Money Flows Into Queens to Bolster Eric Ulrich Eric Ulrich, a 27-year-old city councilman from Queens, has been dubbed a rising star by the New York State Republican Party. And his bid for State Senate has been strongly backed in the hope that a victory would do more than just add a player to the slim Republican majority in Albany; it might perhaps act as a steppingstone to a future higher office. But before the dreamed-of coronation is complete, Mr. Ulrich must oust Joseph P. Addabbo Jr., the incumbent state senator for this patch of southwestern Queens. Mr. Addabbo, who hails from a politically known family, is a Democrat, like two-thirds of the area's registered voters, even after Republican-led redistricting added conservative pockets this fall to shift the district demographics in Mr. Ulrich's direction. The race is one of the tightest and most expensive in the state, ratcheted up by an influx of outside dollars and mailers from groups eager to swing the district. And it is punctuated by an attempt from each side to woo the other's base, resulting in positions that are markedly out of step with the mainstream of either man's party - but at points, rather similar to each other. Mr. Ulrich assumed his Council seat - which Mr. Addabbo previously held for six years - in 2009. One of just four Republicans serving in the 51-member body, he was quickly elevated to minority whip. He has also promoted his hardscrabble roots and his faith: the son of a teenage mother, he is a Roman Catholic who originally studied to be a priest. Mr. Addabbo, 48, is a lawyer whose father, Joseph P. Addabbo, was a United States representative from Queens for 25 years. Mr. Ulrich, who coordinated New York's delegates to the Republican National Convention for Mitt Romney, has spent $929,000 and Mr. Addabbo has spent $310,000, according to campaign finance reports filed with the New York State Board of Elections. As the race has tightened - a recent Siena College poll put Mr. Addabbo at 45 percent and Mr. Ulrich at 43 percent - both parties have rallied behind their candidates. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo endorsed Mr. Addabbo, and Senator Charles E. Schumer recently stumped with him. The state Republican Party has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars behind Mr. Ulrich, provoking even some Republicans to criticize the party for trying to buy the race. Mr. Ulrich defended the support from people who "believe in maintaining the Republican majority in the State Senate," he said. If those are their motivations, I'm glad to have it. The closeness of the race has also attracted record amounts of outside support, some of which has turned ugly. Huge numbers of campaign fliers are shoved in mailboxes and under doors from Howard Beach to Ozone Park almost daily, often sent on behalf of either candidate without their knowledge or consent. One, from a Virginia-based political action committee called Common Sense Common Solutions, shows Mr. Addabbo as a marionette controlled by the businessman George Soros. Carmella Cerar, an Ulrich supporter at a local debate in October, said she had seen one flier with Mr. Ulrich's head Photoshopped onto a figure in a Nazi-like uniform. That flier came from a competitor in the Republican primary. Both Mr. Ulrich and Mr. Addabbo have denounced such fliers. Though Democrats outnumber Republicans in this district roughly three to one, they are of a very different stripe than the typical New York City version, having sent a Republican state senator, Serphin R. Maltese, to Albany for 10 successive terms until he was defeated by Mr. Addabbo in 2008. To win, each must have broad appeal, striking a chord with both Democrats and Republicans, which after the redistricting now includes conservative pockets of religious Jews. That mandate has led each candidate to take stances sometimes at odds with his party. Though Mr. Addabbo helped legalize same-sex marriage, he distanced himself from that vote in an interview, saying it might have been different had he represented this newly drawn district. "They didn't have my ear at that time," he said. And Mr. Ulrich touts the fact that he co-sponsored a bill for paid sick leave. "I've distinguished myself as someone who has not been afraid to disagree with my party," he said. At a debate held in a school gymnasium in Howard Beach, Queens, in October, the tone was civil. The candidates expressed views atypically held in common by members of different parties. Both said that the stop-and-frisk policing tactic was a useful tool that helped officers fight crime. And both said they had reservations about the so-called Dream Act, which gives legal status to certain undocumented young people. The audience, mostly older residents, cheered at both points.