Influence
As one of the handful of Republican State Senators from New York City, Velella exercised considerable influence in the state legislature and in both Westchester County and New York City politics. Over the decades, many Democrats in the Assembly often turned to Velella to introduce their legislation in the New York State Senate, which was controlled by the Republicans from 1966 until 2009.
In 1989, Velella became chairman of the powerful Senate Insurance Committee. In this capacity, Velella secured passage of numerous laws affecting the insurance industry in New York. Velella reached the height of his influence and power during the mid-1990s. He enjoyed access to important elected officials, many of them Republicans, such as U.S. Senator Alfonse D'Amato, Governor George Pataki, Attorney General Dennis Vacco, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and NYS Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno. Velella used his many contacts to secure patronage jobs for his supporters. Other key backers such as Bill Newmark, the chairman of the Bronx Conservative Party, joined his legislative payroll.
During Rudy Giuliani's first mayoral bid in 1989, Velella and D'Amato acted together to deny Giuliani the support he needed to beat David Dinkins, the eventual Democratic nominee, even going so far as to engineer a completely spurious candidacy on the part of cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder to challenge Giuliani in the Republican primary. Victor B. Tosi, Velella's executive assistant and a long-time Bronx Republican activist, served as Lauder's campaign manager. Lauder lost the primary, but the nearly $13 million he spent on negative campaign commercials damaged Giuliani's candidacy.
In the general election, Velella endorsed Giuliani, who went on to lose narrowly to Dinkins. Later, when D'Amato and the Governor-Elect Pataki decided to foment a coup against then-Majority Leader Ralph Marino, who had clashed repeatedly with Pataki during the latter's brief tenure in the New York State Senate, Velella acted as Pataki's and D'Amato's agent, drafting Senate Members for a Thanksgiving coup in 1994 against Long Island's Marino and in favor of upstate Rensselaer County's Joe Bruno. This occurred even though Velella had been, upon the retirement of former Majority Leader Warren Anderson, one of a small circle who had helped to engineer Marino's ascension to the Leader's post and was one of Marino's most visible and rewarded allies during the ensuing years.
While serving in the state legislature, Velella also maintained a thriving law practice, which benefited from his Senate role as Insurance Chairman. He was a partner, with his father, in Velella, Velella, Basso, and Calandra, a law firm in the Morris Park section of The Bronx. After his conviction, Velella surrendered his law license and is no longer eligible to practice law. In 2004, the law firm changed its name to Velella, Basso, and Cirrincione and then, after the retirement of Vincent Velella, to Basso and Cirrincione.
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