Flanagan, who took over the top Senate
post from the indicted Dean Skelos in the
spring and began worrying that an «open» Staten Island
seat would be won by Democrats, convinced the popular Lanza to stay out of the DA's race with promises of added power and influence, undermining the GOP's chance of recapturing the
seat that had been held by Republican Daniel Donovan Jr., elected to Congress in May, a GOP insider said.