By Chris Fuchs
Altogether, Queens residents voted in seven state senatorial elections, many of which featured incumbents competing against newcomers. In all of these races, incumbents in fact effortlessly staved off challenges from their contenders.
In a contest closely watched by Democrats and Republicans around the state, Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Bellerose), having been endorsed by the Republican, Independent and Conservative parties, soundly defeated his Democratic opponent, Rory Lancman, who captured 37 percent, according to the unofficial results.
The Democrat Party targeted Padavan as one of three state senators from New York it hoped to unseat as part of a bid to wrest control of the Senate in Albany from the GOP.
Aside from that race, state Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Flushing) solidly defeated Josephine Jones, the Green Party candidate, in the race for the 16th Senatorial district, capturing 98 percent of the vote, Board of Elections results showed.
In the western senatorial districts of Queens, the incumbents, all of whom are Democrats except for state Sen. Serphin R. Maltese (R-Glendale), head of the Queens Republican Party, received overwhelming support from voters.
Daniel Hevesi of the 13th District in Forest Hills captured 96 percent of the vote, while state Sen. George Onorato of the 14th District, which meanders from in Long Island City through parts of Flushing and Whitestone to Bay Terrace, got 76 percent. Maltese of the 15th District in Glendale and Ridgewood received 95 percent, the results showed.
The incumbents of southeast Queens also took in unqualified support from the Democratic faithful. Malcolm Smith, a state senator since March, clinched the seat for the 10th District in the St. Albans area with 93 percent of the vote, defeating Cynthia Jenkins, a former assemblyman, who was backed by only 7 percent of that district, according to the results.
In the 12th District in Jamaica, state Sen. Ada Smith's victory was a foregone conclusion as she was running unopposed.
