By Dustin Brown
Although the five Democrats vying for City Councilman Walter McCaffrey’s (D-Woodside) seat bring unique records of political and social service to the campaign, each insists his own background provides the blend of experience and insight necessary to succeed in the City Council.
Joe Conley has served Long Island City, Sunnyside and Woodside as Community Board 2 chairman for 16 years, while Woodside native Eric Gioia pointed to experience as a law clerk in the White House and as New York state campaign director for Al Gore.
Patrick O’Malley, a former Queens prosecutor and the only candidate who has already run for office in the district, secured 40 percent of the vote against incumbent Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan (D-Ridgewood) in last year’s Democratic primary.
Matt Farrell served for seven years as chief of staff for City Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz, and Michael Kearney has owned and operated a neighborhood home health care service for 10 years.
The five Democratic candidates will be whittled down to one on Sept. 11, when the party primary determines who will enter the November race for District 26, which covers Long Island City, Sunnyside and Woodside.
Unchallenged Green Party candidate Ann Eagan will qualify for the November ballot without facing a primary next month. No Republican candidate has entered the race.
Though McCaffrey believes only two of the five are serious contenders, all said their individual expertise and long history in the community would propel them into office.
“I think the race is down to Joe Conley and Eric Gioia,” said McCaffrey, who has thrown his own endorsement behind Conley’s campaign. “I think those are the two candidates who have run the most energetic and the most complete campaigns.”
McCaffrey said he considered Farrell to be “in the third position — a distance back,” while Kearney and O’Malley were bringing up the rear.
The councilman said he based his assessment on the candidates’ visibility in the community, their mailings and the amount of money they had raised, among other factors.
“I think maturity and vision for the district is important,” McCaffrey said, citing Conley’s experience with local issues as community board chairman as the main reason for endorsing his candidacy.
“When people start to scratch the surface and dig in, they start to understand that this is a very important district in the city, it’s a very complex district,” Conley said. “They have to look to somebody and say, ‘Who has been a proven leader?’ This is not a race based on promises.”
Although Conley only moved into the neighborhood in early April from Floral Park, L.I., he said his 20 years of experience as a community leader demonstrated his commitment to the district.
Gioia, a 28-year-old Georgetown University graduate born and raised in Woodside, has run an aggressive campaign stressing his family’s longstanding roots in the neighborhood.
“I feel I’m living the American dream,” he said, referring to the White House position he secured after working his way through college as a janitor in the evenings. “This race to me is about ensuring that every kid who grows up in our neighborhood has the same opportunities that I had.”
After spending months sharing their views with residents on the campaign trail, the remaining three candidates disputed McCaffrey’s assessment of their standing in the race.
“Uninhibited by term limits, Mr. McCaffrey would seem to be trying to impose his will on the people as to who the next city council member should be,” O’Malley said on behalf of himself, Farrell and Kearney.
O’Malley believes the popular support he received in attempting to oust Nolan from her Assembly seat will provide him with the votes necessary to win the Democratic primary.
“I’m the only person who enjoys the previous endorsements of thousands of my neighbors as expressed at the polls last September,” he said.
Matt Farrell has the support of Tom Manton, chairman of the Queens County Democrats, an endorsement accompanied by the backing of several borough Democrats, including Borough President Claire Shulman.
“No other person in this race has ever worked in the City Council, nobody has any idea how the City Council works and operates,” Farrell said. “I’m the only one that has helped pass a budget, that has helped write legislation and pass legislation. Nobody else can say that they’ve done that or knows how to do it.”
Kearney credits his business experience with giving him the necessary savvy to represent the district in the City Council.
“I deal with the various aspects of government — federal, state and city government — in the business that I am in,” he said. “I have firsthand knowledge of both being an employer and being an employee.”
Although Gioia has raised the most money in the race — $91,306 — four of the candidates have already raised enough to hit the $137,000 cap in spending imposed by the Campaign Finance Board, which provided each with the maximum level of $75,350 in matching funds. The four candidates can thus spend the same amount of money moving into the primary.
While O’Malley’s financial filings indicate he has only raised $21,310 — which with matching funds gives him more than $60,000 to spend, or less than half of what his competitors have — he dismissed the gap.
“I will be raising and spending the same thing as my first-time-running opponents,” he said.
Reach reporter Dustin Brown by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 154.
