Met Council Endorses Rory Lancman for State Senate Against Republican Frank Padavan in Queens

Met Council has endorsed Rory Lancman, who is running for State Senate on the Democratic and Working Families Party tickets, against incumbent Republican Frank Padavan in eastern Queens.

Like his colleague Roy Goodman in Manhattan, Padavan is part of the Republicans’ narrow six-vote majority in the Senate, which has put Majority Leader Joseph Bruno in power as head of one of the two houses of the Legislature in Albany. And also like Goodman, who is facing a stiff challenge from housing and anti-hunger activist Liz Krueger (Tenant/Inquilino, Sept. ‘00), Padavan is fighting for his political life, against Lancman, a local activist.

Lancman, an attorney who handles employment discrimination cases, was head of the Queens Hospital community advisory board which successfully resisted Mayor Giuliani’s privatization scheme, and he is head of the local community board’s seniors committee.

He is running on a platform of support for tenants’ rights, including resisting further weakening of rent and eviction laws; working to reverse the compromising of those protections which were imposed in 1993 and 1997; creating substantial new affordable housing; and repealing the Rockefeller "Urstadt" law that deprives New York City of home rule over rent regulation, leaving us at the mercy of Albany rent-control foes like Joe Bruno and Governor Pataki. Lancman, who has also vowed not to accept campaign contributions from the large real-estate groups, is supported by leading tenant activists in Queens, including Bernice Siegel, Florence Fisher and Ida Pollack.

In the north Bronx, another Republican incumbent, Guy Velella, is facing a strong challenge, from Lorraine Coyle Koppell. Koppell’s campaign manager is Assemblymember Jeffrey Dinowitz, in defiance of Bronx Democratic boss Roberto Ramirez, who has either endorsed Velella in previous years or run weak opponents against him. Velella was one of the few New York City legislators to vote against renewing rent regulations in 1997.

Koppell defeated Ramirez’s candidate in the September primary--one of a string of setbacks for the no longer omnipotent Bronx Democratic machine. As Dinowitz points out, the terrible weakening of rent and eviction protections in 1997 would not have occurred if the Republicans did not have control of the State Senate.

Volunteers are needed between now and Election Day, November 7, to oust Joe Bruno as Senate Majority Leader by defeating his Republican allies in New York City. The Rory Lancman campaign can be reached at (718) 746-RORY. The Liz Krueger campaign number is (212) 689-7295.