nws oddorecchia.jpg
Borough President James Oddo, on right in this file photo, said on Facebook that a mail piece going out from House candidate Domenic M. Recchia Jr. wrongly implies that he endorses the Democrat, a former City Council colleague.
(Advance file photo)
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - GOP Borough President James Oddo and Democratic House candidate Domenic M. Recchia Jr. had a good working relationship when they served together in the City Council.
But that doesn't mean that Oddo endorses Recchia in his battle against GOP Rep. Michael Grimm, and the beep is concerned that a mailing going out from the Recchia campaign will give voters that impression.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Oddo said that he learned that a mail piece is going out from the Recchia camp "featuring my image and past words, that looked a great deal like a typical endorsement mailer."
The piece has not yet landed in Island mailboxes, the campaign said.
A source who has seen the piece said quotes were taken from an Advance article in 2013 where Oddo praised Recchia, then the Council Finance Committee chairman, for restoring money to an Island Head Start program.
"In two words, the hero here is Domenic Recchia," Oddo said at the time. "It's all Domenic Recchia."
But on Facebook on Wednesday, Oddo wrote, "While I am flattered that people want to associate themselves with my name, the fact is that I have not endorsed anyone in this year's Congressional race, and any campaign literature implying such is incorrect and unfortunate."
Oddo said that were he to endorse a candidate, "I would stand next to that person, look directly into the camera, and give the candidate my full-throated support as I did for Assemblyman Mike Cusick."
As for Recchia, Oddo said, "I enjoyed a productive working relationship when in the City Council together with Domenic Recchia. The things I said about him in 2013 were accurate and deserved. But quotes from the past should be represented completely in that context and should not be used in any way to imply an endorsement in this race that has not been made."
Oddo has been at loggerheads with Grimm, in part due to last year's heated GOP Mid-Island City Council primary, and has stayed out of the 2014 House battle.
Oddo declined to discuss the mailing further when contacted by the Advance.
Recchia said that the mail piece was not meant to imply that Oddo had endorsed him.
"I'm incredibly proud of the achievements I had as a City Council member, advocating for crucial initiatives on Staten Island, including saving the Head Start program from shutting its doors due to the sequestration," Recchia said in a statement to the Advance.
He said, "It was an honor to work with Borough President Jimmy Oddo to save that program, and I'm humbled by the things he has said about me. I understand that he has endorsed neither myself nor Republican Michael Grimm in this race, and that implication was not intended in this mail piece."