Education
Throughout his childhood, Recchia attended local public schools including P.S. 215, David A. Boody Intermediate School, and John Dewey High School.
Throughout his childhood, Recchia attended local public schools including P.S. 215, David A. Boody Intermediate School, and John Dewey High School.
He received the 2014 Democratic nomination in New York"s 11th congressional district, but lost in the general election. Recchia is a lifelong resident of Gravesend. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Criminal Justice from Kent State University and a few years later, his Juris Doctor from Atlanta Law School.
After graduation, Recchia returned to Brooklyn, and in 1989 was elected to Community Board 13.
In that same year, Recchia was elected to Community School Board 21, where he served until 2001. Elections
Then-Councilman Howard Lasher was term-limited and thus could not seek another term in the In the primary elections, Recchia faced Lasher"s wife, Susan Lasher, in which she received 2,999 votes to Recchia"s 4,509.
Term-limited from the city council, Recchia announced but later abandoned a 2012 campaign for New York Comptroller. Tenure
Recchia previously served as Chair of the Cultural Affairs Committee.
In August 2013, Recchia voted against an override of Mayor Bloomberg"s vetoes on two bills that would create an independent inspector general to oversee the New York Police Department and another that would allow people to sue in state court if they believe they"ve been profiled by police.
Both bills were passed by the with an overwhelming majority, enough to override the Mayor"s vetoes. Committee assignments
Civil Service & Labor
Cultural Affairs, Libraries & International Intergroup Relations
Finance (Chair)
Governmental Operations
After much speculation, Recchia announced he would run for New York"s 11th congressional district in the 2014 election. If elected, he would have been the first congressman from the Staten Island-based district since 1906 not to have a Staten Island address.
His city council district included much of the Brooklyn portion of the congressional district.
Recchia faced two-term Republican incumbent Michael Grimm in the general election. Roll Call named the race one of the top five to watch in the Northeast.
In the lead up to the November election, Recchia did not appear at two of the scheduled candidate debates. In October 2014, the New York Times wrote that "Recchia’s recent discussions of foreign affairs have induced Democratic cringes." In a highly cited editorial, the New York Daily News called Recchia "a candidate so dumb, ill-informed, evasive and inarticulate that voting for a thuggish Republican who could wind up in a prison jumpsuit starts to make rational sense".
A member of the Democratic Party, Recchia formerly represented the 47th Council District in the New York which included areas of Bensonhurst, Brighton Beach, Coney Island, and Gravesend in south Brooklyn.