CM wins rematch by more than 20 points Paladino routs Avella in decisive victory

by Sophie Krichevsky Associate Editor

City Councilmember Vickie Paladino (R-Whitestone) cruised her way to a second term Tuesday night, winning a rematch against former Councilman and state Sen. Tony Avella by more than 20 percentage points, according to the city Board of Elections’ unofficial election night results,

Paladino celebrated the win with some 50 of her supporters and volunteers (some of whom were as young as 12) outside her campaign office at the Bay Terrace Shopping Center, where she could be found dancing along to ’80s hits as others joined a conga line.

As she approached the podium for her acceptance speech, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “I Won’t Back Down” blasted from the speakers. “Does anybody need any more proof than that?” Paladino said. “My theme song — ‘I Won’t Back Down’ — and we didn’t back down!”

“What we showed the City of

New York was that we all can come together,” she added later. “This is about accomplishing what people think you cannot get done. In my office, there’s no such thing as a problem — there’s only a solution.”

Paladino’s victory comes just two years after she defeated Avella in a race for the same seat by less than 400 votes, or less than two points. Even as turnout was significantly lower this time around, with 19,355 total votes this year and 27,891 in 2021, Paladino won handily, picking up 11,648 votes, or 60.18 percent, to Avella’s 7,634, or 39.44 percent. Her support was not limited to any particular area, either. Of Council District 19’s 78 election districts — the smallest geographic region for which the BOE has records — Avella won only 13.

“Although the election didn’t go the way I hoped, I want to thank all of the people who have supported me over the years,” Avella said in a post on X, previously known as Twitter. “I am grateful for each and every one of you.”

In part because the race was a rematch of 2021’s tight contest, the election had widely been reported as one to watch. But the councilmember’s son, Thomas Paladino Jr., dismissed that idea in his speech Tuesday night.

“We won this race from the day it was announced — that’s a fact,” he said. “This ‘horse race’ between my mother and her opponent was never real, and I think that the results tonight demonstrate that. This was a concoction, a figment of our opponent’s imagination.”

The councilmember’s son made a similar characterization in March 2022, calling the veteran lawmaker “delusional” when Avella announced his second bid by saying an “unofficial government in exile” may be warranted as long as Paladino held the seat.

Avella has largely been out of the public eye since he narrowly won the Democratic primary this summer, which St. John’s University political science professor and analyst Brian Browne said was likely a contributing factor. But Browne also said Pal-