Councilmember Vickie Paladino, a staunch Queens Republican, is defending her seat next week against a familiar foe: Democrat Tony Avella, a longtime politician whom she defeated by only a few hundred votes just two years earlier.
Because of redistricting, Paladino — an outspoken, pro-Trump Republican — is again staring down the moderate Avella after an abbreviated, two-year term. And while the contest is one of the few competitive Council races this year, voters in the northeast Queens district are not expected to overwhelm the ballot box — it’s an off-year race for a seat that typically comes up every four years with no big contests at the top of the ticket helping to drive turnout.
“It’s gonna be a low-turnout election because it’s a real off year in every sense and there are no citywide races that are going to get people excited,” John Mollenkopf, a political science professor at CUNY Graduate School who also heads its Center for Urban Research, told Gothamist. “It’s all going to be down essentially to who gets their friends and neighbors out.”
The 19th Council District – a collection of bedroom communities including College Point, Whitestone and Bay Terrace – is considered to be one of New York City’s few Republican strongholds. The district largely backed Republican Curtis Sliwa over Democratic Mayor Eric Adams in the last mayoral race, according to data from the Center for Urban Research.
Still, Avella was able to sway voters in his direction when he previously represented the area from 2002 to 2009. After a failed mayoral run he was elected to the state Senate in 2011, but his involvement with the Independent Democratic Conference, which caucused with Republicans and became a target for left-leaning Democrats, led to his downfall in a 2018 re-election bid.
He made another run for his old Council district in 2021, but Paladino won by roughly 400 votes, a number large enough to quell any legitimate legal challenges.
In light of the…
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