By Dean Myers

Tuesday’s election of six new City Councilpeople in Queens, including two new Republicans, could mean more robust debate and resistance to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, political analysts said.

In filling six of the borough’s 14 seats on the City Council with newcomers, Queens voters led a citywide trend that saw nearly a quarter of the Council’s 51 seats filled with non-incumbents. That unusually high turnover rate, combined with Bloomberg entering a third term with a slimmer-than-expected margin of victory (4.6 percent), could energize the body that often votes in unison, insiders said.

“There are going to be a lot of new faces in the City Council and I think that leads to a more active City Council,” said Working Families Party Spokesman Dan Levitan. “Does that mean a City Council that stands up to the mayor? We’ll see.”

The mayor has unrivalled power under the City charter. Standing up to that, and potentially making an enemy of Bloomberg, would be dangerous to a City Councilperson’s district, said George Arzt, who runs a political consulting firm.

But Arzt added that because this is Bloomberg’s final term, the City Council might be more inclined to be less cooperative because any retribution from the mayor would only be short lived.

After years of Bloomberg refusing to shift more of the tax burden on the upper class, those who would gain the most from opposition are middle-class families and homeowners, agreed Levitan and Vince Tabone, the vice-chairman of the Queens County Republican Party. Tabone said those were the voters Republican candidates targeted, specifically Daniel Halloran and Peter Koo, the winners in Districts 19 and 20.

The focus on the middle class came as the mayor’s critics, including Bill Thompson, the man he narrowly defeated for reelection, claimed the billionaire mayor was out of touch with the middle class.

“We recruited candidates that knew their communities,” Tabone said. “I don’t think voters voted for our candidates because they were Republicans. I think they voted for them because it made sense.”

Meanwhile, Flushing Councilperson John Liu, whose seat Koo will be taking, won his race for comptroller by a significant margin. Levitan, whose Working Families Party endorsed Liu, said the Democrat received an extra push from Queens voters.

As for the City Council races, specifically the seats gained by Republicans, Levitan said Districts 19 and 20 were expected to be close all along and that most races played out as expected.

Arzt said he was anxious to see what the two new Republicans, which bring the Council-wide total to five, will do. But he was quick to point out that action by the new City Councilpeople, from either party, will be slow to come.

He highlighted newly elected Democrats Daniel Dromm of District 25 and Jimmy Van Bramer of District 26, saying that both have been active in their communities and know their issues well. He then said that City Hall’s committees, meetings and general political process add up to a steep learning curve.

“Look at schools. How many freshmen make a mark?” he asked. “After a few years they’ll walk around campus with a swagger. It’s the same in the City Council. It’ll take a while for these freshman City Councilmen to find their swagger.”