Three city councilmen won election on Tuesday to other offices. From left: Joseph P. Addabbo Jr., Michael E. McMahon and Hiram Monserrate. (Photos: from left, Uli Seit for The New York Times, Andrew Henderson for The New York Times and Uli Seit for The New York Times)
While Tuesday’s election ended one election season, it is also started the next for candidates who are preparing for special elections for at least three City Council seats early next year.
In Staten Island, City Councilman Michael E. McMahon, a Democrat, won the Congressional seat formerly held by Representative Vito J. Fossella. His seat, representing the north shore of Staten Island, will be vacant at the end of the year.
That is also the case for the seat for the Queens district now represented by Joseph P. Addabbo Jr., a Democrat who was elected to the State Senate. Councilman Hiram Monserrate, another Queens Democrat, won an uncontested race for a State Senate seat, leaving his seat open.
Candidates in the three districts have already begun putting their campaigns together. The general election had a long campaign season, but the special election is to be scheduled in February, leaving candidates just a few months to prepare.
A fourth vacant Council seat is possible. Officials in both parties in Queens are waiting to see whether Councilman James F. Gennaro, a Democrat, prevails in his challenge to State Senator Frank Padavan, a Republican. Mr. Gennaro is behind in that race by a small margin. The New York City Board of Elections said its unofficial returns showed Mr. Padavan leading by 724 votes, but that the number of absentee and other paper ballots still to be counted was unclear.
“If there is a lot of paper, I think we have a good shot at winning,” said Shams M. Tarek, a spokesman for Mr. Gennaro. “We’ll just have to wait and see what the Board of Elections numbers turn out to be. But we did very well with newly registered voters.”
Under the City Charter, the special elections for Council seats are nonpartisan, meaning that candidates may not run on the ballot lines of established political parties. Also, any registered voter in the Council district may vote, regardless of party affiliation.
“The last campaign season went on for some time and was like a marathon,” said Evan Stavisky, a political consultant. “The special election is more like a 100-yeard dash. For the next 12 weeks, candidates for the Council will be aggressively fund-raising and switching their campaigns into high gear.”
As an example, Frank P. Gulluscio, a Democratic district leader in the Howard Beach and Richmond Hill section of the Queens, has already announced his candidacy for Mr. Addabbo’s seat and has started raising money for his campaign.
He has served as a campaign aide to Mr. Addabbo in the councilman’s State Senate campaign.
“I did everything to help Joe’s campaign and invested a lot of time and energy in the race,” Mr. Gulluscio said. “But now, I’ll be out on the streets again, meeting and greeting people and letting them know that I want their support.”
Similarly, Kenneth C. Mitchell, a lawyer and the chief of staff for Mr. McMahon, said he, too, was well on his way to putting together his campaign for the Council seat in Staten Island.
“I have already put together a great group of supporters, and I’ve been involved in all of the councilman’s campaigns,” Mr. Mitchell said. He added that he was also involved in the campaign of Mr. McMahon’s wife, Judith, who was elected to the State Supreme Court on Tuesday.
“We’re taking 24 hours off and we’ll start again tomorrow,” he said.
