The millionaire whom Republicans had hoped would be their best chance to occupy the congressional seat being vacated by Vito Fossella died yesterday morning at his Staten Island home.

Francis Powers died of natural causes in his sleep, at the age of 67, Republican Party leaders said. Being a board member of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Powers was recommended and supported by the Republicans, late this month, to challenge the Democratic candidate, Council Member Michael McMahon, for the Staten Island and Brooklyn 13th District seat, after Fossella turned down re-election proposal.

After he was arrested on May 1 on charges of driving while intoxicated and admitted he has a three year old daughter from an extramarital relationship, Vito Fossella, the only Republican member of New York’s congressional delegation, made up his mind not to run anymore.

Although several other Republicans had targeted the seat, party leaders decided on Powers, who engaged to support himself by laying out hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money and elaborate his own fund-raising network.

Considered an underprivileged in the race, Powers was promptly hindered by a report that his own son took into consideration challenging him as a Libertarian Party nominee.

As the Republican leaders say two leading candidates are Powers’ replacements. One is Joseph Maltese, an acting state Supreme Court justice, and the other is Paul Atanasio, a retired investment banker.

Atanasio was a municipal bond manager at UBS before retiring several months ago. He also served in the Marine Corps as a helicopter pilot. In 1980 he closely lost a congressional bid to unseat Democratic Leo Zeferetti. He also functioned as a Governor Pataki designee to the School Construction Authority Board, resigning as a trustee in 1999 after a 16-year-old girl was killed in a construction accident at a Brooklyn school.

First elected as a Civil Court judge in 1991, Joseph Maltese has been a state Supreme Court judge for more than a decade. Presiding in Richmond County, he handles medical malpractice, product liability cases, and general civil problems. He is a brigadier general in the New York Guard and a retired member of the Army Judge Advocate General's Corps.