Two of Golden’s staff members running for council seats

May 30, 2013 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Screen Shot 2013-05-30 at 12.54.46 PM.png

Share this:

Job seekers take note. There could be a couple of openings in state Sen. Marty Golden’s office, depending on the results of the election this November.

Two of the senator’s key staff members are running for city council seats as Republicans. Anthony Testaverde, who serves as Golden’s liaison to military veterans, has announced his intention to run for the council seat in the 46th District. He joins Golden’s deputy chief of staff, John Quaglione, as a council candidate. Quaglione is already well into his campaign for the council seat in the 43rd District (Bay Ridge-Dyker Heights-Bensonhurst), where he is taking on incumbent Democrat Vincent Gentile.

Testaverde has set up a Facebook page and has started making the rounds on the campaign trail.

Testaverde, the GOP district leader in the 41st Assembly District, gave an interview to Brooklyn GOP Radio, an internet station, promising to hit the ground running in his campaign. “My team is ready to hit the streets. This is the start of something good,” he told the interviewers

The 46th Council District, currently represented by Democratic Councilman Lew Fidler, who is term-limited, includes the communities of Gerritsen Beach, Marine Park, Mill Basin, Kensington, Flatlands and Canarsie.

Meanwhile, Golden (R-C-Bay Ridge-southern Brooklyn) officially endorsed Quaglione for City Council on May 28. Speaking at a Subway Series-themed fundraiser at The Bench, a sports bar on Third Avenue in Bay Ridge, Golden lauded his right hand man as someone who would work hard for the community if elected.

“I have known John for more than 15 years, and I can think of no one better to lead our community as a city councilman,” Golden told Quaglione’s supporters. “John has spent well over a decade in daily service to our community, working tirelessly to improve the lives of countless residents, and that is why I am endorsing him and want him to be my next city councilman. I need John in the City Council to work with me for the good of our neighborhood,” Golden said.

Calling Golden “a friend and a mentor,” John Quaglione, whose tenure in Golden’s office dates back to the days when Golden was a city councilman, said “I am humbled to have his support, and I look forward to the day when I can call him a colleague, and we can continue to work together to maintain a high level of quality of life that our neighbors expect and deserve.”