Tony Avella Concedes Bayside Council Race, Securing GOP Victory

BAYSIDE, QUEENS — Democrat Tony Avella conceded defeat in a neck-and-neck race for his old Bayside City Council seat on Tuesday, after absentee ballot tallies showed his Republican opponent in the lead.

Avella, a northeast Queens politician, has narrowly lagged behind Republican choice Vickie Paladino, a conservative activist and business owner, in the District 19 Council race since Election Day. Paladino has declared victory multiple times since then, but Avella did not concede until Tuesday, when absentee ballot tallies showed Paladino maintaining her lead by several hundred votes.

"I want to thank all of my supporters and volunteers who worked tirelessly on our campaign. Although we lost, I am proud of the positive and issued based campaign we waged," Avella tweeted on Tuesday morning, subtly jabbing at Paladino's campaign, which he then criticized outright in another tweet.

"A mere 387 votes was the difference in the outcome despite my opponent conducting negative ads and a Trump-like disinformation campaign," he wrote, adding that he plans to review the election results in the "near future."

Avella is not the first to criticize Paladino, who has been called out in the past for her apparent support of the Proud Boys and neo-Nazis, and for leading a maskless "COVID conga line" at an indoor GOP event last winter.

Paladino's spokesperson declined to comment on her past actions when asked about them by Gothamist, but told the site that he believes the campaign won by enough votes to avoid legal challenge. Election results won't be certified by the BOE until Nov. 30th.

The conservative activist's apparent victory will be her first successful campaign in Queens, following a State Senate run in 2018 catalyzed by a semi-viral video of her shouting at Mayor Bill de Blasio.

In her bid for City Council, Paladino told Patch that she was running on a public safety-focused campaign aimed at overturning the Democrat's "corrupt political monopoly."

Among her most-pressing issues are restoring the NYPD's controversial plainclothes unit, "ending poisonous Critical Race Theory in our schools," and "breaking the back of the corrupt and reprehensible teachers union," she said.

Paladino's victory would mean that the total number of Republicans in the 51-member Council would rise from three to five; part of a red wave in this year's City Council elections, especially in Queens.

Bayside's Council race is one of three close Council contests where outstanding absentee votes will determine the election; the other two are in Brooklyn's District 43 and 47.

In both of those races, however, the Democratic candidates declared victory following the release of the absentee ballot tally.

Related Article: Republican Vickie Paladino Declares Bayside Council Race Victory