Avella Mulls Challenge To Padavan

By DOMENICK RAFTER

Democrats may have found themselves a big name challenger to State Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Bellerose) in November, but do they want him?

Former City Councilman Tony Avella, who represented Bayside and Whitestone from 2001 to 2010, has been dropping hints that he would seek the Democratic nomination to take on Padavan, who barely survived a bruising reelection campaign in 2008 against City Councilman James Gennaro (D-Fresh Meadows). But getting local Democrats to back him may require Avella rebuild bridges he has been accused of burning over the last decade.

In recent years, Democrats have successfully picked off Republican seats in the State Senate two years after incumbent Republicans squeaked out a narrow win like Padavan had in 2008. In 2002, Democrat Liz Krueger won the Manhattan Senate seat vacated by 30-year incumbent Roy Goodman after narrowly losing to him in 2000 by 200 votes. In 2004, Republican Nick Spano won a razor-thin 18-vote victory over Democrat Andrea Stewart-Cousins in his Westchester County seat, only to lose to her in 2006 by a margin of over 2,000 votes, and in 2006, Republican Serphin Maltese squeaked by Democrat Al Baldeo by a 894 vote margin. Maltese lost his seat to Joe Addabbo in by a wide 17 point margin in 2008.

On paper, Avella’s potential candidacy looks like a golden opportunity for Democrats to win the seat. Avella left office with strong support among his former constituents, most of whom he shared with Padavan. Avella’s anti-tax, anti-government policies, which caused grief between him and other city Democrats, is a message that could sell to moderate voters in the district who have been inclined to support Republicans on the local level, such as in the race to succeed Avella in the city council last year, but have voted Democratic on the federal level.

Barack Obama, for example, won 61 percent of the vote in Padavan’s Senate district in 2008, and the district has not voted for a Republican in a U.S. House or Senate election since 1992. Avella has been strongly critical of unpopular Gov. David Paterson, comparing him to “a deer in headlights” at a debate last year with former City Comptroller Bill Thompson, whom Avella took on in the Democratic primary for Mayor. He went on to say he would not support Paterson for Governor this year.

Avella took a position in support of the same-sex marriage legislation that was voted down by the State Senate in December, putting himself to the left of not only Padavan on the issue, but four of the six Democratic Senators from Queens.

Despite the nearly decade-long estrangement between Avella and Queens Democratic leadership, Avella had been recruited by the Democrats to run for the seat in 2006 and 2008 before Gennaro stepped up, and Democrats may be willing to forgive the bad blood between them and Avella if it means another pickup in the State Senate or offsetting a loss elsewhere, helping secure the narrow two-seat majority Democrats have in the State Senate. The Democratic Senate Campaign Committee has prioritized Padavan’s seat and said they would be willing to support whoever steps up to run.

Nevertheless, Avella isn’t taking any chances. Republicans say his appeal in the past will not transcend into a Senate race. Avella has used the speculation of a candidacy to reach out to Queens Democrats and convince them that despite his history of being a maverck on the city council, he is a loyal Democrat.

“I think a lot of people who were behind him in the past will not support him [in a State Senate campaign],” said Queens GOP chairman Phil Ragusa, who ran against Avella for the City Council in 2003. Ragusa said he believes Avella’s unsuccessful run for Mayor lost him the support of many of his former supporters in the district, despite the fact that Avella outperformed Bill Thompson in the district in the 2009 primary.

“Most people said, ‘Gee, what is he doing,’” he said of Avella’s mayoral campaign. “They didn’t think that it was a serious run.” He dismissed the idea that Padavan is vulnerable, instead dismissing Gennaro’s near victory to the effects of President Barack Obama’s coattails in the district.

One Queens Democrat was quoted as saying Senate Democrats fear Avella’s unpredictable and fiery demeanor would put him at risk of being “another Hiram Monserrate without the girlfriend beating,” alluding to the embattled Jackson Heights senator who has been creating headaches for the Senate Democratic caucus after his trial and conviction for domestic abuse and role in the leadership coup last summer that temporarily ended Democratic control and shut down the Senate for nearly a month. Gennaro, in the meantime, is also rumored to be looking at another candidacy, but so far has remained quiet on whether or not he would run again. His existing Board of Elections committee for the State Senate seat was terminated on Dec. 31.

Reach reporter Domenick Rafter at drafter@queenstribune.com or at (718) 357-7400, Ext. 125.