Green party candidate is rolling in the green

From City Hall:

Faced with no primary opponent, Democratic incumbent Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. thought he would cruise to his third term in office. Vallone, who holds the same Queens seat his father held for almost three decades, had only $40,000 on hand a few weeks before election day, and decided to forego matching funds, figuring that they were a waste of taxpayer money.

But that was before Lynne Serpe, a 38-year-old environmental activist and Green Party candidate for the seat announced that she had $100,000 on hand and qualified for over $70,000 in matching funds.

“There are people in the district who have wanted resources that they haven’t gotten in 35 years,” she said. “I think people are ready for a change.”

Still, the disadvantages Serpe faces in terms of name recognition, party affiliation and incumbency are pretty huge, she admits, so her campaign has taken to some unorthodox methods to get out her message.

From Interactive Journalism:

The other morning, as I was climbing the steps to the Ditmars Boulevard train station in Astoria, I was handed a “Lynne Serpe for City Council” brochure by none other than District 22’s Green Party candidate herself, Lynne Serpe. The prospective Councilwoman was cheerily passing out brochures as barely awake commuters slogged up the stairs, most of whom were not even looking Serpe’s way.

While I had never seen a candidate passing out her own fliers, especially before 8 a.m., the kicker was where she was doing it: in front of her opponent’s office. The entrance to the Ditmars train station is right in front of the Vallone & Vallone Law Firm, whose partners and father/son tag team are former City Councilman Peter Vallone Sr. (D) and current City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D). Vallone Jr. is running against Ms. Serpe (and Republican Candidate Tom Dooley).