Veteran Bensonhurst Assemblyman Bill Colton said he is seriously considering running for the 11th Congressional seat that straddles Brooklyn and Staten Island and in which convicted felon, Rep. Michael Grimm will vacate on Monday.
“A lot of people have been asking me to run, and frankly I’m very seriously thinking about it,” said Colton, who has been in the assembly since 1997. “We have been getting very low voter turnout because people are so disgusted with what they see and they don’t feel many elected officials make a difference. I like to talk about substantive issues and would do a real service in restoring the trust that people have lost in offices like Congress.”
While the district is 60 percent in Staten Island leading many political pundits to feel that the a Staten Island Democrat will likely get the nod, Colton brings to the table a much broader coalition than Democratic candidate Dominic Recchia (also a Brooklynite) brought when he lost in a very flawed and losing campaign against Grimm two months ago.
Likely Colton supporters include City Councilman Mark Treyger, a Russian-American, who once served as Colton’s chief of staff and Nancy Tong, the 47th Assembly Female District leader – the borough’s first Asian-American elected official – and who works in Colton’s office.
“My community office fields over 4,000 people a year looking for help on all kinds of problems and I would like to continue doing that on a broader basis as a local congressman,” said Colton, adding Tong alone helps close to 1,800 constituents a year.
Colton noted that the demographics of the district in both Staten Island and Brooklyn has changed dramatically over the years with a high Asian-American and Russian-American influx of voters. This helped John Liu carry the district both in Staten Island and Brooklyn when he ran for comptroller, said Colton.
Colton said he has always enjoyed the assembly and never thought of higher office, but between people urging him to run and the fact if he lost he could still keep his assembly seat make him lean towards running.
“To talk very honestly in the past I didn’t seek higher office because it cost a lot of money to run, but in a special election that is a short campaign of two or three months it’s more about the issues than the money,” he said.
Colton also took a veiled shot at expected GOP front-runner Staten Island DA Dan Donovan whose office failed to indict anyone in the chokehold death of Eric Garner, and who some consider a divisive candidate.
“I believe in fighting for issues that people are concerned about in a moderate way, and I will fight for what is right without being overly political,” he said.
In order to run on the Democratic side, Colton will need the blessing of both Staten Island Democratic chair John Gulino and Frank Seddio. Colton said he hasn’t reached out to Gulino yet, but has called Seddio who is considering the idea. Seddio could not be reached at press time.
Colton said he expects Gov. Andrew Cuomo to call for the special election sometime in February or March.
