Addabbo's 'Uphill Battle' Proves Successful Climb; Captures State Senate Seat

A raspy-voiced Joseph P. Addabbo, having just received a congratulatory phone call on his State Senate victory from incumbent Serphin Maltese, believed it was a high-road campaign that led to his come-from-behind victory.

The Chief-Leader/Eric Weiss MOVING ON UP: During a victory party in Howard Beach, Queens City Councilman Joseph P. Addabbo said grass-roots campaigning and choosing not to run a negative campaign were pivotal in coming from behind to unseat the two-decade Republican State Sen. Serphin Maltese.

"We knew it would all be an uphill battle, but tonight we won," he said on Election Night during his victory party at Russo's on the Bay in the Howard Beach section of Queens. "Bottom line is this: you believe in something like I believe in something. You believe that these people out here, outside of these walls, deserve better. You believe that when we spoke about issues, it was the right thing to do not [to] go negative."

Came Back, Won By 15

The two-term City Councilman and son of a late U.S. Congressman, who currently serves as the Council's Civil Service and Labor Chair, had trailed in the polls against the two-decade Republican State Senator, but came on to prevail by 15 points. His victory helped the Democrats take over the upper legislative house, a change State Senate Democratic Leader Malcolm Smith said would end the "excessive partisanship that has stalled progress in Albany."

The Chief-Leader/Eric Weiss THUMBS UP, SERPH'S NOT: Transport Workers Union Local 100 members were among the union activists who campaigned for Joseph P. Addabbo against Serphin Maltese. The union endorsed Mr. Addabbo, the City Council's Civil Service and Labor Committee Chair, who ran on a platform that included reforming the Taylor Law to put more pressure on employers to bargain in good faith.

"People wanted a change, and if a robot had went up there they probably would have voted for it," said Lester Muse, the Director of Operations for State Senator Shirley Huntley, who campaigned for Mr. Addabbo on Election Day. He said the size of the turnout, and the coat-tail effect of Barack Obama, had probably surprised Senator Maltese.

Cites Unions' Help

Mr. Maltese had been a tempting target after defeating an underfunded opponent by just two points in 2006, with some residents complaining that his constituent services had become somewhat lackadaisical. Mr. Addabbo gave a nod to the support he was able to get from unions, many of whom had supported the two-party balance in Albany, not just in terms of their endorsements but the amount of ground work their members did in the campaign.

On Election Day, Communications Workers of America Local 1180 member Tom Gregory leafleted for Mr. Addabbo outside a polling station at P.S. 88 in Ridgewood. A committed Democrat who favored that party's rule in Albany, Mr. Gregory scoffed at the benefits of supporting the incumbent.

"I was never for Maltese," he said. "He's never supported our union, so I don't see why we should support him. I'm a tenant activist also, and Maltese has never been supportive of tenants."

He believed that the relationship between some unions — primarily in law-enforcement — and the Republicans has been beneficial only to those specific unions.

"They've been blocking things for a long, long time," Mr. Gregory said of the GOP on union-backed bills. "The Republicans are smart. They pick certain unions that have a certain number of members and a certain amount of clout, but they can't fool the city unions because we know better."

By late morning, he said the feedback he got from voters was positive, and he said that the latest poll showed Mr. Addabbo, once the underdog, with a slight lead.

Nearby at the Ridgewood Democratic Club, volunteers from the Hotel Trades Council and the Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ prepared for door-to-door canvassing in the morning. Andry Jen, an HTC shop steward at the Central Park Ritz Carlton, said he believed backing the Democrats' effort to take over the State Senate was logical.

Addabbo 'On Our Side'

"He's on our side," Mr. Jen said of Mr. Addabbo.

The hotel council, which includes locals from various international unions, provided nearly one hundred members to volunteer on Election Day and supplied the campaign with logistical support. It was one of the first city unions to shift from backing the Albany power balance. For the members coming out for Mr. Addabbo, the motivations ranged from Barack Obama's presidential run to the prospect of ending Republican control of the Senate.

"We made a strategic decision to support the Democratic effort," said Neal Kwatra, the council's director of political and strategic affairs.

Some unions followed suit, but most notably, SEIU Local 1199 backed Senator Maltese, as the progressive union has long been aligned with Senate Republicans.

Outside P.S. 88, a New York City Transit worker, who spoke conditioned on anonymity, said that although he voted for Mr. Addabbo because he was pro-union, he feared that many transit workers would not vote at all, despite the fact that Transport Workers Union Local 100 endorsed the Queens Democrat a week before the election. Mr. Addabbo's platform included reforming the Taylor Law to be more union-friendly.

Mike and Rudy vs. the Clintons

The campaign pitted a challenger with a political legacy against an Albany veteran. Mayor Bloomberg and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani campaigned for Mr. Maltese, but Councilman Addabbo had State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and City Comptroller William C. Thompson campaigning for him in the final weekend. Voters received recorded calls from U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton and ex-President Bill Clinton urging them to vote for Mr. Addabbo. But one political expert believed that Mr. Addabbo's election was based on grassroots support rather than an overall Democratic Party effort.

"The [Democratic] State Senate committee hedged on Addabbo; they didn't go all-in for whatever reason," said Doug Muzzio, a Professor of Public Affairs at Baruch College. "He's an independent guy. Joe's never been an insider."

Police and fire unions supported Mr. Maltese for sponsoring several key bills, including one for cost-of-living adjustments for the widows and widowers of police officers killed in the line of duty. He also helped those unions inform members suffering from 9/11 illnesses of their Workers' Compensation rights last year.

Mr. Addabbo was able to woo labor support in several ways. In the private sector, his support for a resolution urging the U.S. Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill that would make union organizing easier, earned him labor credibility. Among the municipal unions, he joined in their skepticism of a Department of Citywide Administrative Services plan to increase civil service testing but move numerous titles from the Competitive to the Non-Competitive Class.

DC 37 Backed Maltese

Although the FDNY and NYPD unions stood with Mr. Addabbo when he pushed a resolution urging Congress to pass the James Zadroga Act, which would secure Federal funding for 9/11-related medical treatment, those groups remained loyal to the Republican incumbent.

District Council 37 also stuck with Mr. Maltese, in part because it clashed with Mr. Addabbo over legislation that would alter Civil Service Law to allow public workers to live outside the five boroughs. A handful of dissident unions went against the grain. Local 983 of DC 37 President Mark Rosenthal said he endorsed Mr. Addabbo because he was a worker advocate in his previous post as the Council's Parks Committee Chairman, noting, "I back my members' interests."

There were larger issues than simple votes and resolution sponsorships that motivated the foot soldiers for Mr. Addabbo. High school student Barbara Cvenic saw it as a first gig in a career in progressive politics. Sarah Porter of the group Citizen Action was placed on the campaign, and moments before television networks began projecting winners in local races she noted that she valued her placement in a campaign that broke the Republican hold on the State Senate.

"The fact that that race could have such an impact," she said, "is definitely something I wanted to be part of."