In the race for Vito Fossella’s congressional seat, many Republicans are considering voting for Council Member Michael McMahon rather than the dark horse candidate the Staten Island Republican Party has chosen, Frank Powers. They know little about Mr. Powers, but Mr. McMahon, whom the borough’s Democratic Party has endorsed, is popular and is viewed as a relatively conservative Democrat. I’ve voted for Mr. McMahon, even though we differ on his party’s position on abortion.

I first met Mr. McMahon on the steps of St. Peter’s in December 2003. We were awaiting the arrival of a hearse carrying Thomas, a baby abandoned soon after birth, wrapped in a woman’s corduroy coat, and tossed near a trash bin. Mr. McMahon was visibly touched by the arrival of the tiny coffin, and told me how tragic it was to see such a tiny life wasted. At the same time, he voiced pride in the police officers who “showed the caring and compassion that young Thomas never received in his short life.”

There were no crowds at the church, and Mr. McMahon was not running for re-election. He didn’t have to attend; there were no grieving parents to impress. I thought his attendance at the funeral Mass demonstrated sincerity and compassion. I’ve also found that as a representative of my Stapleton community, he did not always take the traditional party stance, and sometimes he stood firmly with the two Republican council members, James Oddo and now state Senator Andrew Lanza.

Mr. Lanza’s seat on the City Council was won by Vincent Ignizio, and Mr. McMahon has joined him and Mr. Oddo in demanding an accurate count of police officers assigned to the borough. The police department released those figures recently, and an analysis shows that the island is not getting its fair share of police coverage.

As a council member, Mr. McMahon has represented the Staten Island North Shore well, and now that he is running for a congressional seat, his pro-choice position may affect whether conservative voters like me support him. Although I am adamantly pro-life, I at times have voted for pro-choicers such as Mayor Giuliani, because the offices they were campaigning for had little to do with abortion legislation. Mayor Bloomberg changed all that when he ordered mandatory abortion training in the city hospitals in 2002.

Staten Island conservatives have been in real flux since the scandal-tarred Mr. Fossella decided that he would not run in November. Republicans have held the island seat for the last 28 years, but the Richmond County Republican Committee was unable to recruit any top-tier candidates. District Attorney Daniel Donovan was the preferred choice, and was heavily recruited by the national and local Republican Party, but declined.

All of a sudden we’re being told that Mr. Powers, a retired Wall Street executive and Metropolitan Transportation Authority board member, is the party’s likely nominee. We’re also told that Mr. Powers will be spending a great deal of his own money to run, and the buzz on the local forums has it that the party endorsement was bought.

Congress is a whole different ball game, and Mr. McMahon would be voting on issues such as Social Security, the Iraq war, and embryonic stem cell research. So how would Mr. McMahon vote in Congress?

The chairman of the Brooklyn Conservative Party, Jerry Kassar, told Politico.com that he views Mr. McMahon as a moderate to conservative Democrat. “McMahon is in the mix this year as a popular Democrat that I would seriously consider supporting,” Mr. Kassar told the Web site. “He’s not as conservative as Powers, but he definitely appeals to us on some of the issues. He appeals to us on his opposition to gay marriage, and he told us he continues to support U.S. action in Iraq.”

However, Mr. McMahon’s brother and spokesman, Tom McMahon, clarified the candidate’s position. He told me: “Michael feels that we need to get out of Iraq but that we should not do anything that would endanger the lives of our soldiers. He does not support gay marriage but supports civil unions.” He also confirmed that Mr. McMahon is pro-choice.

These are decidedly liberal positions, which many conservatives have to weigh before selecting Mr. McMahon over the Republican candidate. During the next two months, I will be asking all the congressional candidates what they expect to gain from Congress besides the pork it distributes. Michael McMahon is one of the saner and harder-working members of this nebulous City Council, and Staten Island needs his support on reversing its rising crime rate.

So what’s Vito doing these days?

acolon@nysun.com