Deacy is a former New York Police officer and a district leader in an area that has seen something of a Republican resurgence in recent years, and, although Pheffer has held the seat for 24 years, G.O.Pers sound determined to make a go of it.

According to a source, Deacy held a fundraiser at the Belle Harbor Yacht Club in the Rockaways over the weekend, and over 100 people attended.

Pheffer is currently in the running for the Queens County clerkship, and is widely thought to win the job.

Democrats in the running for the party's nomination include longtime Pheffer aide Joanne Shapiro, district leader Lew Simon, and Chuck Schumer aide Phillip Goldfeder.

"It's a pleasure to welcome the Mayor back to our borough. He won this borough before and he will again," Marshall said, according to one person there. Other sources confirmed Marshall expressing confidence Bloomberg would win the borough.

Marshall was speaking to guests at City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr.’s fund-raiser at Central Lounge on Steinway Street in Astoria, where the mayor was among the guests.

Marshall is a Democrat and an African-American, like one of the mayor’s main challengers for re-election, City Comptroller Bill Thompson.

A spokesperson for Marshall said she would get back to me with a comment.

The event raised about $100,000 for Vallone who, for now, is running for re-election. He was planning on running for Queens Borough President before term limits were extended, allowing Marshall to seek a third term. There's a theory that she may withdraw at the last minute in order to enable another candidate, Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer, to get into office without a bruising primary.

Kerpen’s political future has been the subject of local chatter for some time.

Initially, he going to run for the City Council seat being vacated by David Weprin, in Hollis. But Kerpen’s announcement is taking place in Astoria, well outside the district.

A source said they’d heard from Kerpen that he was going to declare his run for Queens borough president and run against incumbent Helen Marshall.

Kerpen did not immediately return a call left on his cell phone.

Kerpen’s possible entry into the race could bring attention to what may, or may not, be an interesting race.

There’s speculation that Marshall will petition, but ultimately drop out of the race in order to help Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer get into the office without much of a primary that could include City Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr.

Also about Kerpen: he’s done things like host “webinars” to explain how Facebook’s makeover will affect your business.

He also was married on the Brooklyn Cyclone’s baseball field.

He's also in favor of doing away with horse-drawn carriages.

The question was posed to the board by Peter Vallone Jr., who was actively campaigning for Queens Borough President until the term-limits law was extended. A spokesman for the incumbent Queens Borough President, Helen Marshall, said she intends to run for a third term.

The fear is that Marshall would change her mind after Vallone “freezes” the $800,158 he’s raised so far, and his opponent, Audrey Pheffer – who like Marshall is close to the Queens County Democratic Organization – can still use the $341,492 she’s raised so far.

Pheffer doesn’t ever have to “freeze” her account because unlike Vallone, she holds state office.

Here's more on the complications posed by the term-limits extension.

UPDATE: Vallone isn’t happy with the CFB. “All future events are 'hypothetical', and it's the taxpayer funded job of the CFB to provide guidance. Apparently, they've issued an advisory opinion advising people that they won’t provide any advice."

He added, “Candidates need guidance. Perhaps amending the CFB legislation is necessary."

Two blocks away, Newell's opponent, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, had a fleet of seven vans, which volunteers were driving all over the district to distribute literature that touted endorsements from two local papers: The Villager and Downtown Express. (Both are owned by Community Media, L.L.C.)

In the three blocks between Newell and Silver's campaign headquarters, I ran into three three Assembly members (Rory Lancman, Cathy Nolan and Audrey Pheffer) and four volunteers, all handing out literature for Silver.

Apparently more was needed.

"I need to take literature to Grand and Clinton," said one Silver volunteer, referring to the intersection where Newell had been speaking with churchgoers.

"You can take van four," replied Patrick van Keerbergen, chief of staff to Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh of Manhattan (who, somewhat ironically, ousted freshman legislator Sylvia Friedman in 2006 by claiming she was too closely tied to Assembly leadership).

It's an uphill climb to unseat one of the most powerful legislators in Albany--one of the "three men in a room" who control most of the money and set the agenda. Silver was first elected in 1976; he has been speaker since 1994. The sphinx-like Democrat has come to represent much of what is wrong with Albany, where transparency is not highly valued. He also has built a formidable operation that makes it difficult for anyone to run against him (in fact, no one has in many years.)

He prefers to operate quietly. (At the Democratic National Convention in Denver when I said I was writing about his race, Silver asked me, politely, "Why don't you write about somebody else?" During another interview in Denver, the Bronx Democratic County Leader Jose Rivera, told me he was endorsing Silver "because I've known him for over 25 years and he has not changed.")

Newell and his small band of volunteers were certainly outnumbered and out-machined. But then again, winning isn't really the point, because it's never been considered likely that he will.

Instead, Newell is using his relative success--he's actually out-paced Silver in fund-raising in the 11-day pre-primary filing--to apply pressure to the speaker.

Newell is framing this all as the start of a long process. Standing outside St. Mary's Church, he said, "I'm running to get the most votes in this election. That said, there's no question we've already brought change. We've already taken on Albany. There's no question about that. And people are scared."

Those scared people, Newell said, are thinking, "Wow, a 33-year-old community organizer can put together a campaign that is going to rock Sheldon Silver with his $3 million in his account, and $8 million in his Speaker's P.A.C. or whatever it is that he's got."

"If we're successful, you're going to see forty or fifty challengers to incumbents in 2010, in both parties," Newell said, adding, "I don't think there's any doubt we had a role in that."

Silver's members—whose staff and budgets Silver controls—say Silver has been more responsive to their needs and legislative ideas than he once was. They also say, seriously, that he unfairly bears the brunt for the public's misunderstanding of how Albany really works.

Pheffer, who represents part of Queens, stood outside Silver's campaign office and told me, "Some of the criticisms of Assembly Speaker Silver, we take it personally."

Also spotted briefly on Grand Street was the third Democrat in the primary, attorney Luke Henry. Dressed in jeans and a white dress shirt, he walked north along Clinton Street, past Delancey Street, into an area where there was notably less campaigning. When asked about speculation that he is associated with Silver, and only in the race to siphon votes from Newell, Henry said the rumors are "malicious" and "ludicrous." He added, "It can't just be anti-Silver. Where's the housing programs? Where's the senior programs?" He walked up to a group of senior citizens and thrust literature into their hands.

As he spoke, a young woman with a blue skirt and armful of Silver campaign literature walked into the building.

Before leaving Newell, I had the chance to chat with filmmaker Justin Sullivan, who is making a documentary about the race, with Newell as protagonist. Sullivan followed Newell, an Obama delegate, to Denver, and said he was in Newell's apartment when the candidate made his first campaign phone calls, and when he tried on his first suit. I asked Sullivan if his film about a young, smart, underdog candidate would be anything like Street Fight, a documentary about Cory Booker's brutal, failed campaign against then-Newark Mayor Sharpe James, which helped launch Booker's successful bid for the office four years later.

"It's like Street Fight, but with blogs, emails and civilized phone calls. Silver is civilized," he said.

Comrie will need the money to compete with better-funded rivals like Peter Vallone, Jr. (who held one of his fund-raisers in the mayor’s home).

Sharp-eyed readers will notice Assemblyman Bill Scarborough was also there [identification corrected].

Comrie is trying to close a fund-raising gap with the fund-raising leader in that race, Peter Vallone, Jr. (who got help from Michael Bloomberg). He's also hoping to address a potential gender gap with Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer, who may have a unique claim on the female primary vote.

The last two Queens borough presidents were women: Helen Marshall and her predecessor, Claire Shulman.

(The last man to be elected Queens borough president was Donald Manes.)

Sears is seeking donations up to $3,850, the Campaign Finance Board’s contribution limit for borough president candidates, at a December 19 fund-raiser. The event takes place at 5:30 at the restaurant 17 Murray and the invitation gives top billing to Christine Quinn.

A message left for the treasurer of Sears’ campaign committee was not immediately returned.

Running in that race already are Peter Vallone, Jr., Leroy Comrie, and, possibly, Audrey Pheffer.