Guy Velella

Guy John Velella (born September 25, 1944) was a Republican New York State Senator from The Bronx. Velella died on January 27, 2011, at age 66, from lung cancer.

A political leader, state assemblyman, and state senator for over 30 years, Velella was indicted in 2002 with 25 counts of bribery and conspiracy for allegedly accepting at least $137,000 in exchange for steering public-works contracts to the paying parties. He ultimately pleaded guilty to one count in exchange for a year in jail. As part of the plea agreement reached with the Manhattan District Attorney, Velella resigned his seat in the State Senate and as chairman of the Bronx Republican Party and also gave up his law license. Velella served a total of six months (in two separate stints) of his sentence at Rikers Island.

Biography

Velella was born on September 25, 1944, in East Harlem, then a heavily Italian-American neighborhood, in Manhattan. Velella's father, the late Vincent J. Velella, was a lawyer who became wealthy through real estate deals. The Velella family moved to the Bronx in the late 1950s.

In 1967, Velella graduated from St. John's University, Jamaica, New York. He then earned a law degree from the Suffolk School of Law (today the Suffolk University Law School) in Boston, Massachusetts, and joined his father's law practice. In 1972, aged 28, Velella, a Republican, ran for the New York State Assembly in the East Bronx. The incumbent Democrat withdrew from the race unexpectedly, and Velella won the race. He served in the Assembly for 10 years. After redistricting, Velella found himself running in a new Democratic district in 1982. In a bitter campaign, he ran against then-Assemblyman John C. Dearie, a popular Democrat, and lost by a wide margin. Velella told the Bronx News, a local weekly newspaper, that he was done with politics. In January 1983, Velella returned to practicing law full-time. Despite his pledge that his political career was over, Velella was elected to the local school board. Many political observers expected Velella to run for the seat in Congress held by Mario Biaggi, a Democrat, when he retired.

Velella returned to elected office on April 22, 1986, when he was elected to the New York State Senate in a special election to fill the unexpired term of State Senator John D. Calandra, who died on January 20, 1986. The three-way race was bitter and costly, as JoAnn Calandra, Calandra's widow, backed by the late senator's partisans and patronage recipients, and hoping to capitalize on the late senator’s ties to the Senate Majority establishment, sought to retain family control of the seat. The Democratic candidate, Michael Durso, also generated interest, and Velella's victory was anything but a sure bet. The seat, the 34th Senate District included mostly white neighborhoods in the Bronx and parts of lower Westchester County, areas hand-picked by Calandra during the last redistricting and including portions of Yonkers, Mount Vernon, New Rochelle and all of Pelham. Velella also received the endorsements of the Right to Life Party and the Bronx Conservative Party.

In a battle that echoed those for the Republican nomination and the Senate Seat itself, Velella also became chairman of the Bronx Republican Party. He was subsequently re-elected to the State Senate in November 1986 and in every subsequent election. He resigned his seat on May 14, 2004, as part of a plea bargain reached on criminal charges that he took bribes to help businesses win lucrative state contracts. According to the text of the indictment, the bribes were in the form of payments to the Velellas' law firm for little or no work.

Popularity in district

As a state senator, Velella brought millions of state dollars into his district, which funded local projects. Velella also endeared himself to his constituents through his advocacy on their behalf with the federal, state, and city government. Velella's success in securing money for his district and excellent record on constituent service made him very popular in his district, including conservative Democrats (or "Reagan Democrats").

Influence

As one of the handful of Republican State Senators from New York City, Velella exercised considerable influence in the state legislature and in both Westchester County and New York City politics. Over the decades, many Democrats in the Assembly often turned to Velella to introduce their legislation in the New York State Senate, which was controlled by the Republicans from 1966 until 2009.

In 1989, Velella became chairman of the powerful Senate Insurance Committee. In this capacity, Velella secured passage of numerous laws affecting the insurance industry in New York. Velella reached the height of his influence and power during the mid-1990s. He enjoyed access to important elected officials, many of them Republicans, such as U.S. Senator Alfonse D'Amato, Governor George Pataki, Attorney General Dennis Vacco, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and NYS Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno. Velella used his many contacts to secure patronage jobs for his supporters. Other key backers such as Bill Newmark, the chairman of the Bronx Conservative Party, joined his legislative payroll. However, it was Velella's alliance with D'Amato that was crucial to Velella's political relevance.

During Rudy Giuliani's first mayoral bid in 1989, Velella and D'Amato acted together to deny Giuliani the support he needed to beat David Dinkins, the eventual Democratic nominee, even going so far as to engineer a completely spurious candidacy on the part of cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder to challenge Giuliani in the Republican primary. Victor B. Tosi, Velella's executive assistant and a long-time Bronx Republican activist, served as Lauder's campaign manager. Lauder lost the primary, but the nearly $13 million he spent on negative campaign commercials damaged Giuliani's candidacy.

In the general election, Velella endorsed Giuliani, who went on to lose narrowly to Dinkins. Later, when D'Amato and the Governor-Elect Pataki decided to foment a coup against then-Majority Leader Ralph Marino, who had clashed repeatedly with Pataki during the latter's brief tenure in the New York State Senate, Velella acted as Pataki's and D'Amato's agent, drafting Senate Members for a Thanksgiving coup in 1994 against Long Island's Marino and in favor of upstate Rensselaer County's Joe Bruno. This occurred even though Velella had been, upon the retirement of former Majority Leader Warren Anderson, one of a small circle who had helped to engineer Marino's ascension to the Leader's post and was one of Marino's most visible and rewarded allies during the ensuing years.

While serving in the state legislature, Velella also maintained a thriving law practice, which benefited from his Senate role as Insurance Chairman. He was a partner, with his father, in Velella, Velella, Basso, and Calandra, a law firm in the Morris Park section of The Bronx. After his conviction, Velella surrendered his law license and is no longer eligible to practice law. In 2004, the law firm changed its name to Velella, Basso, and Cirrincione and then, after the retirement of Vincent Velella, to Basso and Cirrincione.

Controversies and scandals

In 1987, Velella admitted that he fathered a child out of wedlock with a woman in Albany whom he had a long-time affair. The year before, Velella's supporters distributed campaign literature that championed him as advocate of family values and criticized liberal Democrats for undermining sexual morality. Velella said he made financial arrangements with the mother to support his newborn daughter, Alexandra Velella.

In 1993, Velella was accused of fixing local school board elections. No criminal charges were filed.

City-wide races

In 1981, then-Assemblyman Velella ran for New York City Council President against the incumbent Democrat, Carol Bellamy and lost by a landslide. In 1985, Velella ran for New York City Comptroller against the three-time Democratic incumbent, Harrison J. Goldin, but also lost by a wide margin.

As Bronx Republican Chairman

In 1986, Velella became the chairman of the Bronx Republican Party. He resigned that position in 2004. Critics charged that Velella did nothing to build the local GOP and maintained a "non-aggression pact" with the Bronx County Democratic organization. With the exception of himself, no other Republican was ever elected to any office in the Bronx during his 18-year term. In 1994 and 1996, Velella ran with the endorsement of the Bronx Democratic Party.

Although he maintained a cordial and mutually-beneficial relationship with the Bronx Democratic political machine, Velella did work hard to get Republicans elected to prominent offices. In 1992, Velella campaigned for Senator D'Amato, who was facing a tough re-election fight against Democratic challenger, New York Attorney General Robert Abrams. D'Amato was narrowly re-elected. Velella and Giuliani put aside their previous animosity, and the Bronx Republican leader enthusiastically campaigned for him in 1993. On Election Day, Velella oversaw a "ballot security program," which sought to deter voter fraud at the polls. In 1994, Velella devoted his resources to the Pataki and Vacco campaigns, which were both successful.

In 2001, Velella endorsed former Bronx Borough President and Congressman Herman Badillo, who became a Republican in the 1990s, in the race to succeed the term-limited Mayor Giuliani. In the Republican primary, Badillo faced billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who won the endorsement of the city's four other Republican county chairmen in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island. When Velella realized he was the only Republican county chairman in the city supporting Badillo, Velella stopped actively campaigning for Badillo and publicly called on him to withdraw from the race. Velella explained to the New York Post that he didn't like primaries although he enthusiastically backed Lauder in 1989 against Giuliani. Bloomberg won the primary handily. Velella then campaigned for Bloomberg, who went on to narrowly defeat Mark Green in the general election.

Retirement rumors

Starting in 1988, rumors that Velella was going to leave the State Senate were widely circulated in the district. It was thought that Velella was going to step down to spend more time with his family (which included a wife and four children) and possibly become a state or local judge.

Although these rumors would be repeated in every election year, Velella always ran for re-election. Insiders alleged that Velella spread these false rumors himself in order to draw out those, particularly highly placed staff members, who might want to replace him. According to these allegations, anyone expressing such an interest was promptly then deemed "disloyal" and either removed from their positions or found other actions taken against them.

StopGuy.com

In late 2002, a number of Morris Park residents expressed their concerns over a (now-defunct) web site with the domain, www.morrispark.com. The site contained numerous pornographic images, racial and ethnic jokes and insults, and criticism of local businesses, community leaders and politicians, including Senator Velella. The site's domain was registered under what was believed to be a false name, and its owner has never been identified. In response, Velella announced that he would draft legislation that would require web site operators to register with the New York State Attorney General. Velella's action sparked the creation of a now-defunct "Stop Guy" Web site with the domain, www.stopguy.com. The site sought to raise public awareness of Velella's legislation, warning that it could lead to the censorship of the Internet. It's unclear if Velella ever introduced the bill, and no such law was ever passed in New York State. The site's domain soon expired, and its purpose became moot when Velella resigned from office.

Early release controversy

On June 21, 2004, Velella was sentenced to one year in jail for bribery under a plea deal, but was released from Rikers Island on September 28, 2004 after less than twelve weeks by the Local Conditional Release Commission, an obscure New York City agency. (Ironically, in the State Senate, Velella had voted to abolish the LCRC.) His early release sparked outrage, especially in the media. Both the New York Post and New York Daily News, which both endorsed Velella in past campaigns, published editorials demanding his return to jail. The New York Post pasted Velella's face on a Monopoly "Get Out of Jail Free" card and published it daily in its opinion section.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg called for an investigation into the circumstances of Velella's early release. The city's Department of Investigations (DOI), which looked into the matter, found that the Local Conditional Release Commission (LCRC) had violated established procedures when it granted Velella's request. On November 19, 2004, the commission ordered that Velella be returned to prison. Although Velella appealed this decision, the New York State Appeals Court refused to give him another reprieve. Velella returned to Rikers Island in late December to resume his sentence.

Velella was released on March 18, 2005, after serving only 182 days of his original one-year sentence.

Additional notoriety

Guy Velella is #94 in Bernard Goldberg's book, 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America.

Current activities

Velella continues to receive an annual state pension of $75,012. In 2005, he told the New York Daily News that he does some political and business consulting. He also talked about writing a book about his time in politics.

In 2007, Velella purchased a new home in Eastchester, a town in Westchester County, New York, but remained resident of Morris Park.

Death

On January 21, 2011, the New York Daily News disclosed that Velella was suffering from "inoperable lung cancer" and moved to Calvary Hospital for the terminally ill in the Bronx. Velella died on January 27, 2011 at age 66.

External links

• Web archive of Senator Guy Velella's legislative web site