The proposed change to the city’s term limit law may “sail” through the City Council, but it poses a complication for City Council members who are currently campaigning for higher office.

If they support the change, they risk, at least theoretically, angering voters they’ll be facing very soon—and raising questions about their real level of interest the new offices they're running for.  read more »

The State Senate campaign of City Councilman Joe Addabbo seized on the comments Michael Bloomberg made yesterday in defense of the 18.5 percent property-tax increase that the City Council approved in 2002. Addabbo's opponent, the Bloomberg-endorsed Republican incumbentSerf Maltese, criticized the vote in a recent mailer.

In a statement just now, Addabbo spokeswoman Alexis Grenell said, "The Mayor and Maltese need to get their stories straight. Joe Addabbo is laser focused on the issues: lowering the cost of living, controlling spending and property taxes, improving education, and fighting for New York City's fair share. Despite his rubber stamp endorsement of Maltese, even Bloomberg can't deny the facts: Joe Addabbo is right for Queens communities.  read more »

Michael Bloomberg’s tax policy is giving his political allies a headache.

At a breakfast in midtown last week, State Senate Republican Majority Leader Dean Skelos tried to send a clear anti-tax-increase message to business leaders.

“As I said before, the Senate is ready to do what’s appropriate to reduce spending, but we should not raise taxes, as some have indicated. In this fragile economy, it would be disastrous to raise taxes,” Skelos said.

The speech, hosted by the Association for a Better New York event, went over well with the pro-business crowd. But speaking with reporters afterward, Skelos had a slightly harder time dealing with a question about Michael Bloomberg's recent comments that, in order to balance the budget,  read more »

Democratic City Council members now challenging Republicans for State Senate seats are facing criticism over a 2002 vote to raise city property taxes by 18.5 percent.

Michael Bloomberg supported the increase in property tax.

At his press conference just now, I asked Bloomberg--who has been supportive of State Senate Republicans--if that's fair to criticize those lawmakers over the vote.

“For doing what [are they being criticized]? Paying our fire fighters and police officers and improving our schools? I don’t understand what you think they did wrong,” Bloomberg said.

When I told him that Republican State Senator Serf Maltese--who the mayor endorsed--is using the tax increase to attack his opponent Joe Addabbo on a mailer, Bloomberg said he hadn’t seen the mailer.  read more »

Here’s a mailing that voters in Serf Maltese’s State Senate district got this week, hitting his challenger, Council member Joe Addabbo, on the issue of taxes.

Addabbo campaign spokesman Alexis Grenell disputes the claim, and says that in fact Maltese voted against cutting the Personal Income Tax in 1995, which, she says, makes Maltese the tax-raiser in the race. Grenell also notes that the mailer doesn’t cite any sources for its calculations.

On a broader level, the whole issue of who voted to raise and cut taxes is kind of tricky. The City Council, where Addabbo serves, needs permission from Albany, where Maltese is, in order to raise most taxes in the city.  read more »

For those of you closely following the competitive State Senate races this year, here's a list I compiled of forums and debates in two of them.

Republican incumbent Serf Maltese versus Democrat Joe Addabbo (neck-and-neck in the latest poll):

-Thursday, October 2 at 7:30 p.m. Junior High School 93, 4th Avenue and Madison Street, Ridgewood. Hosted by the Ridgewood Property Owners Association.

-Tuesday, October at 7:30 p.m. Christ Lutheran Church Community Center, 86th Street and 101st Avenue in Ozone Park. Hosted by Our Neighbor Civic Association.

Republican incumbent Frank Padavan versus Democrat James Gennaro (some of these don't have times listed--I'll update here as soon as I find out):

-Thursday, September 25 (tonight!) at 7 p.  read more »

A couple of interesting observations I heard on today’s Siena poll of key State Senate races.

The first has to do with Republican incumbent Serf Maltese, who is currently running even with his Democratic challenger, Joe Addabbo. Consultant Joe Mercurio said he found that “surprising,” since that’s basically how Maltese’s 2006 race ended up, and that was against a challenger who was virtually unknown.

"I figured Addabbo would do better than an unknown,” Mercurio told me.

The other observation was about Craig Johnson on Long Island, who has a 24-percentage-point lead over his Republican challenger, Barbara Donno. Of all of the six races Siena chose to look at, this one has the highest percentage of undecided voters: 26 percent.  read more »

Republican State Senator Serf Maltese, whose re-election campaign is being closely watched this year, announced today he was endorsed by the Public Employees Federation.

When asked for comment, a spokeswoman for Maltese’s Democratic opponent, Joe Addabbo, emailed a lengthy list of union endorsements --some which haven’t been publicly announced yet. That list includes the New York State Nurses Association, which Addabbo’s campaign said endorsed Maltese in 2006 in previous election years.

Here’s the list of union’s endorsing Addabbo, courtesy of his campaign.

Amalgamated Transit Union 1056
Amalgamated Transit Union 1181
Civil Service Tech Guild Local 375
CWA 1180
CWA 1182
CWA District Council 1
District Council 37 Local 983
Doctors Council
International Union of Operating Engineers Local 891
Iron Workers
Local 802 - American Federation of Musicians
National Association of Social Workers-NYC
New York Hotel & Motel Trades Council
New York League of Conservation Voters
New York State Nurses' Association
Planned Parenthood of New York City
Plumbers Local 1
Retirees Association of District Council 37
RWDSU
RWDSU Local 338
SSEU Local 37
Tenants PAC
UAW
UFCW Local 1500
UNITE HERE

UPDATE: The director of governmental affairs for the union, Shawn Flynn, said it didn't make an endorsement in Maltese's 2006 race, but it's likely it did in prior elections.  read more »

Fernando Ferrer announced today he will endorse Joe Addabbo in the Democratic State Senate primary in Queens.

Addabbo, a term-limited City Councilman, is facing Albert Baldeo, who almost beat Republican incumbent Serf Maltese in 2006.

Democrats are paying a lot of attention to this race because it could affect the balance of power in Albany, where Senate Republicans are hanging onto a slim two-seat majority.

When Michael Bloomberg made a flurry of legislative endorsements last week, he didn't mention Maltese's district,  even though Bloomberg’s aides openly floated the idea of Addabbo running against Maltese back in 2006.

Ferrer’s endorsement, which is officially taking place at the steps of City Hall tomorrow, isn’t his first foray into State Senate politics. In 2006, he endorsed challenger Hiram Monserrate in the primary against incumbent John Sabini.

Democratic Councilman Joe Addabbo is having a fund-raiser on May 24th for his not-yet-announced race for state Senate against Republican Serph Maltese.

Maltese is best known outside his Queens district for having one of the closest re-election campaigns last year. Democrats narrowly lost that race with candidate Albert Baldeo, who is vowing to run again.

Helping out Addabbo, according to this fund-raising email a reader forwarded, is Stuart Appelbaum of RWDSU, and other labor leaders. Addabbo, coincidentally, chairs the labor committee in the Council.

"I gave him a pass in 2006," Addabbo just told me just now, referring to his decision not to run against Maltese earlier.

Addabbo said he'll make his formal announcement about the 2008 cycle at an appropriate time. That appropriate time, he said, won't be May 24th.

And from the department of weird coincidences...Addabbo was talked about as a potential state Senate candidate last year by unnamed people in Bloomberg's administration. Today, Addabbo appeared alongside Bloomberg in the Rockaways, where Bloomberg was denying a story, from unnamed sources, about running for governor.

The fund-raising email is after the jump.  read more »