By MAGGIE HABERMAN and CARL CAMPANILE
May 17, 2008
Signaling he's still interested in running for office, scandal-singed Rep. Vito Fossella showed his face at a Conservative Party dinner on Staten Island last night - his first political appearance since word of his second family broke.
The stop was Fossella's second of the night, after he showed up at a Gracie Mansion dinner hosted by Mayor Bloomberg for the state's congressional delegation.
At the Conservative Party fete at the Renaissance Banquet Hall in Grant City, Fossella's solo appearance caught the room by surprise, several attendees said.
"I didn't expect him to show up," said borough party leader Carmine Ragucci.
"[There was] stunned silence. The room was shocked," said one guest. "He kind of worked the tables for about 20 minutes and left. The buzz out here is he's running."
The married, five-term Republican congressman has been weighing whether to run again amid the scandal involving his longtime girlfriend and their child.
At the Gracie dinner, Fossella - whose wife, Mary Pat, didn't join him - chatted on the side with Rep. Charles Rangel, said a source there.
