Avella wins Dem primary for District 19 after ranked choice tally
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Tony Avella won the Democratic primary for District 19. Photo via New York State Senate
By Ryan Schwach
Former State Senator and City Councilmember Tony Avella appears to have won the District 19 Democratic primary, defeating former Queens assistant district attorney and first-time candidate Christopher Bae by a margin of just 123 votes.
Although outstanding absentee ballots have yet to be counted in the race, Avella’s unofficial victory comes after the city’s Board of Elections conducted several rounds of ranked choice voting counting on Wednesday in the District 19 race and others across the city.
Even with the outstanding ballots, it appears unlikely that Bae, who conceded on Wednesday, will be able to mount a comeback in the tally.
Avella’s victory sets up a general election rematch between him and Republican Councilmember Vickie Paladino for the Northeast Queens council seat. In 2021, Paladino defeated Avella by just shy of 400 votes. The race will likely be the most competitive in Queens in November.
The 71-year-old former lawmaker’s victory on Wednesday came after he received just 39 percent of first-choice votes on election day, with Bae receiving 36 percent and local advocate and city planner Paul Graziano pulling in 23 percent. In order to win a ranked choice voting election, a candidate needs to secure over 50 percent of the vote.
After round two of counting, which was tabulated early Wednesday by the Board of Elections, all write-in candidates were eliminated. Then, in round three, 1,437 votes were tallied, which eliminated Graziano and pushed Avella over the 50 percent mark.
Bae actually received a larger share of ballots in round three – 556 to Avella’s 500. However, the boost wasn’t enough to change the outcome of the race.
Unofficially on Wednesday afternoon, Avella’s 2,865 votes and 51.1 percent of the vote was enough to outlast Bae, who had 2,742 votes at 48.9 percent.
The victory continued the trend set by a majority of ranked choice races – the candidate who leads after the first round of counting, typically pulls out the victory come the final count.
Former prosecutor Christopher Bae finished second in the Democratic primary race for District 19. Photo via Bae/Twitter
Avella previously spent 17-years in elected office, in both the State Senate and City Council, and even took a shot at the mayor’s office in 2009 and 2017. In Albany, Avella notably was a member of the Independent Democratic Conference, a coalition of Democratic state senators who aligned themselves with Republicans, drawing controversy from other members of his party.
His IDC membership contributed to his ousting from office in 2018, when he was defeated by now-Senator John Liu in both the Democratic primary and again in the general election – Avella also lost the race to Paladino, who was at the time running as the Republican candidate in the race.
Though Avella commended Bae and Graziano for their campaigns on Wednesday, he quickly turned his sights to Paladino, who he’ll likely face again in November and who he called out for promoting “hateful rhetoric.”
“I am deeply grateful to the voters of District 19 for their show of support and the trust placed in me and my candidacy,” Avella said.
“Vickie Paladino is an embarrassment to our community and lacks the decency to lead us through these troubling times,” he added. “Paladino refuses to call for our disgraced Congressman [George Santos] to resign, has been caught lying on anti-corruption and government transparency documents, and was even kicked off a committee for her bigoted anti-LGBTQ+ remarks. Our campaign to take back this seat has only just begun. We have the momentum and coalition to win, which is what we will do in November.”
Heading into election day last week, many believed it was Avella’s race to lose.
“Tony Avella is the favorite to win the Democratic primary, this should shock nobody,” Democratic strategist Trip Yang told the Eagle earlier this month.
It was Avella’s name recognition and the lack of big ticket races on this year’s ballot that made Yang so confident, he said.
“For candidates to really try to penetrate in an off year in a hyper-local election, you probably should have started early,” said Yang. “It'll be very difficult to defeat the name ID of someone who's been in elected office for so long.”
The day following the election, Graziano took to Twitter to concede and throw his support behind Bae. During the campaign, Bae and Graziano often teamed up to take shots at Avella, who was long considered the front runner.
“Although I did not prevail, I am glad I could bring some important issues to the forefront in the CD19 race, including LL97’s impact on co-op and condo owners and the attempt to take away City retirees’ health care,” he wrote. “I wish [Bae] the best in the next round.”
Though Graziano collected the required signatures to appear as a third-party candidate in the general election, he announced several weeks ago alongside Avella that neither would run on a third-party line so as not to split the Democratic vote and aid Paladino.
The race was the first for Bae. Though he raised the second-most funds in the race and picked up support from a number of local elected officials, his showing at the polls came as a surprise to some.
“While today’s results aren’t what we hoped for, I want to thank the voters of the 19th Council District,” Bae wrote on Twitter. “Knocking on over 51k doors strengthens our democracy during a time when many are doing just the opposite.”
“I remain committed to fighting for a safer and stronger Queens,” he added.
Bae was able to receive endorsements from State Senators John Liu and Jessica Ramos, both of whom ousted IDC members.
Ramos shared her support for the former prosecutor on Wednesday, but urged voters to get behind the nominee.
“I’m very proud of the race [Bae] ran,” she said on social media. “Now if you have door-knocking energy, it's time to coalesce behind [Tony Avella] and flip that seat.”
November’s general election in District 19 will be a rematch of 2021 between Tony Avella, and incumbent Vickie Paladino. File photo photo by John McCarten/New York City Council Media Unit
The race for District 19’s general election is likely to be one of the most closely watched in the entire city.
For Paladino, the race will be a referendum on her work in the district so far, and for Avella, it will be a chance to swap a seat that Paladino herself swapped from blue to red when she was first elected in 2021.
Updated primary results as of Wednesday afternoon:
City Council District 19 (Democratic primary)
Tony Avella – 2,865 (51.1 percent)
Christopher S. Bae – 2,742 (48.9 percent)
Paul D. Graziano – Eliminated
City Council District 20 (Republican primary)
Yu-Ching James Pai – 817 (56.1 percent)
Dany Chen – 634 (43.5 percent)
City Council District 22 (Democratic primary)
Tiffany L. Caban – 5,301 (84.8 percent)
Charles A. Castro – 869 (13.9 percent)
City Council District 23 (Democratic primary)
Linda Lee – 4,102 (62.6 percent)
Steve Behar – 1,912 (29.2 percent)
Rubaiya Rahman – 490 (7.5 percent)
City Council District 25 (Democratic primary)
Shekar Krishnan – 3,405 (62.1 percent)
Ricardo Pacheco – 1,308 (23.9 percent)
Fatima Baryab– 740 (13.5 percent)
City Council District 26 (Democratic primary)
Julie Won – 3,693 (60.9 percent)
Hailie Kim – 2,297 (37.9 percent)
City Council District 29 (Democratic primary)
Lynn C. Schulman – 3,474 (54.2 percent)
Ethan Felder – 2,203 (34.4 percent)
Sukhi Singh – 682 (10.6 percent)
City Council District 34 (Democratic primary)
Jennifer Gutierrez – 2,983 (81.1 percent)
Paperboy Love Prince – 675 (18.4 percent)
