Under normal circumstances, David Weprin would be heavily favored to beat Bob Friedrich in their Assembly special election on Tuesday.

Democrats outnumber Republicans in the district by nearly four-to-one. Weprin’s younger brother, Mark, had nothing to worry about when he held what was once his father’s Assembly seat for over a decade.

The only reason the Assembly seat is open at all is because Mark Weprin glided to an easy victory for his brother’s Council seat—defeating his Republican opponent, Bob Friedrich, without ever having to break too much of a sweat.

But next Tuesday is not last fall, and the special election is not a typical campaign.

“Normally a Democrat would be a shoo-in,” David Weprin said. “But this is not a normal election.”

Turnout for the special election is expected to be no higher than your average school board election, with many of the snowbirds that are likely Weprin voters in Florida for the winter and available only by absentee ballot, according to his campaign manager, Corey Bearak.

In addition, after their special election victory in Massachusetts and other recent successes, Republicans are expected to be more energized to turn out than Democrats, with the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee sending out daily e-mails drumming up support for Friedrich.

When Friedrich ran for the Council, he first ran in the Democrat primary, then again as a Republican in the general election. Now, Friedrich—still a registered Democrat—is running for Assembly only as a Republican, and says he will conference with them if elected.

Friedrich is also running on Conservative Party line, which he did not seek during his Council campaign. But this has raised questions about his potentially contradictory positions on gay marriage.

During his interview with Queens County Conservative Party chair Tom Long two weeks ago, Friedrich said he was against same-sex marriage, according to Long.

“He told me that marriage was between a man and a woman,” Long said.

Friedrich reiterated the same thing in a recent endorsement interview with the Queens Tribune.

But during a Queens Tribune endorsement interview when he was running as a Democrat for the Council, Friedrich was asked a yes or no question about whether he favored same-sex marriage. He responded that he was in favor, according to several people in the room, including Swaranjit Singh, a candidate in that race, and the paper’s managing editor, Brian Rafferty.

Also, when Friedrich filled out a candidate survey for Lesbian and Gay Democratic Club of Queens, he wrote that he was favor of gay marriage, said the club’s spokesman, Larry Menzie.

Weprin said he believes Friedrich changed his position as part of a deal to get the Conservative endorsement.

“That’s a position where you hope somebody would take a moral position,” Weprin said.

When asked about these contradictions, Friedrich at first denied even discussing the topic of gay marriage with Long. Then, when told of Long’s differing account, he shifted.

“I apologize—when I said it wasn’t discussed, what I meant to say is that I didn’t have to make a deal,” Friedrich said.

Friedrich said that he is in favor of civil unions, and always has been. As for the differing accounts about his position from Council race, Friedrich said: “I guess their recollection is incorrect.”

Friedrich is also catching heat after he sent a letter several weeks ago to the district’s sizable South Asian community asserting that Singh, an influential member of that community, had endorsed him—even though Singh says he is actually backing Weprin.

Singh said that he promised Friedrich during the Council race that he would back him during a hypothetical Assembly run—but changed his mind in the intervening months.

“He’s backstabbing me on everything,” Singh complained.

Weprin, the former chair of the Council Finance Committee, is relying on union support, and has the United Federation of Teachers phone banking for him to drum up turnout. Local synagogues are placing calls to their congregants to notify them of the special election. The Weprin campaign is also hoping for good weather, believing higher turnout would be to their advantage.

Friedrich, meanwhile, is playing on an anti-incumbent sentiment as Weprin tries to win a seat that has been in his family since 1971, when his father, Saul Weprin, first won it.

“It’s playing well, because it’s truthful,” Friedrich said. “This should not be the family business.”