By Jeremy Walsh
In a move that would surprise few who heard him on the campaign trail last fall, former City Council candidate and Woodside resident David Rosasco has renounced the Democratic Party and joined the Republicans.
At a meeting of the America’s Mayor Republican Club in Jackson Heights March 4, Rosasco formally completed his change of party by filling out a voter registration card and symbolically tearing up his Democratic Party membership.
“There’s no room for a conservative among the Democrats in this town,” said Rosasco, a social conservative who ran on a quality-of-life platform.
Rosasco, 39, owns his own Japanese translation business in Woodside, where he grew up. He was kicked off the Democratic primary ballot by lawyers working for the Queens Democratic Party and their favored candidate, Deirdre Feerick. He likened his experience to being “thrown under the bus.”
Former Queens Library External Affairs Director Jimmy Van Bramer ultimately won the election, handily defeating Republican candidate Angelo Maragos in a district where Democrats vastly outnumber GOP members.
Rosasco plans to take his “David Bandwagon” around to the rest of the borough’s Republican clubs in the next couple of months to thank them for standing with him during the 2009 elections. He hopes to run for office again in the future.
“Even if I’m the one man standing, there’s going to be opposition to this Democratic machine,” he said. “Same district, same residence and same stuff.”
Until the next election cycle, Rosasco has resumed what became the core of his 2009 campaigning: picking up the litter underneath the platform at the Woodside Long Island Rail Road station.
“I made a commitment until God calls me home,” he said.
Reach reporter Jeremy Walsh by e-mail at jewalsh@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4564.
