For those of you closely following the competitive State Senate races this year, here's a list I compiled of forums and debates in two of them.

Republican incumbent Serf Maltese versus Democrat Joe Addabbo (neck-and-neck in the latest poll):

-Thursday, October 2 at 7:30 p.m. Junior High School 93, 4th Avenue and Madison Street, Ridgewood. Hosted by the Ridgewood Property Owners Association.

-Tuesday, October at 7:30 p.m. Christ Lutheran Church Community Center, 86th Street and 101st Avenue in Ozone Park. Hosted by Our Neighbor Civic Association.

Republican incumbent Frank Padavan versus Democrat James Gennaro (some of these don't have times listed--I'll update here as soon as I find out):

-Thursday, September 25 (tonight!) at 7 p.  read more »

Democratic State Senate candidate Jim Gennaro, who is trying to unseat Republican Frank Padavan, says he can ride the coattails of national Democrats in his district, but the full picture could be more complicated.

His campaign just released figures of newly registered voters in the district, citing figures from the state Board of Elections.

"Between January and August of this year, 6,859 new voters enrolled in Senate District 11, according to the Board of Elections. Of them, 711 are Republicans and 4,083 are Democrats, giving the latter party a nearly six-to-one advantage with these voters.

"Democrats also overwhelmingly outnumber Republicans in Senate District 11's overall enrollment, 88,494 to 33,123 (a nearly three-to-one advantage).  read more »

Democratic State Senate candidate Jim Gennaro is having an environment-themed fund-raiser tonight, hosted by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

It's taking place tonight at 5:30 at Cafe Notte, "a sustainable wine bar" on the Upper East Side, according to a reader. On the cafe's web site, it says co-founder Steven Salsberg "was appointed Vice Chairman by Mayor Bloomberg to the Council on the Environment of New York City. Steven is committed to making New York City restaurants environmentally responsible, and Café Notte is no exception."

Gennaro, the chair of the Council's Environmental Protection Committee, is trying to unseat Republican State Senator Frank Padavan of Queens. At an earlier fund-raiser, Gennaro has said he thinks his timing couldn't be better.

Jim Gennaro says his time is now.

“My opponent very much represents the past,” Gennaro, a Democratic councilman, said last night about the Republican state senator he's trying to unseat, Frank Padavan. “This is clearly an election between the past versus the future.”

Padavan was first elected to the State Senate in 1972; Gennaro was elected to the City Council in 2001.

The councilman was speaking to supporters at a fund-raiser at the Woolworth Kitchen last night. There, Gennaro sought to cast Padavan as part of a dwindling Republican apparatus. “They’re not getting the people’s business done because the people’s business is not on their agenda.  read more »

More from Bharat Ayyar, who looked into the race between Republican State Senator Frank Padavan and Democratic challenger Jim Gennaro.

As of the July filing, here's how much money they have on hand:

Padavan - $116,642.20
Gennaro - $406,965.01

It's surprising that Gennaro is raising so much more money than Padavan, since people don't see Padavan as being as vulnerable to a Democratic challenger as some of his Republican colleagues in the State Senate, like Serf Maltese, Caesar Trunzo, and Joe Robach. And even thought the Republican State Senate Campaign Committee has a lot more money than their Democratic counterpart, having to pour money into Padavan's race would just be one more drain on their resources.  read more »

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Andrew Cuomo just announced he’s creating a new position in his office to fight intellectual property theft like pirating movies,which Cuomo called the “new high-tech form of organized crime in the State of New York.”

At a press conference in his Broadway office just now, Cuomo said, “It is theft of a work product. It is widespread. It is growing. It is organized. It costs New Yorkers jobs and money.” Cuomo said the problem costs the state $2 billion and 140,000 jobs per year.  read more »

You know things have gotten weird in a small local primary when Republicans start putting images of Charlie Rangel on their literature.

This piece, which I heard is circulating in Queens, is linking the Queens County Republican Chairman, Phil Ragusa, to Rangel, who thinks Dick Cheney has mental problems.

The mail piece references a 2002 donation of $1000 that Ragusa made to Rangel’s committee and notes that Rangel help engineer the Democratic takeover of congress in last year’s election.

Ragusa, a CPA, is running this year for a male-designated state Republican committee post in the 26th Assembly District. The only other candidate for that slot is Peter Boudouvas, an aide to Republican state Senator Frank Padavan.

The mail may not derail’s Ragusa’s election to that position tomorrow, but it’s certain to fuel the seemingly endless fight for control of the Queens G.O.P. county organization, which has been going on for years and involves technical election law stuff I don't entirely understand. (Critics like John and Bart Haggerty--with the help of Democratic election lawyer Martin Connor--say the way the county counts votes is screwy.)

Credit for kicking off this latest skirmish goes to former congressional candidate-turned-blogger Jun Policarpio, who wrote about the Rangel donation about a week ago.  read more »

More on the campaign after the jump.  read more »

Here's a photo of WNBC's Jay DeDapper interviewing state Senator Frank Padavan and Assemblyman Keith Wright about congestion pricing and all the wheeling and dealing up in Albany.

Which should be fun to hear about since Padavan, as a Republican, won't have had much nice to say about the Eliot Spitzer's handling of things, and Wright has begun trashing the governor too.

The interview was taped earlier today and will air on Sunday.