By Phil Corso
Flushing attorney Paul Vallone came out on top of a hotly contested City Council race in northeast Queens and will replace embattled incumbent City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) in 2014.
Vallone beat out Republican candidate Dennis Saffran, an attorney from Douglaston, with 57.5 percent of the vote with 42 percent of precincts reporting as of 11 p.m., according to preliminary results from Associated Press. Saffran had 42.5 percent of the vote.
The win gave Vallone his spot in the previously red 19th Council District, which includes Auburndale, Bayside, Douglaston, Little Neck and Whitestone.
Tuesday’s election meant the end of Halloran’s first term in the City Council after the incumbent announced he would not seek re-election following a federal indictment earlier this year. Halloran was arrested April 2 and charged with soliciting bribes to help install Democratic state Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-Hollis) in the mayoral race as a Republican and bowed out of the public eye so he could instead focus his attention on restoring his name, he said.
Halloran’s arrest made for a tense political climate in northeast Queens, setting the stage for a crowded Democratic primary season. Vallone bested four others in that primary run for the Democratic nomination, including Empire State Development spokesman Austin Shafran, urban planning consultant Paul Graziano, former state Assemblyman John Duane and former Halloran chief of staff Chrissy Voskerichian.
The contentious primary brought some flak for Vallone after Jobs for New York, a political action committee for the Real Estate Board of New York, started mailing out attack ads in support of the Flushing attorney’s campaign. All of his Democratic opponents decried the ads, and the hot-button issue carried over into the general election race.
Saffran, who was backed by the Queens GOP soon after Halloran’s legal troubles surfaced, ran for the same 19th District seat in 2001 and lost by just under 400 votes to now-state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside).
Key issues throughout the race from the Democratic primary on through Tuesday’s election revolved largely around preserving the character of the suburban northeast Queens district and restoring faith in government.
Reach reporter Phil Corso by e-mail at pcorso@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4573.
