Republicans' Pick for Seat Held by Fossella Dies at 67

A retired financier whom Republicans had hoped would be their best bet to replace Rep. Vito Fossella of Staten Island died yesterday morning.

Francis Powers, 67, a board member of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, died of natural causes in his sleep, Republican Party leaders said.

Late last month, Republicans endorsed him to challenge the Democratic candidate, Council Member Michael McMahon, for the Staten Island and Brooklyn 13th District seat, which opened up after Mr. Fossella declined to seek re-election.

Mr. Fossella, the only Republican member of New York's congressional delegation, decided not to run after he was arrested May 1 on charges of driving while intoxicated and soon afterward said he had fathered a child out of wedlock.

Although several other Republicans expressed interest in the seat, party leaders settled on Powers, who pledged to support himself by spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money and tap his own fund-raising network.

Powers was considered an underdog in the race and was immediately hampered by a report that his son was considering challenging him by seeking the Libertarian Party nomination.

"I have not known Frank Powers long, but since I met him, I found him to be a man of great integrity, drive and determination and since the day he accepted the nomination he has been working vigilantly to move his congressional campaign forward," the Kings County Republican chairman, Craig Eaton, said in a statement.

Republican leaders say two leading candidates to replace Powers are an acting state Supreme Court justice, Joseph Maltese, and a retired investment banker, Paul Atanasio.

Mr. Atanasio, who is active in the state Conservative Party, was a municipal bond manager at UBS before retiring several months ago. He was also a helicopter pilot in the Marine Corps.

In 1980 he narrowly lost a congressional bid to unseat a Democratic incumbent, Leo Zeferetti. He also served as a Governor Pataki appointee to the School Construction Authority Board, resigning as a trustee in 1999 after a 16-year-old girl was killed in a construction accident at a Brooklyn school.

Judge Maltese, who was first elected as a Civil Court judge in 1991, has been a state Supreme Court judge for more than a decade. Presiding in Richmond County, he handles medical malpractice, product liability cases, and general civil matters, according to his official biography.

He is a brigadier general in the New York Guard and a retired member of the Army Judge Advocate General's Corps.