Joseph Addabbo Jr., left, celebrates his Senate win with Democrats Congressman Joe Crowley, Assemblywomen Cathy Nolan, forefront, and Audrey Pheffer. Hundreds of supporters joined the Tuesday night celebration.He was sweating, smiling and flushed, as though he had just reached the finish line of a long and tiring race, and was named winner. Turns out that was the case: Tuesday night City Councilman Joseph Addabbo Jr. (D-Howard Beach) ousted state Sen. Serphin Maltese (R-Glendale) from the 15th Senate District seat he has held for 20 years.
After word came of Addabbo’s victory, his supporters, who were partying and waiting for his arrival at a Russo’s on the Bay party hall, jumped up in what looked like a choreographed dance and burst into joyous shouting.
When Addabbo arrived, beaming, he barely got three feet into the doorway when the flash of about a dozen cameras and the cheering crowd, which clapped in sync, greeted him. Raising his arms in salute to his supporters, Addabbo resembled a movie star thanking fans on the red carpet.
“We all knew going into this race it was an uphill battle, [as it is] whenever a challenger goes into a race against someone who’s been there for 20 years. But tonight, we won,” Addabbo said. “We deserve better, and after today we’ll get better representation in Albany.”
The mood at county Republican headquarters was decisively more somber when Maltese, accompanied by City Councilman Anthony Como (R-Middle Village) announced his concession to the crowd of around 50 shortly after 10:30 p.m.
“It looks like it was an overwhelming vote in our district for Obama, and the circumstances are such that despite your best efforts and my best efforts, it wasn’t something we could achieve,” Maltese said.
He told the audience he had already called Addabbo to congratulate him on the victory and said he would try to help with the transition. “I can honestly say, I believe in my 40 years of politics, it was certainly one of the best, if not the best, campaign we ever ran,” he said. “[Addabbo’s win] was just one of those things we were unable to stop.”
Much like a whirlwind, Addabbo’s indomitable campaign swept through and attempted to seize the 15th Senate District — which includes the neighborhoods of Maspeth, Ridgewood, Middle Village, Glendale, Woodhaven, Richmond Hill, Ozone Park and Howard Beach.
But Maltese, who was elected to 10 terms despite being a Republican campaigning in a mostly Democratic district, began his own campaign long before Addabbo officially declared his candidacy on July 12.
After the official declaration, the veteran’s campaign became somewhat of a counter-attack: negative television advertisements slamming Addabbo’s voting record were aired, and voters in the district received mailings questioning the councilman’s ethics.
That only led to Maltese’s defeat, according to Addabbo, who said, “It just proves positive campaigning beats negative campaigning.” He also credited his supporters for seeing past the campaigns.
“You believed in something like I believed in something. You believed that those people out there, outside of these walls deserve better. You believed that when we spoke about issues, it was the right thing to do and not go negative,” Addabbo said.
“You believed that going out there hour after hour and making phone calls and knocking on doors — you believed that was the right thing to do, just as I believed it was the right thing to do. But you did one extra — you believed in me, and I appreciate it, so thank you very much.”
He thanked audience members for their support and volunteers, who numbered more than 1,000 on election day, for their work. He thanked his wife, mother, family and staff for standing with him and contributing all they could to help.
“I have always said that I cannot do it alone, and that is the truth,” Addabbo said before quickly adding, “We have a lot of work to do. Today is just the first step.”
There are still about 11 weeks to go before Addabbo, 44, is sworn in on Jan. 20, 2009. In the meantime, he will continue serving constituents of the 32nd Council District as he has done since he became a councilman in 2001.
Maltese, on the other hand, hasn’t planned much to take up his time after he finishes out the last few weeks of his term.
When asked what he’ll do next, Maltese shrugged and said, “I’m 75 years old.” While facing the rapidly arriving end of his long and successful political career, the senator is looking ahead to retirement.
Addabbo’s win was vital to the Democratic party’s Senate takeover. In order for the party to take control of the legislative body, which, until Tuesday night, had a Republican majority of 31-29, it needed to win two seats. Addabbo was one of several Democrats the party chose to challenge Republican senate incumbents.
Addabbo snatched away one Republican seat, and Long Island Democrat Brian Foley grabbed another. Another local Democrat challenging a Republican senator was City Councilman James Gennaro, who ran against 36-year veteran Sen. Frank Padavan. The race was too close to call and a winner will not be announced until all votes are counted.
Assistant Editor Ben Hogwood contributed to this story.
