THE DAILY NEWS GOES GIOIA

The public advocate office needs to be reinvented with fresh dedication to the mission of improving the lives of New Yorkers. The right person for the job on this year's ballot is Eric Gioia.

An energetic two-term Queens city councilman, Gioia, 36, has focused on causes that offer quality-of-life benefits, just the kinds of causes that should top the advocate's agenda - but for too long have not...

Gioia's activism has been constructive. He fought the MTA on subway cuts to his district, which includes Woodside and Long Island City. He led the charge against Con Ed in the 2006 blackout, standing up to both the utility and Mayor Bloomberg. He mounted successful campaigns to bring the first bank branch to the Queensbridge housing project, convince City Hall to streamline the process of applying for food stamps and persuade Costco to accept them.

Gioia has also shown the courage of his convictions by backing congestion pricing, opposing the Council's so-called member items and donating to charity the stipend he gets for chairing the investigations committee...

The Daily News endorses Eric Gioia - Queens-born, raised in a family that runs a flower shop, educated at NYU and Georgetown Law, an official who kept in touch with working- and middle-class concerns - as the candidate most likely to make a meaningful contribution as public advocate.