Council Speaker Corey Johnson booted a Staten Island rep off the Board of Elections amid a civil war within the borough’s Democratic Party, sources said.
The island’s Democratic Party chairman John Gulino recommended that Maria Guastella be reappointed as commissioner to the elections board, where she’s served since 2011.
But Gulino was shocked when the Johnson-led City Council voted last week to replace Guastella with Patricia Anne Taylor, a lawyer who formerly headed the borough’s Women’s Bar Association, insiders familiar with the dispute said.
Forced to take sides, Johnson crossed Gulino and sided with borough’s elected officials — Councilwoman Debi Rose, Congressman Max Rose, state Sen. Diane Savino and Assemblyman Mike Cusick — all of whom recommended Taylor’s appointment, sources said.
An island Democratic Party insider said the elected officials are moving to replace Gulino as party leader in a vote in June, and the power play at the patronage-laden elections board is the first step in stripping him of power.
Gulino and Guastella declined requests for comment.