By William Lewis
Attorney Tom Ognibene of Middle Village served on the City Council, representing the 30th Council District of western Queens, for 10 years until 2001, when he was term limited out of office. During most of that time, he served as the Council minority leader.
He seemed to develop a good working relationship with former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Today, he is optimistic about Giuliani running for governor of New York as the Republican candidate in 2010. He believes Giuliani has a good chance of winning and helping other GOP candidates on his slate to win.
After leaving the Council, Ognibene was not very active politically, except for an attempt to run for mayor in a Republican primary against Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2005. He did not obtain ballot position that year, but was at the time a prominent leader opposing Bloomberg within the city GOP, especially since he had the Queens County Republican Party’s endorsement.
For the most part, his lack of political activism continued up to this year, when his former Council seat became open due to the resignation in March of former Councilman Dennis Gallagher. At that point, Ognibene announced his candidacy to regain his former seat in a special election.
The special election was won by Anthony Como (R−Middle Village), who was a councilman for several months before losing a special election to Democrat Elizabeth Crowley. She will hold the seat during 2009.
In the fall of 2009, the seat will be up for election again, with the winner receiving a four−year term of office. Ognibene is considering running again for the seat. He is expected to make his decision by early spring, which could mean that he will be challenging Como in a Republican primary if Como runs again. The winner would then face Crowley in the fall general election.
In the first special election, Como won by a narrow margin and had strong support from former state Sen. Serf Maltese, who helped him obtain a large group of campaign workers. With Maltese losing his seat this past fall by a decisive margin, however, it is questionable as to whether he will be in a position to help Como.
In addition, for a Republican to win that seat, third party endorsements would be needed, especially from the Conservative Party, which currently seems to favor Ognibene.
“We will remind people that the city was at its best when we had a two−party system in the 1990s, including seven Republicans on the City Council,” Ognibene said, about how the Queens Republican Party could make a comeback. He also indicated that he intends to work toward restoring the two−party system in the city, particularly in Queens.
During the early 1990s, Maltese was the Republican county leader, with Ognibene second in command. Now Phil Ragusa is the county leader. Ognibene has indicated his desire to return to political activism and rejoin the Queens Republican Party Executive Committee.
Ognibene has also stated that he hopes the Queens GOP battle two years ago for control of the county organization will not resume this year. He hopes the present county leadership will bring insurgents into the regular organization and have all factions working together to restore a two−party system in Queens.
Ragusa intends to run Republican candidates in every Queens Council district in 2009. This will generate a lot of interest in Queens 2009 elections.
If Ognibene runs for his former Council seat, he will have several advantages over Como and Crowley, his potential rivals. They include name recognition, the experience of having run several times in the past and fund−raising.
If he wins the Republican primary and obtains the Conservative and Independence parties’ endorsements, Ognibene will have a strong base going into the fall general election. Regardless of how the next two years play out politically in Queens, however, Ognibene will have a major role in the outcome.
