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BACK IN THE DISCTRICT
State Sen. Serphin “Serf” Maltese (R-Queens) breezed through the doors of the Peter Cardella Senior Center in Glendale and immediately began pumping hands. On the wall was a bronze plaque with the senator’s grinning likeness.
“Who’s that guy?” Maltese said wryly.
Despite a slight limp still with him from a car accident decades ago, Maltese strode into one room and greeted the half dozen or so men there playing poker.
The reply, however, was less than cordial.
“Hey, senator, what’s the deal with DiNapoli?” shouted one man with a distinct mole on his nose, referring to the recent dust-up between state legislators and Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) over the appointment of Thomas DiNapoli (D) as the new state comptroller.
“I love him,” Maltese replied. “The guy knows his politics.”
They bantered for another minute. Then Maltese wished them a good game and left.
“There was a time when it would have been enough that the guy was Italian,” Maltese said later, registering his slight surprise that DiNapoli’s ethnic background did not win over the poker players.
Party loyalty trumping ethnic loyalty is just one thing of many that have changed about his Queens district since Maltese was first elected in 1988 as the candidate of the GOP and the Conservative Party (which he helped found in 1962).
Back then, Maltese said, his was “the Archie Bunker district,” with its working class German and Italian population.
Now, with Spanish-speaking residents in the majority and a rapid influx of immigrants, the neighborhood—like most outer-borough communities—looks remarkably different.
“Guys like us, we had it made. Those were the days,” goes the refrain of the theme from “All in the Family.”
Maltese, who has lived in the area since 1954 and in the same house since 1958, still says he feels right at home.
He knows that in order to make his constituents feel that a 74-year-old Italian-American can represent them in Albany, he needs to surround himself with aides and advisors who speak their languages. He has employees who speak Russian, Polish, Italian and Spanish.
“I’m even learning a little Spanish myself,” he said.
Maltese got his first taste of the power of elected office when he joined the Marines to fight in the Korean War. Underage and still a student at Stuyvesant High School, he convinced a local congressman to help him beat the enlistment rules.
He went to Manhattan College on the G.I. Bill, and first ran for State Senate in 1965. He was first elected 23 years later.
“I always tell people that it pays to be persistent,” he joked.
During his 18 years in office, he has issued thousands of resolutions honoring everything from older residents’ birthdays to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911. Maltese’s grandmother, Caterina, and two aunts, Lucia and Rosalia, were killed in that blaze.
He speaks as warmly about New York history as he does about the hundreds of civic groups in his district that he helps fund.
Back at the senior center, in a room full of waltzing grandparents, Maltese asked for a microphone and a brief pause in the festivities to thank everyone for their support.
“I know if I interrupt your dancing for too long that I’m kaput!” he said.
Laughter and clapping ensued.
“He’s a mainstay of our organization,” said Peter Cardella, the director of the senior center. “We should run him for mayor!”
Like Maltese, Cardella, a diminutive man with a neat mustache and penchant for gripping arms as he talks, is a Cavaliere, or knight, the highest honor bestowed by the Italian government.
After the senior center, Maltese was back in his gray Dodge Durango and driving himself to another, the Queens Multi-Service Center.
He has been instrumental in securing funding for both senior centers. These are where he appears most relaxed and at ease, surrounded by grateful and loyal constituents who are quick to laugh at his jokes and nod seriously as he adlibs about the failing education system or the rich diversity of his borough.
Since his narrow victory over Democrat Albert Baldeo last November, he can been seen more often in Ridgewood, Glendale, or any of the other 20-some communities within his district. Baldeo lost by just 890 votes, despite an almost complete lack of endorsements or political support. He plans to run again in 2008.
But Maltese insists that he does not read too much in to the results.
Registration in the district is tilted 2-1 in favor of Democrats, Maltese said. His partisan disadvantage, combined with a general discontent towards President George W. Bush and the Republican Party last year, leads Maltese to call his victory a testament to the strength of his community ties.
“It didn’t have a hell of a lot to do with me as a state official,” he insisted.
Still, following the election, Maltese changed course slightly. He resigned from his position as chair of the Queens County Republican Party, which he had been for 10 years. This led to a lawsuit filed by some Queens Republicans claiming Maltese violated the bylaws by appointing Phil Ragusa, the vice chair and district leader, as his successor.
“Since it was such a close election, giving up the chairmanship has allowed me to concentrate more on the majority,” he said.
He has been fielding other job offers, though—from his colleagues on the other side of the aisle in Albany, who hope they can convince him that the best way to insulate himself from Democratic assaults is by switching to become a Democrat. His defection and two others could swing the chamber to the Democrats for the first time in 40 years.
“They said that by being part of a Democratic majority, I could earn more as a retiree,” he said, laughing.
But political intrigue can wait when there are veterans to pose with for pictures.
That is what he does in between listening to veterans at the Sgt. Edward R. Miller Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 7336 on Cooper Avenue. They excitedly surround the senator, slapping him on the back and telling him about their trips to Washington, their brand new website and the fish fry they have planned for that weekend.
Maltese is, of course, invited.
This kind of veteran backing, coupled with his own military experience, may come in handy in 2008.
City Council Member Joseph Addabbo Jr. (D), who declined Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s (R) encouragement to challenge Maltese in 2006, has expressed interest in running next year.
Maltese said that Addabbo—unlike Baldeo, whom he finds “intolerable”—would be a tough and worthwhile opponent.
“I have a great deal of respect for Addabbo,” Maltese said over a hearty lunch of meats smothered in gravy at Von Westernhagen’s, a German restaurant just a stone’s throw from his district office on Myrtle Avenue.
A contest between the two “would be an exciting race,” he said, discussing it as perhaps an outsider, rather than a candidate, would.
Until then, Maltese will continue smiling and posing for pictures with loyal retirees and veterans, mulling over the changes to the district from the Archie Bunker days. He will welcome constituents to his office that overflows with as much Little Orphan Annie collectables as it does political memorabilia (“I’m a bit of a junk collector,” Maltese admitted), and hope that he still has it made.
“Queens is like a small town,” he said wistfully. “A small town with two million people.”