If expelled by his colleagues, embattled Queens Sen. Hiram Monserrate will run in a special election to regain the seat he now holds, he said in an exclusive interview with City Hall on Thursday.

A special committee charged with mulling Monserrate's fate recommended on Thursday that the full Senate vote on a resolution to oust him, which Senate officials believe will have broad support among Republicans and Democrats in the chamber.

In an interview in the basement of his East Elmhurst district office later that afternoon, Monserrate made clear that lawmakers hoping to put the episode behind them would have to contend with him in at least one, if not two more elections, as well as a potentially drawn-out legal battle.

“I fully expect to be running and to put my record of accomplishment to the voters of this district and move forward,” Monserrate said in the interview. “So I’m prepared to challenge, to debate intelligently, based on the facts and not hysteria, my record and my role as a public servant with anyone.”

Monserrate would not say if that included a potential special election, which Gov. David Paterson would have the option to call if the Senate votes to expel Monserrate. But a source close to the embattled Queens lawmakers later confirmed that he would run in either a special election or the general election in the fall, saying: “Whatever it is, we’re running.”

If the Senate does remove Monserrate, the governor would have to issue a proclamation calling for a special election to fill the seat. The Queens Democratic Party will likely nominate Monserrate's declared opponent, Assembly Member Jose Peralta, meaning Monserrate would have to petition independently onto the ballot.

State election law does not mandate a time frame for a special election, but Senate Democrats are likely to ask the governor to move quickly in order to fill the seat and provide them with a crucial 32^nd vote.

Senate Democrats had already begun moving to expel Monserrate even before the Special Committee of Inquiry released its report on Thursday, out of fear that as an incumbent in a Democratic primary he would be able to fend off a challenge from Peralta.

Sen. Brian Foley, of Suffolk, had already promised in December to introduce a resolution calling for Monserrate’s removal regardless of the committee’s findings.

Monserrate said that those actions proved that the effort to remove him had more to do with the Senate’s poor public image—resulting, in part, from a month-long coup Monserrate helped instigate in June—than with the facts of his assault case.

“They have had editorial boards, good government groups speak about them at length,” he said. “I think it would be very easy just to try to pin all the ills and the shortcomings of the Legislature on one individual. But I think all of us are savvy and intelligent to know that that’s just not the case.”

Monserrate also promised to return to Albany next week for the legislative session and argued that removing him from the Senate would be an unlawful circumvention of the voters in his district, an argument Monserrate’s lawyers plan to use in an expected court challenge.

“I will continue to serve as a state senator,” he said. “I will continue to represent the interest of the voters of my district, and I will defend and ensure to protect that none of the voters in our community are ever disfranchised.”

There is some recent precedent for a situation of the sort Monserrate is proposing: in 2006, Roger Green won the election for the Brooklyn Assembly seat he had himself just been forced to vacate. He served another term before mounting a failed bid for Congress in 2008.