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 »

State Senator Serph Maltese raised $108,581.48 in the latest fund-raising period.

But the Republican from Queens, who narrowly won re-election in 2006, also spent $72,812.82.

That leaves him with $89,694.22 on hand.

Contributions that caught my eye came from the Nassau County Police Benevolent Association ($1,000), Staten Island Political Action ($300), and an in-kind contribution from the Visiting Nurses Service ($101.48 as “reimbursement [for] gloves for flu shot”)

Noteworthy expenditures include $319.70 for “campaign t-shirts,” $1,288.42 to “America’s Campaign Store” for “campaign bags,“ $940 for ads in the Queens Chronicle, and $629 to lease a campaign car (also, $35 to register it).

Insurgent Republican activist Bart Haggerty filed a lawsuit yesterday in Albany County Supreme Court against the Queens County Republican Organization stemming from their re-organizational meeting, which was held two weeks ago today.

Haggerty filed a similar lawsuit in 2005 and lost.

So, I wondered, how is this different?

“That’s actually a good question,” Haggerty told me when I reached him just now.

“The last lawsuit didn’t include an adoption of rules,” he said. “They essentially had the same rules in 2003 that they did in 2005.”

This year, “They did not engage in mass disqualifications the way that Serph [Maltese] did in 2005. They opted for different methods of affecting the outcome,” Haggerty said. That change, he said, was not announcing in advance the new rules used to count the votes.

It’s sort of complicated, but this local paper has a good over view of vote in question.

The fact the suit was filed in Albany is also interesting, since the judges there shouldn't have too much of a connection to the local activists on either side of the case.  read more »

The unofficial results for the three positions there, according to the city Board of Elections, are:

John Haggerty-320

Marguerite Adams-319

Matt Hunter-258

Bart Bruno-235

Richard Metzger-290

Dennis Gallagher-207

It’s little bit of a blow for organization Republicans, some of whom hoped Gallagher could run to keep the state Senate seat there in Republicans hands. And the top voter-getter in this obscure race was John Haggerty, who, along with his brother, Bart, have been waging a years-long war against county leaders Phil Ragusa and his predecessor, Serph Maltese.

(I’m still waiting to get results on Gallagher’s re-election bid for his County Committee position).

While Ragusa won his race for State County Committee (which functions the same as being a district leader in other counties), another Maltese ally was knocked off the ballot and another is trailing by 28 votes.

Marguerite Adams – executive vice president of the Queens GOP and a senior member of the state committee – is trailing in her State County Committee race to Haggerty ally Virginia Donnelly by 28 votes, according to Bart Haggerty.

Another Maltese ally, Karyn Peterson, was knocked off the ballot and replaced by Janice Bar, Haggerty said.

More on the campaign after the jump.  read more »

State Senator Serph Maltese of Queens, who squeaked through past his 2006 re-election opponent by 783 votes, has spent thousands of dollars running ads in local papers in his district, according to his latest financial disclosure.

Maltese spent $2,073.25 at the Queens Ledger on January 18, $1,710 at the Queens Chronicle on January 29, another $1,454.25 at the Queens Ledger on February 12, and $3,170 at the Queens Courier on March 2, among others.

Overall, Maltese raised $105,392.41, spent $78,826.32 and has $62,008.96 left on hand.

The man who almost beat him, Albert Baldeo, raised only $19,400, but has $222,868.64 on hand. (Baldeo, it's worth noting, loaned himself $200,000.)  read more »

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 »

State Senator Serph Maltese, who barely won re-election last year and will likely be targeted by Democrats in 2008, is starting his re-election efforts early.

He'll be hosting a "pasta party" at Roma View Caterers on Cross Bay Blvd. this Thursday at 6 p.m. Cost of entry: $50.  read more »