Addabbo trounces Maltese for Senate

Democratic City Councilmember Joseph Addabbo trounced Republican incumbent State Senator Serphin Maltese by more than 10,000 votes in the 15th Senate District race in Queens.
Addabbo received 40,084 or 57 percent of the vote compared to Maltese’s 29,637, which gave him 43 percent of the vote.
“It was a great feeling,” Addabbo said, who termed the race a long campaign and uphill fight against the incumbent Maltese.
With most of the precincts reporting late Tuesday night, Maltese called Addabbo and conceded the election.
“I congratulated him on his victory and indicated I would try to be helpful in the transition,” Maltese said.
Addabbo and Maltese engaged in an intense campaign throughout the last few months, but both candidates remained confident heading into Election Day.
Addabbo, who has represented south Queens in the City Council for the past seven years, described his campaign as one of deep voter contact. He talked about a typical campaign day as speaking with voters at train stations in the morning, senior citizen centers and schools in the afternoon and then meeting with local community organizations and going door to door at night.
“I believe the big difference in this campaign and the thing that put us over the top was the person contact,” said Addabbo, who also talked about being proud of the positive campaign he ran staying away from negative campaigning.
In addition, Addabbo helped register nearly 6,000 new voters, which he believes played an important role in his Election Day victory.
“That’s a difference maker right there,” Addabbo said.
Maltese represented western and southern Queens in the State Senate for 20 years, but he barely held on to his seat last year when he defeated community activist Albert Baldeo by less than 1,000 votes.
Maltese praised his supporters and campaign volunteers who he said worked tirelessly on his campaign.
“I honestly believe this was my best campaign I ever waged,” Maltese said. “I think it’s a combination of circumstances. Certainly the most prevailing were the Obama sweeps.”
Addabbo will officially be sworn into office in January when a special election to fill his Council seat will likely be called. He said that he is eager to begin his work in Albany on behalf of his constituents and realizes that he will be entering into difficult economic times right away.
“I’m going to use the experience dealing with tough budgets on the city level,” Addabbo said. “I think we obviously need to slash funding.”