As Staten Island's Republican Party scrambled to pick a candidate to replace Rep. Vito Fossella (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn), the Independence Party of New York faced similar problems. Each promising Republican who interviewed with the Independence Party's Staten Island candidate screening committee balked at running for Congress.

When the GOP threw support to Metropolitan Transporation Authority board member Frank Powers, the Independence Party decided to field one of its own: health care executive Carmine Morano, better known to borough politicos as the father of the Independence Party's candidate screening committee chair, Frank Morano.

Though Morano is a party stalwart, he is a political neophyte, with a background in health care-he sold his insurance company, PerfectHealth, to the Health Insurance Plan of New York (HIP) in 2006. He often talks about this experience on the campaign trail, where he is looking to exploit a fractured GOP, as well as a base of Democrats torn between 2006 Congressional nominee Steve Harrison and Council Member Michael McMahon (D-Staten Island).

"Having been an expert in the field, I can go to Washington," Morano said, "and have input on the health care of the country and how it's going to be financed in the future."

Morano had originally collected enough petition signatures from registered Republicans to qualify for a primary, under the impression that Staten Island Republicans would grant him a Wilson-Pakula certificate. GOP county chair John Friscia denied there had ever been an agreement, however, and Morano was left with only the Independence line.

He then mounted a write-in campaign in the primary, but the results of the last-ditch effort barely registered at the polls.
Former Assembly Member Robert Straniere (R-Staten Island) emerged as the winner of the primary, but party infighting has left most people skeptical of his chances against McMahon.

Morano is reveling in the breakdown.

"It couldn't be better in terms of potential support for my candidacy and my party," Morano said. "A lot of people have said 'You have a great opportunity to be an underdog victor.'"

Paul Atanasio, a retired Brooklyn banker, is also running in the race, on the Conservative line. Unlike Morano, Atanasio waited until after the GOP primary to begin his campaign.

The party, which boasts 5,319 registered voters, has had success in the past on Staten Island-Borough President James Molinaro, after all, won in 2001 as a GOP-endorsed Conservative. But Molinaro believes that an independent candidate without major party support cannot win, even in this race, with Straniere being attacked by his own base.

"The minor parties, either they help you or are insignificant," Molinaro said.

But though Molinaro is vice chair of the borough's Conservative Party, he threw his support to McMahon and tried unsuccessfully to get the state Conservative Party to follow suit.

The local Independence Party, which has 9,204 members in the district, often cross-endorses, rather than fielding candidates of its own, though party stalwart Anita Lerman ran a primary against Fossella in 2006. He won, and netted 3,667 votes from his spot on Row C that November.

Republican candidates in Staten Island have rarely run on only their party line.

The younger Morano, who oversaw the endorsement decision, is confident that his father's candidacy will show the major parties the Independence Party's strength in borough politics, and encourage them to court their cross-endorsement in the future.

On the other hand, if the parties cannot unite after the primary, he said his father could cobble together a coalition of disenfranchised Republicans and Democrats.

"For an Independent to win this seat," the younger Morano said, "would be the  coup de grâce and a fitting end to this crazy election."