As the candidate field crowds heading into 2009, when a slate of citywide and City Council seats are up for grabs, contenders are beginning to show their faces in the outer-boroughs.

City comptroller candidate Simcha Felder made the most recent appearance on the Island, meeting last night with the Young Democrats of Richmond County.

Felder, a Democratic councilman from Brooklyn, kept the talk broad, speaking about his background as a tax auditor and how he got started in politics, before taking questions on how he would protect public money for youth.

He also got a taste of the Island when he was asked about the lack of public transit.

"The importance of the Staten Island vote is too often overlooked," Felder's aide, Eric Kuo, said after the event, which the Advance did not attend.

Club member Mike Arvanites, who works for Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan), said the Island's vote has been gaining importance in recent years.

"The secession vote and how the mayor's office went in '93 sort of discovered Staten Island," when the Island helped Rudy Giuliani's mayoral bid, he said.

Arvanites also said the Island is "sort of a bellwether, the Ohio of New York City," he said, noting the North Shore of the borough is similar in demographics to the rest of the city.

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