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McLaughlin to leave seat, candidates for post emerge

By Zach Patberg

After 14 years in office, the Flushing Democrat said he will step down at the end of this year because he wants to focus on his duties as president of the city's powerful Central Labor Council. City Councilman Tony Avella (D-Bayside) and Rory Lancman, a lawyer and Flushing Heights civic leader, have expressed interest in replacing him.”I think the working people in this city deserve a champion to fight on their behalf,” said McLaughlin, who was recently re-elected to a four-year term as head of the labor council, a federation of 400 union locals representing more than 1.3 million workers. “The labor council is a vehicle for a better way of life. But it's also a tremendous responsibility.”Calling pension and health care plans as well as the act of unionizing “under attack,” McLaughlin, 53, a one-time electrician, said he would concentrate solely on his labor post without having “to juggle with this office,” meaning his Albany seat.The seven-term state legislator denied that any conflict of interest concerns spurred his decision to leave the Assembly, which came just weeks after the three-day subway and bus strike that brought McLaughlin out to support the Transit Workers Union.”The beauty of this is that no one on the labor side said I should get out and no one on the constituent side said this isn't where you want to be,” he said of his dual-role status as labor leader and legislator. He pointed out that he avoided potential conflicts by never lobbying on labor issues in Albany and never sponsoring a bill that went through the Assembly's labor committee.Union leaders said McLaughlin was not pressured to shed his legislative hat, but they were glad he did.”Brian made a smart move,” said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union and vice president of the Central Labor Council. “He's provided great leadership for us and I think we're going to see even more of an effort on his part now.”Avella and Lancman said McLaughlin called them last Thursday evening, the night before news of his retirement appeared in The New York Times, telling them he was would not seek re-election. Since then, both say they have received numerous calls from party and community leaders encouraging them to run for the seat.Lancman, a district leader and community board member who ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat against state Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Bellerose) in 2000, said Tuesday he was running and had alreadmade calls to past contributors.As board member for the state's Trial Lawyers Association and an associate at the Manhattan law firm of Morelli Ratner, Lancman is counting heavily on fellow attorneys for financial support.”I know a wide circle of trial lawyers that are used to the political scene and fund-raising,” he said. “So I'm lucky in that respect.”Avella, however, has yet to decide whether to run for McLaughlin's seat or Padavan's. He said he has gotten more calls about challenging Padavan. But that option has also been around much longer, he added. Avella was just re-elected to a second and final four-year term in the Council, which he must leave in 2010 under the city's term limits law.Another district leader from Richmond Hill, Uma Sengupta, was also mentioned as being a possible challenger for McLaughlin's post, which covers a diverse district stretching across Whitestone, Flushing, Briarwood and Richmond Hill. Sengupta was out of the country and could not be reached for comment.McLaughlin said that after his term ends Dec. 31 his priorities will turn to such matters as keeping retail giant Wal-Mart out of the city and changing the state's Taylor Law, which makes it illegal for government employees to strike.”There's an absence of checks and balances under that law for management to negotiate in good faith,” he said, alluding to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority during the recent strike. “For them, there are no fines, no consequences. What I want to do is work withe AFL-CIO to do something about that.”Reach reporter Zach Patberg at news@timesledger.com or at 718-229-0300, Ext. 155.