Marty Golden endorses John Quaglione for City Council

June 2, 2017 By John Alexander Brooklyn Daily Eagle

State Sen. Marty Golden endorses his Deputy Chief of Staff John Quaglione for City Council. Eagle photo by John Alexander

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State Sen. Marty Golden (R-C-Bay Ridge-Southwest Brooklyn) has officially endorsed his Deputy Chief of Staff, John Quaglione, in his run for the District 43 (Bay Ridge-Dyker Heights-Bensonhurst) City Council seat. Quaglione entered a crowded field running for the seat currently held by Vincent Gentile, who cannot run again due to term limits.

Quaglione has worked with Golden for 19 years and has been closely involved with a number of initiatives he’s helped put through, including cleaning up Shore Road Park and successfully petitioning the MTA to reinstate weekend service on the x27 and x28 bus lines.

Golden offered strong words of praise for Quaglione, and said that the decision to endorse him was an easy one. Golden detailed all the initiatives he’s tackled with Quaglione and admitted that if Quaglione were to win the City Council seat it would be an added advantage because together they could get so much more done.

“I was a Republican in the City Council for five years and I delivered over $20 million just for parks alone,” Golden said. “Vincent Gentile hasn’t been able to deliver that type of funding across the board in 17 years. So you need somebody there who’s going to be able to deliver. Vincent Gentile is a nice guy but he hasn’t been able to deliver. I think John would be able to deliver. We need money for education, for more police officers, for our transportation systems, and he’s the guy who’s going to be able to deliver.”

Quaglione’s campaign is based on tackling issues that affect his Bay Ridge community. In the last few months, he has proposed plans for adding more police officers to the 68th and 69th precincts; “Eyes on the Street,” a video database to help defeat local crime; community approval for new bike lanes that would minimize traffic accidents and ticketing of delivery services; an independent theater week in the borough; a measure that would give mothers of premature babies easier access to breast milk donated by other mothers that would be covered by Medicaid and unfair ticketing practices in the 43rd District.

“He knows first-hand what they need, he knows first-hand how to get it delivered and now we will have another vehicle to get things done in our community. I think that says it all,” said Golden. “And if you think about it, in 19 years he knows all that goes on in our office — all of the complaints that come in and all of the issues we’ve been involved with. He’s the guy who runs the office and takes care of things.

“That’s what you want, a person who can get things done, knows the agency, the people inside the agency, the ability to work across party lines and the major issues: public safety, transportation, education, housing and open space. It would be a good partnership.”

“This is the first time since 2003 that there is no incumbent in the race and we are going to win this time,” said Quaglione.

He has said that working for Golden has been one of the greatest honors of his life, and that it has given him a ringside seat to see what public service means.

“This election is not about a political party, but about the people who live in the community,” added Quaglione, “We live in the best small town in the biggest city in the world.”

The two other Republicans running in the GOP primary on Sept. 12 for the seat in the 43rd City Council District are Bob Capano and Liam McCabe.

The Democrats running in the Democratic primary, also set for Sept. 12, are Justin Brannan, Kevin Peter Carroll, Rev. Khader El-Yateem and Nancy Tong.