Dan Halloran (Photo: Facebook)

Councilman Dan Halloran, who has been charged with helping quarterback a bribery scheme to rig the mayoral race, will not seek another term in office, he announced this afternoon.

"Regrettably, I must now focus my attention on clearing my name and restoring my reputation, while I continue to discharge my sworn duties as a member of the New York City Council," he said in a statement. "After much thought, I have concluded that it is impossible for me to properly do these things and take on the enormous demands of a political campaign, so I will not to pursue another term in the Council."

Of course, Mr. Halloran, a colorful Republican who occupies a swing district in northeastern Queens, faced a perilous re-lection battle with a corruption trial hanging over his head. The borough's Republican Party already dumped the incumbent in favor of Dennis Saffran. Rudy S. Giuliani, the chief of staff to neighboring Councilman Eric Ulrich and second cousin to the former mayor of the same name, has been placing his own feelers out.

For his part, Mr. Halloran mostly reflected on his record while maintaining his own innocence of all wrongdoing.

"For these last four years, our community has been fortunate to have had my incredible Council District 19 staff working hard to resolve issues between the citizenry and their City government," he said. "We owe them a great debt. They continue work diligently in the people’s interest, and it saddens me that these dedicated public servants have suffered along with me."

"Our Nation enshrines the presumption of innocence for a reason, and I look forward to having my day in court, where I am confident that I will ultimately be vindicated. Now is the time I must work to that end," he added. "I thank all those who have supported me. Your encouragement has been a comfort and I am forever grateful.”

Dan Halloran (Photo: Wikimedia)

The City Council will vote next week to strip Councilman Dan Halloran of all his committee assignments after he was charged today with taking part in a bribery scheme.

"These allegations represent a reprehensible abuse of the public's trust," Council Speaker Christine Quinn said in a statement earlier this afternooon. "If true, then the full weight of the legal system should be brought to bear on all parties implicated. The matter will be immediately referred to the Council's Standards and Ethics Committee."

Jamie McShane, a spokesman for Council Speaker Christine Quinn, confirmed that the City Council rules committee, as well as council members, will vote to strip Mr. Halloran of his numerous committee assignments. Mr. Halloran will also no longer be able to making funding allocation decisions for his district, which will instead be made by Ms. Quinn's office in consultation with the Queens Delegation Chair, Councilman Leroy Comrie.

Mr. Halloran was charged, along with Democratic State Sen. Malcolm Smith, Bronx Republin Party Chair Jay Savino and Queens Republican Party Executive Vice Chair Vince Tabone, with taking part in an alleged bribery scheme to help Mr. Smith run in the Republican mayoral primary. Mr. Smith has already been stripped of his leadership position and all committee assignments in Albany.

A Halloran spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment.

A photo of Senator Smith meeting Bronx GOP Chair Savino when Politicker staked-out a steakhouse last year.

Two of the most colorful characters in New York City politics, Democratic State Senator Malcolm Smith and GOP Councilman Dan Halloran, were arrested earlier this morning, according to multiple news outlets. They were among six people reportedly charged, including Bronx GOP chair Jay Savino and Queens GOP vice-chair Vince Tabone, in an alleged bribery plot to secure Mr. Smith a slot to run in the Republican mayoral primary.

Mr. Halloran is known for many things in city politics, including his outspoken embrace of libertarian philosophy, disputed reports of an intentional snowplow slowdown after 2010's infamous blizzard, and his pagan religion. Meanwhile, Mr. Smith might be best known for his zoot suits complete with suspenders and pinstripes, picking strange political battles like a press conference denouncing the rapper Dwayne "Lil Wayne" Carter, and his somewhat surprising decision to seek City Hall's top job on the other side of the partisan aisle without actually changing his voter registration. He would have needed the support of three GOP county leaders to do so, which federal prosecutors are alleging is at the heart of today's case.

“I have no idea,” Mr. Halloran, wearing handcuffs, told a New York Post reporter when asked if he knew why he was being arrested. “I’m sure the truth will come out once I have an opportunity to find out what’s going on.”

A lawyer for Mr. Smith told The New York Times that his client is innocent of any wrongdoing. “Malcolm Smith is a dedicated and highly respected public servant and he steadfastly denies these charges,” he argued, adding that he would have more to say after the charges are unsealed later this morning.

Mr. Tabone is also a key ally of another GOP mayoral contender, John Catsimatidis.

View the complaint below:

The scene right before John Liu arrived.

Across the breadth of policy issues, the Democratic candidates for mayor this year tend to share similar viewpoints. However, there are some notable exceptions, and at a debate sponsored by The New York Observer and 92Y, another one was revealed last night: their mayoral role models.

The first two candidates to speak, former Comptroller Bill Thompson and Council Speaker Christine Quinn, couldn't choose just one mayor. Rather, the pair saw themselves as pulling from the best attributes from four and cited Ed Koch's spirit, David Dinkins's compassion, Rudy Giuliani's toughness and Michael Bloomberg's vision.

"I've been asked that question before and I've made sure that I haven't alienated former mayors," Mr. Thompson joked. "Look, I think as you look back at the mayors we've had as mayor of New York--at least in my adult life--we've had mayors that have represented a number of different things and I think that's what you try to take away. ... You want to take parts from and emulate them and that's the type of mayor that I would be--the best of all worlds, if you will. The best."

"There are things you'd want to take from all of them in different ways," said Ms. Quinn. “You want to take all of that together and find the best ingredients."

Not every politician on stage wanted to sample the full mayoral palate, however. To wit, Comptroller John Liu--who arrived from another event in the middle of this question--directly stated his admiration for Mr. Dinkins.

"When I got out of school, Mayor Dinkins was running for mayor and I volunteered on his campaign," he said. "I would take him as my role model mainly for the reason that he expanded opportunities for so many people who didn't have opportunities before. I think that's something we need to get back to."

Mr. Liu nevertheless offered some humorous support for Mr. Giuliani's famous crusade against the city's squeegee men, as well as some more sincere praise for his leadership in the wake of the World Trade Center attacks.

"Rudy Giuliani was able to get, I guess, ... people to stop washing their windshields," he explained. "For some reason a lot of people liked that. I appreciated that because it was always difficult to get going once the light turned green until Rudy came along! And then I do certainly admire his management after 9/11."

Like Mr. Liu, the final two candidates could cite just one former mayor--Fiorello LaGuardia in their cases--as an administration they would hope to emulate.

"Fiorello LaGuardia ... is my ideal of a mayor because he was truly independent," former Councilman Sal Albanese said. "He took on party bosses, he put together a fusion ticket of citizens around the city and got to City Hall without being indebted to special interests. That's why he had such a great tenure as mayor. ... And he's someone that I would consider a role model."

"I'm going to say the greatest mayor I think we've had--I wish I met him, I never got to--was Fiorello LaGuardia," Public Advocate Bill de Blasio contended. "I don't think it's even close. Look, Fiorello to me was the exemplar because he epitomized an activist government and a government that got things done but with a compassion and a sense of fairness."

Mr. de Blasio was also the lone candidate to offer an anti-role model of sorts, as he suggested some of his opponents were wrong to want any piece of Mr. Giuliani's mayoralty in their own.

"I got to say to my colleagues, I respect your even-handedness, I just don't have a lot good to say about Rudy Giuliani, who I think profoundly divided us," he said, again touting the LaGuardia administration's inclusiveness. "In the case of Rudy, I think, sadly, his legacy is a lot of division that took a long time to overcome."

Peter Vallone. (Photo: Facebook)

“Queens is discriminated against on an almost daily basis,” Councilman Peter Vallone told Politicker last week at Dark Horse, a restaurant near his City Council office.

“Things happen to Queens that would never happen to another borough,” he said, sipping a Stella Artois and taking bites of blackened salmon. “They’d never rename the Brooklyn Bridge. They’d never rename the Manhattan Bridge. Queensboro Bridge is renamed, nobody says a peep. Nobody makes a peep other than me.”

Mr. Vallone, a candidate for borough president, complains that Queens “hasn’t had a bully in the pulpit,” and he would like to change that. If his brash campaign so far is any indication, he’s taking his cues more from Brooklyn’s megaphone-wielding Marty Markowitz than Queens’s current officeholder, the comparatively tame Helen Marshall.

Mr. Vallone has railed against inaccessible animal shelters and cuts to local libraries. He waged a war to get ABC’s Good Christian Bitches off the air, which included a TMZ Live appearance to argue for a boycott. And he’s definitely not happy that a controversial statue was “stolen” by city government from its iconic location.

“The Triumph of Civic Virtue statue was stolen from Borough Hall; it’s now a pit!” Mr. Vallone exclaimed. “Given to Brooklyn.”

Mr. Vallone, the 51-year-old, guitar-playing, scuba-diving, Harley-Davidson-riding scion of former Council Speaker Peter Vallone Sr., lacks the polished reserve of many public officials, and he lets his humor emerge sans filter on Facebook as well. For example, he once lamented his inability to see then-Knicks star Jeremy Lin play at Madison Square Garden with a joke about Mr. Lin’s racial background.

“so since i cant see jeremy lin on cable because MSG wants a 53% increase, i did the next best thing and took my daughters to applebees last night and had the ‘sizzling asian’ special,” he wrote.

A Democrat who supports one of Mr. Vallone’s rivals told Politicker that he saw these extemporaneous writings as a liability in one of the most demographically diverse counties in the country.

“Peter Vallone’s Facebook page is the hottest mess in New York politics. You can always count on him for offensive and insensitive status updates and generally crazy rants,” said the Democratic operative. “What’s his argument to East and South Asians? What is he really going to do for them and for other nonwhite groups whose votes will impact this race? He is not seriously courting those communities, and that’s a huge electoral problem for him.”

But Mr. Vallone said his critics should simply relax. “I’d do it again tomorrow,” Mr. Vallone told us of the Jeremy Lin post. “I thought it was funny, and it was meant as an homage to Jeremy Lin, whom I’m a huge fan of. If someone wants to have a sizzling meatball special in my honor, go do it. I have a story: Fox News came up to me that night and they said, ‘What do you have to say about the people who are offended by this?’ I said, ‘I’m very sorry that they had no sense of humor.’”

While Mr. Vallone shares some of his famous father’s conservative Democratic tendencies, his style is all his own. Peter Sr. was for several decades a powerful presence in city politics, representing Astoria on the City Council for almost 30 years, in addition to the 16 years he served in the powerful speaker’s office. But Peter Jr. did not learn his craft at his father’s feet.

“Even when he was speaker—I don’t know how he did it—he’d be home practically every night for dinner,” Mr. Vallone said. “Then he’d be right back out again. But he’d spend every dinner with us, with mom. Sitting around a table. Not talking politics, at all.”

For his part, Mr. Vallone said, he only started getting involved in his father’s political efforts during his unsuccessful mayoral and gubernatorial campaigns. “You would not even think these places exist in New York,” Mr. Vallone said when he first hit the campaign trail in 1998.

“I remember driving at like 2 o’clock in the morning through tremendous snowstorms, through places upstate that no one would have ever heard of,” he recalled. “I remember rooming in a room with Clyde Rabideau, who was the mayor of—what the hell was it—he was mayor of a small town upstate. He was running for lieutenant governor at the time. So we’d get these small, rinky-dink hotels and have to double up rooms because we’re not made of money, obviously. He turned out to be a nice guy, luckily, but it was weird rooming with the mayor of some town I don’t know of.”

Nevertheless, Mr. Vallone said he learned some powerful practical lessons from his father that he carried with him when he easily won Peter Sr.’s Council seat in 2001.

“He says it all the time—he said it yesterday again. He often quotes the prophet Micah about doing the right thing; it’s what he told us when we’re young. It’s what lets me sleep well at night despite the criticism I get,” he said. “I know that if I just do the right thing, I can’t be concerned about how other people react to it. I learned that from him.”

As far as his conservatism goes—Mr. Vallone ran all three of his Council races with the Conservative Party’s official support—he brushed off any criticism he might receive there as well.

“A lot of people have told me that,” he said when asked if he could be a poor ideological fit for the Democratic primary. “If that’s the case, then that’s the case ... I’m an old-school Democrat. There’s still a few of us left—not many. My father was, although I think I’m a little more conservative than he was ... I don’t intend to change, you can see with my recent [Facebook] postings.”

(Photo: Facebook)

Many things can be seen in Mr. Vallone’s recent Facebook postings, in fact, as he’s one of the most prolific Facebook users in New York City politics—driving his staff “crazy” on a daily basis. With questionable grammar and punctuation, Mr. Vallone lets loose as he chronicles his various adventures, whether it’s defending Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o in the face of his hoax girlfriend controversy, calling on schools to let kids sing “God Bless the USA,” posing in a Batman costume for Halloween (on his Harley, naturally), or his vigilante efforts against neighborhood speeders, litterers, graffiti artists and the like.

“If you ask my Mom, since I was 5 I used to yell at people who littered,” Mr. Vallone explained. “I chased down a guy on a motorbike not too long ago. I went after a guy who stuffed up a garbage can with a plastic bag so no one could use it ... I tried to do it again this weekend. I was out on the Harley and I saw another illegal motorbike but he was too fast ... I tried to catch up. They don’t have a license plate, so you got to actually have keep them under surveillance until the cops come. It’s not easy, but that’s just me.”

Mr. Vallone even championed his Facebook page as a tool of the democratic process of sorts, allowing him to personally gauge what’s happening in the community.

“I have a pretty strong following on Facebook, 8,000 followers or so,” he said, adding that he met some of his followers for the first time at his campaign kickoff the day before. “I personally—I think I pioneered this—I personally write every post. I personally respond to everybody who posts on my post. I personally respond to every message. It’s getting harder and harder. I hope to keep it up, but I’m up late at night doing it. And I need sleep.”

Should he be elected borough president, Mr. Vallone vowed to maintain his social media efforts, although he admitted that he might not be able to respond 100 percent of the time when his constituents number more than two million.

Whether or not Mr. Vallone will hold that office come January of next year remains to be seen, of course, as several contenders are vying to replace the term-limited Ms. Marshall. Competing against Mr. Vallone are a pair of State senators, José Peralta and Tony Avella, Councilman Leroy Comrie, former Councilwoman Melinda Katz and former Deputy Borough President Barry Grodenchik. Each has his or her own strength that could blunt Mr. Vallone’s own electoral efforts; Ms. Katz, for example, has been a strong fund-raiser, while Messrs. Peralta and Comrie have bases of support in the Latino and African-American communities, respectively.

Mr. Vallone is currently the leading fund-raiser, and the one poll conducted so far showed him with an edge—likely due to recognition of the Vallone name and the fact that campaign season has only now started to kick off.

“People say, ‘You have the Vallone name, it’s an advantage, blah, blah, blah,’” Mr. Vallone said on the topic. “I say, ‘You’re damn right it is!’ But it’s not the same for every political family. The Vallone name is now one that’s hopefully synonymous with integrity, and that’s important nowadays. So yeah, I have the name, I’m proud of the name. I’m never going to run from the name. In fact, I’m teaching my daughters the value of a hyphen.”

With a history of public service going back generations, there have been some twists and turns with the Vallone name as well.

“Ironically enough, my father was the one who took most of the power away from the borough presidents,” Mr. Vallone noted in our conversation. However, he said he was looking forward to using some of the remaining powers, including influence over zoning policies and community boards.

“The biggest power it has,” he added, “is the bully pulpit.”

(Photo: Facebook)

Councilman Donovan Richards will likely hire his one-time electoral rival Pesach Osina next week.

"It's an interesting time, you know, sort of like Barack and Hillary," Mr. Richards, the winner of an incredibly tight special election in southeast Queens last month, told Politicker on Friday. "We heal quick. You know, I think Pesach would certainly be a great addition to my team. He will help unite the community and he'll be a great asset. Don’t be surprised if he's hired next week."

Mr. Osina, an Orthodox Jewish staffer in Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder's office, came within 100 votes of defeating Mr. Richards in a majority black-district. The special election became racially-charged when an influential clergyman, Rev. Chuck Norris, controversially called on the the black candidates to unite and block Mr. Osina's path to victory. Nevertheless, the two of them seem prepared to let bygones be bygones.

"It's a great idea for Mr. Richards," a local Democratic source said. "It neutralizes future opposition and heals the bad blood from the race."

[Hat Tip Michael Fragin]

Congressman Crowley addresses the crowd.

Earlier this evening, outspoken Councilman Peter Vallone officially launched his campaign for campaign for Queens Borough President. And, standing before an incredibly packed Greek restaurant in Astoria, both Mr. Vallone and his supporters made sure everyone was fully aware of the self-described conservative Democrat's independent streak.

"He was able to stand up to the Speaker when she was trying to bully him," said Norman Seabrook, the President of the New York City Correction Officers' Benevolent Association who officially endorsed Mr. Vallone today. "Can you imagine what he would do as borough president when given the opportunity to step forward, not only for the people in this room, but this borough? He is truly a man indicative of being able to become one of the greatest of all time."

For his part, Mr. Vallone touted his "fighter" credentials, comparing himself favorably to Mr. Seabrook and recounting his various political battles, including his high-profile, yet ultimately unsuccessful effort to stop Council Speaker Christine Quinn from renaming the Queensboro Bridge after former Mayor Ed Koch.

"He is a fighter and I am a fighter. I know how Norman fights and I use him as an example when I fight," Mr. Vallone said. "Norman knows who was out there--who was the loudest voice--when Queens didn't have the streets plowed. When we had the blackout of '06. Norman knows who stood up to the Mayor, who stood up to Con Ed. Norman knows who stood up to the Speaker and the Mayor when they took the Queensboro Bridge from us. No one else had the guts to do that."

And even though he is known to ruffle feathers, a bit of the political establishment was also present at today's event. Congressman Joe Crowley, the head of the Queens Democratic Party who has attended the campaign kickoffs of several of Mr. Vallone's rivals, effusively extolled Mr. Vallone while stating his current neutrality in the race.

"The Vallone family tradition goes way way back," Mr. Crowley said, heaping compliments on Mr. Vallone's father, former Council Speaker Peter Vallone, Sr. "Peter Vallone has been an outstanding and great city councilman. We know that there's a future for Peter Vallone in New York City politics. Although I haven't yet made decisions, seeing the presence that's here this evening sends a loud message as well, and I appreciate it. The way I look at it, no matter what I do, I'll make one ingrate and a lot of people mad at me. But that's the nature of politics."

"I've been known to be a pretty good ingrate," Mr. Vallone chimed in. "By the way."

The 33rd Council District. (Photo: Districting Commission/Google Maps)

One of the fiercest disputes over the decennial redistricting process raged on after the final versions of the new City Council district maps were released this week. Councilman Steve Levin insisted the process through which the districts were drawn was focused on substance while his potential rival, Lincoln Restler, repeatedly dismissed the new Council maps as rooted in political concerns.

"There was never a serious discussion," Mr. Restler argued. "This was a political deal made by the Speaker and the local council member and it's clear throughout the entire process that it's nothing more than an incumbent protection program."

Mr. Restler's long-rumored bid to unseat Mr. Levin took a significant hit when the redistricting dust finally settled. In their final lines, the commission tasked with the decennial redrawing of City Council boundaries upheld an alteration to Mr. Levin's 33rd District that added tracts of Hasidic Jewish voters likely to back Mr. Levin and removed parts of Brownstone Brooklyn favorable to Mr. Restler.

Though neighboring Councilwoman Tish James supported Mr. Restler in his ultimately fruitless bid to undo the change, which was unveiled in an earlier draft, the Commission held its ground arguing the boundaries were amended to ensure Ms. James's district kept a black majority in compliance with the Voting Rights Act while also uniting a local community of common interest: Orthodox Jews.

Mr. Levin, in a lengthy explanation, laid out arguments for why the new district, which cuts out Park Slope and includes the neighborhoods of Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Heights and Boerum Hill, is now more logically configured. He agreed with the commission's reasoning, and also pointed out travel from Park Slope to Brooklyn Heights to Greenpoint, via car or public transportation, could be unwieldy if he wanted to conduct multiple meetings in those neighborhoods on a single night, thus justifying the new fourth avenue boundary that shed Park Slope from the district.

"If you see the map of the district, the district as it currently is resembles some type of dinosaur skeleton," Mr. Levin said. "The Districting Commission has a very smart staff and they're balancing a lot of considerations. To me, this is actually above politics. So I think the Commission, if you talk to them, you see they have to specifically address interests in opposition to each other, which is a tough thing to do."

Although he promised in January that he would make an announcement in regards to his possible City Council bid at this week's meeting of his New Kings Democrats club, Mr. Restler didn't end up clarifying his plans and declined to comment on the subject.

(Photo: Facebook)

Councilman Larry Seabrook, who was convicted last July on 9 counts of wire and fraud charges, was sentenced in federal court today to 5 years in prison. Upon his conviction, Mr. Seabrook was immediately expelled from the legislative chamber.

"Councilman Larry Seabrook sacrificed the public trust on the altar of greed," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement. "He was a flagrant and serial abuser of City Council discretionary funds in a far too familiar New York tale of corruption," Mr. Bharara said of Mr. Seabrook. "Today’s sentence finally vindicates the interests of the constituents whose trust he so casually violated by his fraud. We remain committed to making those who are corrupted by power pay the price, and the public can expect more arrests of politicians who have not learned this lesson.”

The evidence against Mr. Seabrook infamously included a receipt for a $7 bagel sandwich that prosecutors said had been doctored to put the cost at $177, enabling him to earn a profit off of the reimbursement.

Additionally, Mr. Seabrook was ordered to pay more than $619,000 in restitution to New York City and to forfeit another $418, 000. He was also ordered to pay a $100 special assessment fee.

View the full sentencing statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Southern District of New York below:

(Photo: Brooklyn Daily file photo)

Former Councilman Sal Albanese, who said last month he'd be officially kicking off his campaign for mayor by December 18, announced his bid this morning. In a moderately lengthy statement on the development, Mr. Albaneese argued he is "uniquely qualified to lead a New York City that leads the world in prosperity and provides a good quality of life for all of its citizens.”

Mr. Albanese, a Democrat who last held office in 1997, a year he campaigned for mayor as well, will have his work cut out for him, however, especially as the mayoral field already contains four candidates capable of arming themselves with millions of dollars and citywide coalitions. Nevertheless, Mr. Albanaese has hired the former campaign manager Andrew Gounardes, a fellow Bay Ridge resident and unsuccessful State Senate candidate last year, and is plowing forward with the electoral effort.

Without further ado, view his full statement below:

Sal Albanese Announces Run For Mayor of New York City

(Brooklyn, NY) Former five-term New York City Councilman Sal Albanese has filed official paperwork with the Campaign Finance Board to run for Mayor of New York City. He will campaign as a Democrat, competing in the September 2013 primary. He will seed his campaign with a personal loan and has hired Chris McCreight as campaign manager and Todd Brogan as communications director. Below is a statement from Albanese regarding his decision:

"The world's greatest city - New York City - deserves a government that works for all New Yorkers. That starts with a Mayor who is independent from party bosses and special interests, who isn't afraid to be honest with the people, and who is focused on the issues New Yorkers care about most.

I will campaign the same way I worked as a Councilman and will work as your Mayor. I will let New Yorkers know where I stand on every issue rather than hedge my answers to avoid criticism. I will run a transparent campaign rather than make backroom deals with party bosses or special interest groups. I will listen to voters from every walk of life and every part of the city rather than ignore entire communities for political expediency. As an immigrant raised in Brooklyn, I will never, ever forget where I come from and what makes this city great: the millions who work hard every day for a fair shot at a good life for themselves.

At the end of the day, New Yorkers need a Mayor who understands the problems they face, brings a smart plan and good people to the table, and, more than anything, has the independence, courage, and conviction to do the right thing. Independence is the key to helping New York City thrive. Without it, taxpayers' concerns are ignored while their money is wasted. Without it, unqualified people are put into positions of power to pay back political debts. Without it, our businesses, schools, and communities suffer.

I stood up for LGBT rights in the 1980s. I fought to give our workers a Living Wage in the 1990s. I put more police on our streets to keep the city safe. And I was a key supporter of term limits, which were scuttled for political gain in 2008. I am the only candidate with the vision, foresight, and voting record that Democratic voters yearn for. In due time, the polls and numbers that pundits tout will show just that.

A candidacy built on genuine popular support, not litmus tests and patronage perks, allows for the kind of independence that our city needs to move forward. That's why I'm running for Mayor. With my experience as a public school teacher, a financial services professional, an attorney, and an independent and progressive Councilman, I am uniquely qualified to lead a New York City that leads the world in prosperity and provides a good quality of life for all of its citizens.”

####

Former New York City Councilman Sal F. Albanese was born in Calabria, Italy, in 1949. At eight years old, he moved to Park Slope, Brooklyn, graduating from John Jay High School in 1967. He received his B.A. in Education from CUNY, York College in 1972. He earned an M.A. in Health from New York University in 1976 and a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School in 1990. He is also a member of the New York State Bar and holds Series 7 and 63 financial services licenses.

Sal was a New York public school teacher for eleven years before running for City Council in 1982. He defeated a 21-year incumbent and went on to win re-election in the 43rd District four times before running for Mayor in 1997. During his Council tenure, Sal was renowned as an expert on police and education issues, an early proponent of LGBT rights, a leader in the fight for a Living Wage, and a strong advocate for campaign finance reform and term limits.

For the past fifteen years, he has worked in the private sector in the legal and financial field. For the last nine years, he worked for Mesirow Financial and held the title of Managing Director. Sal lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, with his wife of 40 years, Lorraine. They have two daughters.