fossella

Vito John Fossella Jr. (born March 9, 1965) is an American politician serving as the Staten Island Borough President since 2022. A member of the Republican Party, Fossella previously represented the state's 13th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives for six terms, from 1997 to 2009 serving as the lone Republican from New York City. A Staten Island native, Fossella initially took office in 1997 after winning a special election held to replace the resigning Susan Molinari. After a DUI arrest in Alexandria, Virginia on May 1, 2008, it was discovered that he was living with Laura Fay, a retired US Air Force lieutenant colonel, while Fossella was married. The two had a child together and lived in Virginia as a married couple while he lived in Staten Island with his wife. He announced on his official website on May 20 that he had chosen to serve out the remainder of his term, which ended on January 3, 2009, but decided not to run for re-election. In March 2021, Fossella announced that he was running for Borough President of Staten Island. He was endorsed by Donald Trump and won the Republican nomination in July 2021. He was elected borough president after defeating opponents Mark Murphy and Leticia Remauro. Fossella was born on Staten Island into a Roman Catholic family of Irish and Italian descent. Fossella's great-grandfather James A. O'Leary represented Staten Island in Congress from 1935 to 1944. One of his uncles, Frank Fossella, was a prominent Staten Island Democrat who was a City Council member in 1985. His father, Vito John Fossella Sr., served in various appointed positions in the city administrations of Democratic Mayors Edward I. Koch and Abraham D. Beame, then became a successful construction engineer. Fossella, the fourth of seven children, was a basketball player at Monsignor Farrell High School, where he got his first political experience in the student council. He briefly played violin and percussion with the Christian pop band Sonseed.