With 55.9% of the vote expected at 10pm on Tuesday, Maloney had 67.3% of the vote to Biaggi’s 32.7%. The contest pitted Maloney, 56, the incumbent Democratic nominee with ties to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, against Biaggi, 36, one of the voices of the progressive left backed by Democratic Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Labor Party Families. Biaggi entered the race with plans to do to Maloney what she did to former Sen. Jeff Klein to win an Albany seat four years ago. Alessandra Biaggi was criticized for commenting that she didn’t think older members of Congress could be “savage.” Anadolu Agency via Getty Images But she dealt her campaign a self-inflicted blow on July 5 when she tweeted: “At the risk of sounding old, it’s still important to ask: when a majority of Congress is past childbearing age, how tough can we expect their fight to be? ?” Biaggi tried to clean up her mess in a follow-up tweet, adding: “And let me be [very] clear: it’s not that we don’t need our elders in power, it’s that they are well represented and need to make room for younger leaders.” But the damage was done, with older, female Democratic leaders in the district denouncing her comments. Meanwhile, ethics experts have questioned whether Maloney used House and campaign cash for “personal services” by hiring an aide who told The Post his role was to serve as the lawmaker’s “body man.” An ethics complaint was filed after The Post reported on the deal with former employee Harold Leath, though Maloney denied any wrongdoing. Maloney was also accused of deceptive fundraising practices by making it appear to his supporters that he was raising money for Democratic candidates nationally, when the donations went to his primary campaign against Biaggi. Former Gov. David Patterson said the makeup of the suburban district — which includes parts of Westchester County, all of Rockland and Putnam counties and parts of Dutchess County — favored Maloney. He added that voters are more concerned about pocket money and public safety issues than radical social change. “These difficult times spark pragmatism in people,” Patterson said. Maloney, running for a fifth term after being first elected in 2012, chose to run in the new 17th District instead of the 18th District, which he currently represents, due to a change in redistricting communities. Rep. Mondaire Jones, who currently represents the 17th District covering Rockland County and the lower Hudson Valley, relocated to run in the 10th Congressional District in brownstone Brooklyn and lower Manhattan instead of challenging Maloney.
