Was Frank Scaturro the greatest hope for the 4th District?

A powerful orator, an Ivy League graduate, a charismatic, baby-faced politician — no, we’re not talking about President  Obama. We’re talking about Frank Scaturro, 38, the man who, to some, seemed like the Republican candidate with the best shot at unseating nine-term Democratic Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy.

If he hadn’t run afoul of Nassau County’s Republican Party leadership, that is, and been soundly beaten in the primary by Nassau County Legislator Fran Becker, 10,361 votes to 7,733. Scaturro said that while he didn’t expect to lose, he figured that the deck was stacked against him with. He mostly blames his own party.

At his first official screening at the local Republican headquarters, Scaturro recalled, he was told in no uncertain terms that he must agree to not have a Republican primary.

“I thought it was an odd question for an official to lead off in the screening,” he said. “How can you make a blind promise without knowing the circumstances?”

Scaturro refused. He claims that a party official later told him that his answer would determine whether this was “the beginning of [his] political career or the end.”

“I think it’s about control, to be perfectly honest,” he explained. “Our local Republican Party has a horrible reputation. It’s seen as parochial and… corrupt… People who are there see the government as a way of enriching themselves. They use political patronage to sustain their power. They have an anachronistic system: a modern version of Tammany Hall.”

Scaturro began his campaign for the 4th Congressional District seat in May of 2008, figuring that the Democratic super-majority in the House and the Senate and the presidency of Barack Obama would alienate voters. He raised nearly $600,000 dollars and liquidated his life savings, $200,000, to contribute to the campaign.

He seemed like a likely candidate for the Republican ticket. The son of immigrants, Scaturro grew up on Long Island and attended Chaminade High School in Mineola, working summers as a bus boy at a local restaurant and as a cashier at Pathmark.

Scaturro’s interest in government began when he tried to read through the encyclopedia. (He made it to “P” with a lengthy stop at “G” for government). He attended Columbia University and when he discovered that the nearby Grant’s Tomb was in disrepair he launched a successful lawsuit against U.S. Parks Service to fix it. After attending the University of Pennsylvania School of Law Scaturro practiced law for a time before taking a position on the staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In 2008, he collaborated with Senator Arlen Specter on his memoir and spent 2009 as a visiting professor at Hofstra Law School.

Scaturro says all the early signs indicated that he would be a strong challenger; one newspaper called him the “candidate to beat.” However, as the months to the election ticked away, the Republican party still didn’t have a candidate.

“People were wondering what is taking them so long to make a decision,” Scaturro recalled. “They just weren’t getting any takers... It almost became a running joke in party circles.”

Eventually the party settled on Francis X. Becker, whom Scaturro claims wasn’t even that interested in the position. Scaturro claims that Becker’s campaign is part of the party machine.

“[Becker] was asked to do this more as an aspect of parochial local politics than because of anything that went to the question of who was best to run and hold this congressional seat,” Scaturro said. “A lot of people, including some longtime Becker supporters, were dismayed to see the course of events.”

Becker doesn't argue that he was pushed by party members to run.

"It wasn't something I was thinking about, though I always wanted to run for Congress," Becker explained.  "When you're called, you're being called to serve. I responded like anyone would — to serve my country and my fellow residents."

Moreover, once the party unofficially threw its support to Becker, Republicans who held government jobs switched to Becker’s side for fear of reprisal.

“I found a good number of people who had wanted to support me and were helping me out — a lot of that instantly evaporated out of a fear [that]  offering any visible assistance to me would be met with reprisals,” Scaturro said. “People, if they were working for the town or the county, would lose their jobs.”

When Scaturro attempted to secure a document known as a Wilson Pakula, that would authorize him to run on the Conservative Party ticket despite not being a party member, he was voted down. When he tried a second time, he and Becker were both granted the authorization. Mysteriously, however, only Becker’s Wilson Pakula document was filed. When Scaturro sued in Federal Court to be reinstated on the Conservative line, one witness, Frank Russo, testified that he was told by men on the committee, that it was “indicated that [Republican Party Chairman Joseph] Mondello did not want to grant Mr. Scaturro the Wilson Pakula.”

Councilman Anthony Santino, defending the Republican Party, called Scaturro’s claims the “absurd allegations from a sore loser.” Santino would not speculate on Scaturro’s future in the Republican Party.

Scaturro lost the lawsuit. After the primary, he  came out in support of Becker.

"I hope Republicans, independents, and like-minded Democrats will come together and support Fran Becker in his bid to unseat Carolyn McCarthy," Scaturro wrote on his campaign website. "Rarely has our country been more in need of new leadership in Washington."

Scaturro said he is unsure of what his future plans are.

“I dedicated much of my savings to do this,” he explained. “There were a lot of sacrifices made here and I regret all this happened at the hands of my own party. I will tell you one thing. I am not giving up and I am going to continue to do my part to speak out on behalf of the political process, that should be much more open, which heeds the voice of the people much more effectively.”

“When you make a run, you run as if your life depended on it,” Scaturro said. “And that’s what I did.”