Rep. Joseph Addabbo, a New York Democrat who served in the House for a quarter-century, dies of cancer at the age of 61.
The chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, Addabbo was a strong critic of Pentagon spending and led the effort to defeat a 1982 measure that would begin to build the MX missile, though that effort was later reversed.
His district, located in southern Queens, will later elect an African-American, state Assemblyman Alton Waldon, in a special June 10 election. But another black candidate, the Rev. Floyd Flake, would oust Waldon less than three months later in the September Democratic primary.
