By MICHAEL SCHENKLER

Last Tuesday was a busy day.

In addition to my normally hectic schedule, it was 1 p.m. lunch with Peter Vallone, Jr. then 4 p.m. coffee back at the office with Mark Green.

If they ever took the politics out of this job, it wouldn’t be half as much fun. I enjoy the business, I love the job, but the politics keep the juices flowing.

It was my first encounter with Peter, Jr. We had talked on the phone and exchanged emails — he often emails comments on my column — but had never met. Pete, who is frequently referred to in Queens political circles as Junior, (I’m not sure what he likes to be called — I didn’t ask; he didn’t suggest) is a candidate for Council in the 22nd District, a seat held by his father for decades.

Conventional political wisdom is that he is a shoo-in. I agree. Pete, Jr. was not so sure and certainly wasn’t cocky. He intends to work hard to win and harder to serve.

Why is he running? Because he can do the job his community needs. The proliferation of power plants in Astoria seems to be the driving issue at the moment. Pete was more concerned with enlisting my help to fight the pollution caused by power plants in his district than to seek the Trib’s help for his candidacy.

It was a get-acquainted lunch for me, but Pete had two agenda items. And he handled himself well — very well.

He came to the office and met the editorial staff and as I drove to Caffé On The Green, he began:

Item one: to get more exposure of the unilateral actions on the part of the New York Power Authority in permitting (or encouraging) more and more generators in Astoria.

That afternoon, after he returned to the office I received a number of faxes and emails that supported his point. As soon as we digest them all, we’ll share our reaction with you. Vallone Jr.’s point about moving any new power generators out of the over-burdened community echoed the sentiment expressed to me in a phone conversation several days earlier by Claire Shulman. Pete feels the NYPA has been deceptive and unreasonable in both site location and power need assessment. He seems to make his case well and has been a champion of the cause for more than a year as the Council to C.H.O.K.E.

Although we still need additional information on the matter, Pete has convinced us to continue to question and challenge what is going on with new power generators in Queens.

But it was Pete’s other agenda item that surprised us most. Although he was passionate about his C.H.O.K.E. campaign, he was more passionate when the talk turned political.

No, the young Vallone (actually the oldest of three sons — Peter, Perry and Paul — of Tina and Peter Vallone) was not selling himself for the Council seat. He was pitching his father for mayor. He was convincing, compassionate and honestly showed the love and respect he had for his father. There is no doubt that Pete, Jr. came from a household filled with love and respect where basic values were the focus of raising kids. The affection and respect of a son for his father that I witnessed is all too rare in kids today, no matter how old.

"He’s a much nicer person than I am," Pete said of his father. "I can tell you he’d never make backroom deals, he just doesn’t do those things," he related without doubt.

I came away from the lunch with a new take on the powerful, seemingly autocratic Council Speaker. Although Peter, Sr. has always been portrayed as a good man of deep religious conviction, to me, he was still the leader of a shoddy Council that he ruled with an iron fist — except on the term limit repeal attempt.

But a son’s compassion has made this writer rethink his position. There are no political conclusions yet. But it seems that Peter Vallone, Sr. is a remarkable man — no judgment yet on his ability to run the city.

It was back to the office, return a few phone calls and a scheduled chat with mayoral frontrunner, Public Advocate Mark Green. We had about an hour — we’ll likely continue. I’ve met Mark a number of times through the years. He hasn’t changed. He’s hard working, driven and bright. He expects and is expected to be one of the two Democrats to be in a run-off primary for the party’s nomination for mayor. You need 40 percent of the vote to win it without a run-off.

All the polls say he’s out front — by a lot. "You ask the Ferrer people [Bronx Beep, Latino candidate trying to form a minority coalition Fernando] they say it’s Freddy and me," Green explained. "Ask Hevesi’s campaign, it’s Green and Hevesi. And Vallone says it’s him and me." The frontrunner confidently laid it all out: The people have watched me and they like what they see.

"Hevesi," who seems to be the biggest obstacle in Green’s mind, "has had the same opportunity over the last eight years as I have. Only, he has a staff of hundreds while I have 40," Green explained. "Look at the polls."

Green stands on his record of advocacy for the people. All the candidates have extensive experience and have been around for a lot more than the last eight years. The people are clearly showing a preference for Green, insists the frontrunner.

Reacting to a column I wrote several weeks ago about Alan "Who?" Hevesi’s lack of visibility, Green agreed and insisted it was fatal to his campaign. We discussed Hevesi’s $1 million TV buy: "If he has to spend $1 mil to play catch-up now, he won’t have it later," Green analyzed. With current campaign finance rules, all four candidates will have the same amount to spend. "Alan will be $1mil down when it counts - how will he be competitive?" Mark asked.

Green isn’t green. He’s off to a fine start. He’s got a credible history of public service and what seems to be a professional campaign. My old friend Hank Sheinkopf (he got his start at the Trib — ask him) is one of several impressive professionals guiding the public advocate towards Gracie Mansion. His heart and politics are in the right place.

And above all, Green points out: "I’m not beholden to anyone but the people. I don’t expect to get the Queens County endorsement [or Bronx, or Brooklyn]. I’m not a candidate of machine politics. I’m an independent Democrat. I will enter office as a candidate of the people."

It might be early to be so sure. But then again, we’d bet, Mark Green will be one of the two Dems in the run-off. Right now, he’s close to even money. The others are 3.5-1, or worse.

It’s not easy being Tribune Editor. It’s not the job — creating an accurate, compelling, interesting weekly mirror of the community — that makes it difficult. It’s dealing with the thousands of readers who see only the one item that impacts their lives directly and would like to have it done differently. It’s the occasional mistake or affront to a community member or group that causes greater grief than the challenge of the job.

Trib Editor Tamara Hartman took one for the paper last week . . .and it was only right.

Trib PhotoPix editor Dee Richard was being honored by the Latin American Cultural Center (LACC) and Tamara, tied up with deadlining and editing a hard news story, asked one of her staff to edit the Leisure page and keep an eye on the item about Dee.

As she explained to me, that was her mistake. The staffer was sick and Tamara should have double-checked anything she gave him, she whined in her email to me.

The end result according to the email, was that last weekend, when she checked to see when she needed to be at the Queens Museum of Art for the LACC ceremony honoring our TribPixie Dee, she noticed an error. Although she had marked on the release that admission was free and there was a suggested donation of $4 (she remembered that because she had to call the Center to get the amount because the release wasn’t clear) it appeared in the Trib that the admission was free and the suggested donation was $40. Hmmm!

Now she could have skipped the event, but the invite was only for a reception from 2-2:30 so she figured she could swallow her pride for a half hour and attend on Dee’s behalf. After all, Dee provides us with a dynamite weekly page telling the story of the borough’s political and cultural events.

Tamara arrived, and played shocked when they told her about the typo . . . but they were so pleased she was there that the faux pas blew over pretty quickly.

Then to her surprise the reception started at 2:30 and went on to 3 p.m. when a whole program . . . including 6 pieces of classical music, the history of the woman for whom the award was named, and the reading of three of her poems in Spanish followed before they gave out any awards. Then the other two honorees were presented and Dee was last.

Meanwhile, while Tamara was fantasizing about a night out bar hopping on Bell Boulevard, she was caught in a museum utilizing the precious time she had set aside to complete some work — work she now had to do at night (Darn it, she thought — no Bourbon Street, no Yeats Tavern, no men).

Could she discreetly sneak out? No, she figured she owed it to Dee and to them for the mistake. So she stuck it out and State Senator Toby Stavisky, who was addressing the group, pointed Tamara out in the audience and talked about her long history with Dee and her longer history in the journalism biz. Toby started with Tamara’s mom who she knew as a reporter for the Long Island Star-Journal and Press.

Tamara took the opportunity to step up beside Dee and took over the mike. She still credits her godfather, the late "mayor" of Maspeth, Peter Chahales and her aunt for her willingness to address groups. She actually is a born ham, although she’d rather sing and play the guitar, give her two people or more and a Queens topic, the Queens College professor in her — she teaches journalism there — comes out and Tamara holds court — with or without microphone.

She held court last weekend too at the Queens Museum. So she got the mike and talked about the crazy world of weekly deadlines where no matter how hard you try, things still go wrong and difficulties abound. But, she continued on about how grateful she was, to know that every week Dee is there with the pictures and the captions and the events that happen in Queens, making sure the Trib covers all the news and keeps on top of things. She took the opportunity to thank Dee for always being there when she is needed and for being a constant in an otherwise crazy newspaper world.

Well, my sources tell me, Dee welled up with tears.

And afterwards, Dee thanked Tamara for her words, and the ever-cool editor added that I sent a kiss — indeed, I had so instructed Tamara, but she rarely carries out such requests.

Of course, Tamara didn’t get any of her work done — the whole event took two and a half hours longer than she was expecting.

But, I got a good 800-word story for my column and Tamara had several fewer brews to work off at the gym.