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State Sen. Serphin Maltese (R-Glendale) received a big endorsement this week from Mayor Michael Bloomberg in the contentious battle to represent the 15th State Senate District.

City Councilman Joseph Addabbo (D-Howard Beach) is challenging the two-decade incumbent in a race that could determine who controls the State Senate next year. Democrats control both the governor’s office and the State Assembly, but have not had a majority in the State Senate since 1935. They are two seats shy of a majority in the senate and complete control of the state’s legislature.

“On each decision you make, I ask that you vote for the best person, not the straight party line,” Bloomberg wrote in a letter endorsing the senator. “This is why I am asking you to join me in supporting Senator Serf Maltese and sending him back to Albany as one of New York City’s State Senators.”

Naturally, Maltese enthusiastically welcomed the popular mayor’s endorsement.

“I have a great deal of respect for the mayor – I think he’s accomplished a great deal in New York City,” Maltese said. “It’s been a close working relationship, and now that he has endorsed me, I’m very hopeful that it will be even closer – and I expect that we’ll be campaigning together within the next week.”

The mayor and senator have had a complicated and sometimes volatile political relationship. Maltese supported Conservative Party candidate Tom Ognibene in the 2005 mayoral race. The mayor responded the following year by fanning speculation that he would support a run by Addabbo for the senator’s seat in 2006.

Addabbo didn’t run that year and Maltese narrowly avoided defeat by Democratic candidate Albert Baldeo, who came within one percent despite lackluster support from the City’s left-leaning political institutions and the Democratic Party itself.

It’s not clear what caused the mayor’s change of heart. But whatever the cause, it is clear that the Addabbo campaign isn’t happy.

“Clearly the mayor thinks it’s in his interest to maintain the status quo,” Alexis Grenell, the Addabbo campaign’s press secretary, said. “What the voters want is something entirely different.”

The district election will take place on Nov. 4.