ALBANY – Former Mayor Ed Koch is jumping into a hotly-contested state Senate race in Queens, endorsing Democratic incumbent Joe Addabbo, The Post has learned.
Koch praised Addabbo’s expected Republican challenger, City Councilman Eric Ulrich, but said he thinks the two-term senator deserves re-election.
The former mayor, who’s often crossed party lines to endorse Republicans – including Ulrich for city council – said he’d help Addabbo raise money and record a “robocall” for the senator, who’s the son of one of his former colleagues in Congress.
Ulrich, facing a GOP primary against lawyer Juan Reyes, has more than three times as much money as Addabbo.
He reported $385,000 yesterday, including $250,000 from the Senate Republican Campaign Committee – which separately spent another $72,327 on him.
Addabbo’s campaign said he’s got $104,804 on hand.
Ulrich admitted last week accepting volunteer campaign help from John Haggerty, who’s free pending an appeal of his conviction for stealing $750,000 from Mayor Bloomberg’s 2009 campaign.
Koch endorsed Republican Bob Turner in his upset September 2011 special election win for disgraced ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner’s former Queens-Brooklyn House seat.
“Certainly he has shown in the past that it’s not about party politics,” said Addabbo, adding he asked Koch for his endorsement “because I respect him. He’s a symbol of reform up in Albany.”
Koch has bashed Senate Republicans for welching on their 2010 pledge to create an independent redistricting commission this year.
Instead, Gov. Cuomo signed a GOP-drawn Senate redistricting plan as part of a deal with lawmakers to approve pension reform and expansion of the state’s DNA databank.
Koch said he and Addabbo’s congressman father “were very good friends.”
“I hope that my name means something in his district,” Koch said. “It does in some parts of New York City.”
ekriss@nypost.com