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Council member admits bid will be “a long shot,” but is determined nontheless
Queens Council Member Tony Avella (D) is officially in the 2009 race for mayor. Avella, who had previously expressed vague
interest in a bid, but now, he says, the account at the Campaign Finance Board is open and the campaigning has begun.
“I’m definitely doing this, because I’m so fed up with city government that I feel it’s worth my career to take a shot,” he said.
Avella, often seen as something of a firebrand within the Council, feels that too much policymaking in the city is affected by
calculations about political futures by those involved. Though he declined to cite any specific examples, he called the situation
“pervasive,” and responsible for slow or damaging moves by city officials.
“There needs to be a better mechanism to help people in this city deal with their daily lives and getting things done,” he said.
Though there is a general satisfaction with life in the city, Avella senses a strong undercurrent of many people feeling “lost.”
His first priority would be changing zoning and development processes in New York to be more “bottom up.” More than that, he would
look to place a senior center and “town square” in every neighborhood in the city. He would split up larger police precincts and
fire stations to diffuse them more thoroughly throughout the city and look towards possibly revamping sanitation routes.
“What I’m suggesting is a revolutionary idea where we focus on neighborhoods and we give each neighborhood what it needs to survive
and protect the existing quality of life,” he said, insisting that this is the only to keep the middle class in the city.
Already this year, Avella had been encouraged to run for the seat being vacated by Assembly Member Brian McLaughlin (D) and to take
on longtime State Sen. Frank Padavan (R). He passed on both races, explaining that he is concerned with more than just having a job.
“I chose not to do either of those things. I could have had a job and not had to worry about term limits,” he said, noting his pledge
to stop serving in the Council no later than the end of 2009 no matter whether the Council extends term limits.
As for the mayoral run, Avella admitted, “it’s a long shot.” He says he has been contacted by several prominent political consultants
and encouraged by many to make the bid. He has already collected several thousand dollars to file with the mayoral account in July and
is expecting to have more on hand, but knows he will not be the best financed candidate running.
“I think there’s a real need for the next mayor to be someone who’s not political, to be someone who’s just there to help, and that’s
me in a nutshell,” he said, citing Michael Bloomberg as the man to emulate.
And though he expects to be in the Democratic primary field, he left the door open to other possibilities.
“If there are other political parties who would be interested in my candidacy, I’m always interested in talking to people,” he said.
If term limits remain in place, he does not expect to be the only current Council member trying for some new post in 2009.
“I think everyone’s going to be running for citywide office,” he said. “I think there will be a handful, less than a handful, who run for mayor.”
Photos by Andrew Schwartz