Addabbo’s District Gets Turner-fied

The Senate Republicans’ proposal for Queens Democratic State Sen. Joe Addabbo’s district has added a number of neighborhoods where Rep. Bob Turner performed very well during the 2011 congressional race – including relatively more conservative, Irish-Catholic areas like Breezy Point and part of the Rockaways. Those were previously represented by State Sen. Malcolm Smith, which made Addabbo’s district markedly more Democratic.

A Democratic source who crunched the numbers said that the new district performed at 54 percent for President Barack Obama during the 2008 election, while the old district performed at 61 percent.

Addabbo

All of that would seem to set up perfectly for a run by up and coming Queens Councilman Eric Ulrich, who passed on running as the GOP nominee for Turner’s seat last summer – and would likely be the Senate Republicans’ dream candidate for the seat. The Senate district now has all the conservative elements present both in Turner’s congressional district and Ulrich’s Council district. Still, a number of people in Queens political circles doubt Ulrich will run, and he declined to comment when I reached him by phone last evening.

That leaves some interesting, though less appealing, possibilities. Other names I’ve been hearing as possibilities from Queens Republican sources include Forest Hills attorney Juan Reyes, who is Hispanic, and is close to Queens GOP chairman Phil Ragusa; former Councilman Anthony Como, who ran unsuccessfully for the seat in 2010; and even former longtime State Sen. Serf Maltese, though that seems to be a longshot at this point.

One factor that could throw a wrench into the whole process is the ongoing leadership struggle between Ragusa and the insurgent faction of the Queens GOP. A Queens Supreme Court judge initially threw out the results disputed election held by the insurgent faction of the party, which elected former Councilman Tom Ognibene as their new chairman last fall. But an appellate court has now agreed to hear an appeal of that decision, and opening arguments are scheduled to begin this morning.