Guy Velella

The 34th Senate District included mostly white neighborhoods in the Bronx and parts of lower Westchester County, areas hand-picked by Calandra during the last redistricting and including portions of Yonkers, Mount Vernon, New Rochelle and all of Pelham.

Velella received the endorsements of the Right to Life Party and the Bronx section of the Conservative Party of New York.

In a battle that echoed those for the Republican nomination and the Senate Seat itself, Velella also became chairman of the Bronx Republican Party.

Guy John Velella (September 25, 1944 – January 27, 2011) was an American Republican politician serving as a New York State Senator from the Bronx.

Velella was born on September 25, 1944, in East Harlem, then a heavily Italian-American neighborhood, in Manhattan.

Velella's father, the late Vincent J. Velella, was a lawyer who became wealthy through real estate deals.

The Velella family moved to the Bronx in the late 1950s.

Over the decades, many Democrats in the Assembly often turned to Velella to introduce their legislation in the New York State Senate, which was controlled by the Republicans from 1966 until 2009.

In 1967, Velella graduated from St. John's University, Jamaica, New York.

He then earned a law degree from the Suffolk School of Law (today the Suffolk University Law School) in Boston, Massachusetts, and joined his father's law practice.

In 1972, aged 28, Velella, a Republican, ran for the New York State Assembly in the East Bronx.

The incumbent Democrat withdrew from the race unexpectedly, and Velella won the race.

He served in the Assembly from 1973 to 1982, sitting in the 180th, 181st, 182nd, 183rd and 184th New York State Legislatures.

After redistricting, Velella found himself running in a new Democratic district in 1982, which then covered Throggs Neck and Parkchester.

In a bitter campaign, he ran against popular Assemblyman and head of the Parkchester Tenants Association, John C. Dearie.

After losing that election by a wide margin, Velella told the Bronx News, a local weekly newspaper, that he was done with politics.

In January 1983, Velella returned to practicing law full-time.

Despite his pledge that his political career was over, Velella was elected to the local school board.

Many political observers expected Velella to run for the seat in Congress held by Mario Biaggi, a Democrat, when he retired.

Velella returned to elected office on April 22, 1986, when he was elected to the New York State Senate, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John D. Calandra.

The three-way race was bitter and costly, as JoAnn Calandra, Calandra's widow, backed by the late senator's partisans and patronage recipients, and hoping to capitalize on the late senator's ties to the Senate Majority establishment, sought to retain family control of the seat.

The Democratic candidate, Michael Durso, also generated interest.

He was subsequently re-elected to the State Senate in November 1986 and in every subsequent election until November 2002, sitting in the 186th, 187th, 188th, 189th, 190th, 191st, 192nd, 193rd, 194th and 195th New York State Legislatures.

In 1989, Velella became chairman of the powerful Senate Insurance Committee.

In this capacity, Velella secured passage of numerous laws affecting the insurance industry in New York.

Velella reached the height of his influence and power during the mid-1990s.

He enjoyed access to important elected officials, many of them Republicans, such as U.S. Senator Alfonse D'amato, Governor George Pataki, Attorney General Dennis Vacco, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and NYS Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.

Velella used his many contacts to secure patronage jobs for his supporters.

Other key backers such as Bill Newmark, the chairman of the Bronx Conservative Party, joined his legislative payroll.

A political leader, state assemblyman, and state senator for over 30 years, Velella was indicted in 2002 on 25 counts of bribery and conspiracy for allegedly accepting at least $137,000 in exchange for steering public-works contracts to the paying parties.

He ultimately pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy in the fourth degree, a class E felony, admitting that he helped clients obtain business from government agencies, and that the clients paid fees in excess of $10,000 to his father's law firm, in exchange for a year in jail.

As part of the plea agreement reached with the Manhattan District Attorney, Velella resigned his seat in the State Senate and his position as Chairman of the Bronx County Republican Party.

He was also disbarred.

He served a total of six months (in two separate stints) of his sentence at Rikers Island.

He resigned his seat on May 14, 2004, as part of a plea bargain reached on criminal charges that he took bribes to help businesses win lucrative state contracts.

According to the text of the indictment, the bribes were in the form of payments to the Velellas' law firm for little or no work.

As a state senator, Velella brought millions of state dollars into his district, which funded local projects.

Velella also endeared himself to his constituents through his advocacy on their behalf with the federal, state, and city government.

Velella's success in securing money for his district and excellent record on constituent service made him very popular in his district, including conservative Democrats (or "Reagan Democrats").

As one of the handful of Republican State Senators from New York City, Velella exercised considerable influence in the state legislature and in both Westchester County and New York City politics.