Bayside's City Council Race: Where Things Stand

BAYSIDE, QUEENS — There’s less than a month left until the June 22 primary elections, and the race to represent District 19 is shaping up to be the only one in Queens with a competitive Republican primary in addition to a Democratic one.

Six Democrats are running to replace term-limited City Councilmember Paul Vallone, and two Republicans are also vying for his seat in District 19, which covers College Point, Whitestone, Malba, Bayside, Douglaston, Little Neck, North Flushing, and Auburndale.

Polling is not available for city council races — though this year’s polling remains sparse in the mayoral election too, because of confusion caused by ranked choice voting, according to some pollsters — so fundraising and endorsements can provide some clues as to how each campaign is faring.

In the coming weeks, Patch will publish the results of question-and-answer forms sent to each candidate, shedding light on each person's policy priorities, too.

The candidates

First, a brief recap of who is running in each primary (in alphabetical order).

The Democratic primary: Tony Avella, a former state senator; Adriana Aviles, a former NYPD officer; Nabaraj KC, community activist; Richard Lee, Budget Director for the Office of the Queens Borough President; Austin Shafran, president of Metropolitan Public Strategies; Frank Spangenber, former NYPD lieutenant and game-show contestant.

The Republican primary: Vickie Paladino, business owner and activist; John-Alexander Sakelos, Queens-based professor, researcher, and writer.

The money race

Lee, who has raised $228,962 in private and public matching funds combined, is leading the district’s fundraising race.

Shafran and Avella — both of whom, like Lee, have raised the maximum match of $160,444 in public matching funds — trail behind him with $210,327, and $193,649, respectively.

KC has raised more than $130,000 in public matching funds, amounting to $187,912 in private and public funds combined.

Paladino is leading the Republican money race, having raised a total of $168,985 in private and public matching funds combined, compared to Sakelos, who has raised $107,284 overall.

Looking at the total number of donations made to each campaign, Lee also has more individual donations than the rest of the field. He has had 531 donations made to his campaign at an average of $124.

Among the Democratic candidates, Avella and Shafran trail Lee with a total of 387 and 362 individual contributions made to each of their campaigns, respectively.

Paladino leads the Republican candidates in terms of the total number of donations; she’s had 482 donations made to her campaign at an average of $71, which is more individual contributions than Avella or Shafran.

Spangenber notably trails the pack of District 19 candidates, having only received nine individual donations from the entire district, five of which came from the Little Neck ZIP code of 11362 at an average of $712 a piece.

Among all the candidates in the district, Shafran has raised the most money from the Bayside ZIP codes of 11360 and 11361, which are in District 19. His contributions from 75 people — the greatest number of individuals who contributed to a District 19 candidate from those two ZIP codes — amount to $7,408. Avella comes in second place, having raised $5,350 from 55 people in the two Bayside ZIP codes.

Although Sakelos received contributions from 20 fewer people in Bayside than Paladino, he narrowly edged her out in terms of the amount of money he received from those individual contributors: He raised $2,760 from people in the neighborhood, compared to her total of $2,505.

Who is endorsing who?

Only three candidates in the District 19 race have received endorsements by organizations, and only two candidates have local elected officials standing in support of their campaigns.

Lee has been endorsed by the greatest number of elected officials — six total — including U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove), NY State Senator Leroy Comrie, and several City Councilmembers.

Shafran trails one behind Lee, having received five endorsements from elected officials, including former U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY) and NY State Senator John Liu.

Although both candidates have been endorsed by political groups, organizations, and unions, Shafran boasts a much longer list of supporters, including the Working Families Party, United Federation of Teachers, and Queens County Democratic Party.

Aviles was endorsed by 21 in ‘21, an organization aimed at getting more women elected to the City Council.

A complete list of endorsements can be found on each candidate's website, all of which are linked above.

Bayside Patch will have ongoing coverage of the City Council race ahead of the June 22 primary, including candidate responses to survey questions.

The deadline to register to vote for the primary is May 28. Learn more here.