Bayside's District 19 City Council Race: Avella Leads So Far

BAYSIDE, QUEENS — Tony Avella, a politician who got his start as a City Council Member in Bayside, has taken an early lead to regain his former City Council seat in District 19 as the first-choice, in-person votes roll in for New York City's primary race.

As of Wednesday morning, Avella led the early results with 37.1 percent of the vote, trailed closely by Richard Lee at 29.9 percent, and Austin Shafran at 20 percent. Nearly 100 percent of scanning machines had reported.

Wednesday's results include only the first-choice, in-person votes cast in District 19. Final results will not be known until mid-July, when absentee ballots have been counted and voters' second through fifth choices have been factored into the ranked-choice calculation.

In District 19, six Democrats ran to replace term-limited City Council Member Paul Vallone.

Lee and Shafran led the district's fundraising and endorsement race for the weeks leading up to the election, but Avella told Patch that his time as a politician — most recently as a State Senator representing northeast Queens — gave him an edge in a field of first-time political hopefuls.

The City Council race in District 19 is the only City Council race in the borough with a competitive Republican primary in addition to a Democratic one.

The race to represent District 19 was the only City Council race in Queens with a competitive Republican primary in addition to a Democratic one.

Early results of first-choice, in-person votes on Wednesday morning show business owner and activist Vickie Paladino with a nearly 7-point lead ahead of professor John-Alexander Sakelos.

Here's a Patch guide on everything you need to know about the District 19 race, including candidate's responses to our questions and readers' questions.