Hanane Dbajat, a junior accountant who grew up on Staten Island, was still undecided, having canvassed for both Mr. Grimm, when he served in Congress, and for Mr. Donovan’s campaign. She said she planned to watch the debate again at home to make her decision.
“I like both candidates,” she said. “They’re both great Republicans for New York City, and they have done good things for Staten Island. It’s a tough one.”
President’s Trump recent backing of Mr. Donovan factors into her selection, she said. “It’s swaying me toward Donovan,” she admitted, adding that she would volunteer for whoever wins the primary. “You get a presidential endorsement — that’s something.”
Throughout his campaign, Mr. Grimm urged voters to view his criminal prosecution as a political witch hunt by President Barack Obama’s Justice Department. While he faced a 20-count indictment, he pleaded guilty in 2014 to one count of tax fraud after paying a handful of workers off the books at a restaurant he previously owned.
AD- free classified site for any country , free classified websites list for ad posting , classified advertisements website , free posting ads websites list , free internet advertising sites , free classifieds ads online , Post Free Classified ads online , Free Indian Classified Websites list
Several members of the borough’s Young Republicans said they had forgiven Mr. Grimm, a former Marine and F.B.I. agent who served seven months in federal prison. “Everyone has his flaws,” said Alima Munoz, 21, who graduated last month from Harvard University, where she was a member of the Network of Enlightened Women, a conservative club.
“But it wasn’t a violent crime,” she continued, referring to Mr. Grimm’s tax transgressions. “Not that it’s something to condone, but it happened and he took ownership of it and he’s putting his neck out there.”
As a young teenager, Ms. Munoz, who grew up in Tottenville on Staten Island’s South Shore, had volunteered for Mr. Grimm’s campaign in 2010. “I’m a die-hard Grimm fan,” she said. She believes that Representative Donovan has been too focused on “national issues” and “making a name for himself.”
Others agreed. Frank Ritorto, of New Brighton on Staten Island, also plans to cast his ballot for Mr. Grimm, saying that the former congressman had a common touch and was a constant presence in the community — especially after the 2012 hurricane that claimed two dozen lives in the borough. “He helped a lot with Sandy,” he said. “He was down in the rubble.”
As they had on Monday in a debate on WABC radio, the two candidates used Thursday’s debate, held at the College of Staten Island and televised by Spectrum News NY1, to jab at what they perceived as each other’s weak spots. Mr. Donovan attacked his opponent for his tax avoidance. Mr. Grimm accused the congressman of a somnolent approach to governance, both figuratively and literally. According to news reports, Mr. Donovan sleeps on a cot in his Capitol office to avoid the high rents of Washington.
But after the debate, as the Young Republicans lingered over jalapeño poppers and I.P.A.s, the group’s vice president, James West, said that on balance he thought Mr. Donovan had won. “He was on the defensive when he had to be, but he kept his cool,” he said.
Mr. West, a 26-year-old lawyer, said that as an officer of the Young Republicans, he had to remain neutral in the race. But personally, he said he was rooting for Representative Donovan, even while acknowledging that the congressman was not always in lock step with President Trump.
AD-Free Classified Ads Sites Worldwide , post free ads on google , Best Sites To Post Ads For Free , Free Ad Placement Sites , where can i place an ad for free , free classified posting sites , free classified ads portals , top 10 free classified ad sites , most popular free ad posting sites , top 10 advertising websites , free ads online classifieds websites
“I think he has a strong moral character,” he said, referring to Mr. Donovan. “Staten Island is Trump country, but the few times Dan hasn’t sided with the president, it was because it made sense for the community.”
As for the manager of the Kettle Black, she was certainly not practicing politics. She called herself a “blue dot in a red borough,” and then excused herself; she did not want to say much more, for fear of alienating her customers.
