Pheffer Amato ekes out election night lead, but waits to declare victory

After a close shave of an election in 2022, Democratic Assembly Member Stacey Pheffer Amato improved her standing against her second-time Republican challenger Tom Sullivan on Tuesday — although not quite comfortably enough for her to declare victory.

“We're not gonna say anything,” Pheffer Amato told her supporters, adding that she wanted to wait for absentee ballots to be counted before making an announcement. “We're ahead right now. But there's a lot of the areas that are very special that have not been reported in yet.”

The rematch comes after Pheffer Amato fought her way back to her seat in 2022, coming up short by about 150 votes on election night but eventually prevailing by a 15-vote margin after taking the decision to court. As of Tuesday night, with nearly 97% precincts reporting, Pheffer Amato had a lead of over 1,000 votes.

Sullivan has not conceded the race. “I'm not happy about the spot we're in, you know? But we'll just see what settles in the next week,” Sullivan told City & State.

He added that he would not seek to take the election results to court if he doesn’t come out on top after the outstanding ballots are counted. “That's not my type. I'm gonna go with whatever the original count (is),” he said.

On Tuesday night, Pheffer Amato supporters gathered at the Bungalow, a cozy surfside bar on the northern side of the Rockaways to nervously watch the results come in. The district contains several areas of Queens – including Howard Beach, Broad Channel and Breezy Point – that overwhelmingly supported Trump in 2020 and likely this year as well. But even as the initial results showed Sullivan with an advantage, Pheffer Amato’s supporters insisted that the district’s residents will often separate down ballot elections from national election trends. 

“Our people are smart enough to say, ‘We’re not voting straight down any ballot,” said Sam Esposito, a community leader in Ozone Park.

Sullivan has run for state office in South Queens every opportunity he’s gotten since 2018. He ran unsuccessfully against Democratic state Sen. Joe Addabbo twice before rethinking his strategy and challenging Pheffer Amato in her smaller, more conservative-leaning district. This time around, his campaign keyed in on several prominent Republican issues, including the migrant crisis and bail reform. 

For her part, Pheffer Amato has positioned herself as a moderate, pro-police Democrat. In June, she was proclaimed “Legislator of the Year” by the Police Benevolent Association of the New York State Troopers. She also received support from the New York City Police Benevolent Association, which spent $200,000 on ads to boost her campaign. Pheffer Amato described herself as a leading voice in the three efforts that Democrats have made to roll back bail reform and joined Republican lawmakers in suing to block the city and state government from opening an emergency shelter for migrants at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn.

“When you as a Democrat get attacked about migrants, get attacked about something else at that control on a federal level, you're still in law of fire,” said Addabbo, who represents a neighboring Queens district.

New York City Council Member Selvena Brooks-Powers, a fellow Rockaway Democrat, said that Pheffer Amato’s constituents know her for her efforts on local issues like fighting for a toll rebate for Queens residents driving over the Cross Bay Bridge.

“Most of the things we’re hearing from knocking doors is bread-and-butter,” said Assembly Member Khaleel Anderson, whose district borders the Far Rockaway portion of Pheffer Amato’s.

Pheffer Amato’s family is well-known in the district. Her mother, Audrey Pheffer, represented the area as a state senator from 1987 to 2011. Pheffer Amato won the same seat in 2016 and went on to easily win reelection in both 2018 and 2020.

Sullivan has a background as a military veteran and small business operator. He served in the Army Reserve for three decades, deploying in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait, and his parents operate the South Brooklyn roast beef joint Brennan & Carr, which he expanded into Long Island for a number of years.

“I'm disappointed, right?” Sullivan said. “I truly believe that the issues were on our side, and that's ultimately why I chose to run even just a few years ago because of the issues.”