STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Assemblymember Sam Pirozzolo (R-Mid-Island) wasn’t the local Republican party’s first choice when he ran for the state Assembly in 2022, but he’s since become a fixture in local conservative politics.
A perennial political contender, Pirozzolo ran an unsuccessful challenge against his predecessor, former Democratic Assemblyman Michael Cusick in 2012. And in a 2019 primary campaign for City Council, he lost to current Councilman David Carr (R-Mid-Island).
The local party chapter backed his opponent, Paul Ciurcina, in the 2022 primary but Pirozzolo defeated him with about 61% of the vote before going on to win the general election against Democrat Vincent Argenziano with about 55% of the vote.
‘LEADER OF THE FRINGE’
“If you consider the City Council election, I was described as ‘the leader of the fringe,’” Pirozzolo said during a recent interview. “I think now, the fringe are the mainstream Republicans in the party, so I do think they’re happier to have me inside the tent looking out than outside the tent looking in. We have gotten along pretty well. I can tell my constituents that I have yielded zero … I am Sam Pirozzolo. The same guy who ran in the primary.”
He became the first Republican to hold the 63rd Assembly District seat since its inception in 2002 when Cusick, who now heads the Staten Island Economic Development Corporation, won the first election for the seat.
Cusick announced he’d leave office before the 2022 election amid shifting political winds after a narrow 2020 victory over a relatively unknown Republican, Anthony DeGuerre, and a U.S. Census-mandated redistricting that shifted the seat into territory less friendly to Democrats last year.
Pirozzolo had run multiple prior campaigns, had served as chair of the local Community Education Council, and had achieved some notoriety over a 2016 incident that saw a giant “T” he placed on his Castleton Corners lawn, for former President Donald Trump, set on…
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