Page 10 - NYLS Magazine • 2014 • Vol. 33, No. 1

and Democrats push each other, and In 1989, Jimmy Oddo was a 23-year-
“Later, two people quit on [Fusco’s] staf,”

bring out the best in each other.”
old NYLS student with a self-described said Oddo. “He’d kept the résumé, and I
“really bad, really ugly” mullet. went [for an interview]. I think he saw a

Which is not to say that Oddo is purely Orientation day evoked a not uncommon little bit of himself in me.”
ecumenical. He is, ater all, a “beyond- dread; the mullet-headed ferry commuter

devoted Mets fan,” according to an remembered thinking, “What have
Oddo began with constituent service work
admiring article in the Staten Island I gotten myself into?” he next two for Councilman Fusco, who eventually

Advance.
weeks—“intense” and “intended to break promoted him to chief of staf. Oddo
you early”—hardly dispelled his anxiety.
later put his NYLS degree to use as legal
To be sure, he had partisan disagreements
counsel to the Council Minority Leader,
with his Democratic colleagues on the “But, I’m a competitive guy,” said Oddo, Republican City Councilman Tom
City Council. “But the best legacy I let
“which you have to be when you’re the Ognibene.
was working across the aisle,” Oddo said. youngest of four brothers.”
“Allowing issues to transcend political “A couple of years before that, nobody

bickering—not letting ideology trump Oddo applied seat to chair and nose to would hire me, but then—wow!—there I
the issues.”
textbooks to earn the Juris Doctor degree. was, in my late 20s, in a room with Rudy

Of his professors, Oddo said, “hey teach Giuliani, the mayor of New York,” Oddo
On relating to his counterpart, Christine you about issue spotting. hat is huge. recollected. “I loved it.”
Quinn, the former Democratic Council
And they teach how to see both sides of
Speaker, Oddo said, “Now, here was a let- an issue. If you’re arguing ‘A’ against ‘B,’ He added, “I never thought a kid from

of-center gay woman from the Village, you have to know ‘B’ up and down. his Old Town Road would be allowed to be
and an outer-borough conservative is a wonderful trait. It forces you to give in politics.”

straight guy. hese two should have been audience to the other side.”
like ships passing in the night. But we In 1998, Fusco, pondering a run for
Surrogate, asked Oddo if he might like
realized that we’re both loud, we wear
He igured his J.D. degree would bolster
our hearts on our sleeves, and we’re both chances for his joining the FBI. Even to replace him on the Council. he
answer was yes. Oddo ran in the next ive
expressive.”
with an improved haircut, however, he
did not become Agent Oddo. “I wasn’t cycles, winning handily as a Republican
“Chris and I found a kinship. I think about in a district where Democrats still hold
ready,” he acknowledged. “I wasn’t
human interactions [in politics], and
mature enough.”
a voting majority of better than 8,000.
what they ultimately mean to my home Last November, he took the borough

community,” Oddo said. “here are women Moving on, Oddo set his sights on presidency with a landslide 70 percent of
alive today because of Chris Quinn.”
becoming a prosecutor. To that end,
the vote.

he landed an internship under the late
Oddo explained that at one point Staten William L. Murphy, the Republican Oddo was oicially sworn in to oice in
Island registered the city’s longest waiting a low-key private ceremony—in contrast
District Attorney of Staten Island,
period for diagnostic mammograms, the later interning under former Staten to gala installation fêtes of past years. On

periodic test for breast cancer. Quinn Island Supreme Court Justice Charles his return from Manhattan, where he had
became a staunch ally in his ight to close Kufner Jr., also a Republican. he legal breakfast with newly sworn Mayor Bill

the gap with increased funding. “his employment market was a tough one de Blasio, Oddo hosted an open house
happened,” he said, “because two people in the early and mid-’90s; once again, at Staten Island’s Borough Hall, a French

allowed themselves to become friends Jimmy Oddo’s career prospects were Renaissance brick and limestone building
without thinking of their divisions.”
thwarted.
on Richmond Terrace designed in 1906

by the legendary architectural irm
But then came another opportunity. Carrère & Hastings.
••••••••••••••••••
Stalwarts of the local Democratic Party,
his parents, John and Margaret Oddo, had Among the guests were newly elected
Manhattan Borough President Gale
James Oddo, the 48-year-old grandson
planted a lawn sign in the front yard of
of Sicilian immigrants, was elected to the the family’s home on Old Town Road— Brewer; Oddo’s mentor, John Fusco; and
Bobby Digi, president of the North Shore
City Council in 1999. He succeeded John for the opponent of then Republican City
A. Fusco, who ran successfully that year Councilman John Fusco. “hat didn’t Business Association.

for Richmond County Surrogate’s Court stop my mother from talking to Fusco
Brewer, a Democrat who served with
and was later appointed to the New York at a Christmas party,” said Oddo. Not to
Oddo on the City Council, told reporters,
Supreme Court bench in Staten Island. mention supplying the councilman with
He retired last year.
her son’s résumé.
“I’m very, very fond of Borough President
Oddo. He’s a guy who really cares.”

8 New York Law schooL magaziNe • 2014 • VOL. 33, NO. 1