ALBANY, N.Y. — A special election on Tuesday will fill the Queens Assembly seat vacated by Democrat Anthony Seminerio, who faces sentencing in October for defrauding the public.
The race in the 38th Assembly District is between Republican Donna Marie Caltabiano of Woodhaven and Democratic and Conservative candidate Mike Miller of Glendale.
Miller is founder of an organization that serves adults with developmental disabilities. Caltabiano is the executive director of a senior center. Both have served on community school boards.
Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the district that runs from Ridgewood and Glendale to Richmond Hill and Ozone Park.
The result won’t affect the balance of power in the Assembly, where Democrats hold a super majority. The $79,500-a-year seat will be contested again in 2010 for a full, two-year term.
Seminerio pleaded guilty in June to a single federal count of defrauding the public of his honest services and gave up the seat he’d held since 1978. Seminerio could face 11 years in prison for promoting the interests of Jamaica Hospital with a representative of a New York state agency without disclosing that he was a paid consultant for the hospital.
Gov. David Paterson had first called for a special election, then rescinded it, creating a primary for voters to decide which candidates would run in November in the heavily Democratic district. But hours later, he again ordered the special election, allowing two Queens Democratic bosses to choose a candidate and fill the seat more quickly.