Assembly Member Daniel O’Donnell has no Republican challenger for his Upper West Side seat for the Nov. 2 election. But he nonetheless opened campaign headquarters in his district to help fellow Democrats in competitive statewide races.

On one of the final Sundays before the election, O’Donnell held an open house at the 940 Amsterdam Ave. storefront to attract new activists to drive voter turnout in what is expected to be a tough year for his party.

About four dozen people listened to O’Donnell and Rep. Charles Rangel of Harlem stress the importance of the upcoming election before volunteers got back to work later in the day.

“If you are a person in this nation and you work for a living, you need to get Democrats elected,” O’Donnell said.

Rangel said he was confident that his party would hold on to both houses of Congress, although polling suggests Republicans are likely to take control of the House.

“If common sense had anything to do with it we would not even be threatened,” Rangel said.

Volunteers at the headquarters said they had recently spent much of their time on the phones and knocking on doors for attorney general candidate and hometown favorite Eric Schneiderman, an Upper West Side state senator, and Rep. John Hall, who represents the Congressional district in the Hudson Valley.

Schneiderman is competing with Republican Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan in a close race for the position now held by Andrew Cuomo, the heavy favorite to be governor. Hall, meanwhile, is in a dead heat with Republican ophthalmologist Nan Hayworth, whose personal wealth Democrats at the open house said could complicate things.

Cynthia Doty, an Upper West Side Democratic district leader and member of Three Parks Independent Democrats, said local activists who had “adopted” Hall would provide a valuable boost to his campaign.

“We helped him win four years ago,” she said. “He won a primary he wasn’t expected to win.”

Doty said Hall’s current race is “very tight” but that she thinks the candidate will prevail.

O’Donnell said Democrats also have their eyes on the state comptroller race, in which Democrat Tom DiNapoli faces Republican businessman Harry Wilson. Recent polls show DiNapoli in the lead, but Wilson has received major newspaper endorsements.

Daniel Cohen, a recently elected state committee member, said a strong turnout in the city could be the key to winning closely contested races.

“We need to ramp up turnout downstate to offset more conservative turnout in upstate New York,” he said.

Rangel is expected to comfortably win his reelection bid against Republican and former professional football player Michael Faulkner. However, Rangel must stand on trial before Congress Nov. 15, for allegations of House ethics violations.

During his speech, Rangel briefly referred to the controversy, thanking local Democrats for their help in “breaking up fears brought by the papers.”

Later, Rangel called the allegations “irrational” and said, “The people are saying, ‘I trust Rangel.’ That’s step one.”

Elected officials and advocates urged the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Education (DOE) to start investigating the levels of toxic PCBs in hundreds of potentially affected city schools.

The results of a pilot study conducted this year with the federal agency and the city DOE found airborne PCBs that exceeded recommended levels at P.S. 199 on the Upper West Side, P.S. 178 in the Bronx and Brooklyn’s P.S. 309.

From 1950 to 1978, before a Congressional ban went into effect, caulk and lighting ballasts—a fixture that controls electrical flow—used to construct buildings and schools contained PCBs, which studies suggest can cause learning disabilities in children, cancer, and cardiovascular and immune system disease.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, an Upper West Side Democrat, wants Judith Enck, regional administrator for the EPA, to immediately expand its oversight of PCB management in the city’s public schools.

“The problem is much more serious than we originally believed,” Nadler said at a rally at City Hall Oct. 7.

The EPA, in a statement, said the elevated PCB levels found in those schools “do not pose an immediate health risk in the short term.”

“Any needed repairs or renovations to address PCBs problems are conducted in ways that protect everyone who works in NYC school buildings,” siad Bonnie Bellow, an EPA spokesperson, in a statement.

The EPA expressed confidence in the study and said it has been communicating with federal and state officials about the feasibility of funding a broader approach.

The city estimates the price tag to be $1 billion. The EPA wouldn’t foot the entire bill. Already, the city has spent $3 million on remediation efforts. But Nadler said the city would “find the funds if we have to.”

West Side Assembly members Linda Rosenthal and Daniel O’Donnell signed a letter with 15 of their colleagues to Enck asking the federal agency to inspect roughly 700 schools that may have PCB-laden caulk and light fixtures. Rosenthal plans to reintroduce her 2008 legislation that would require citywide testing of schools.

“Are we content to let New York City schoolchildren in untested school buildings serve as the proverbial canaries for future generations?” she asked.

Miranda Massie, litigation and training director with New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, expressed concern that the agency’s study downplays the risks of PCBs, she wrote in a letter to the EPA.

“It is important to note that independent experts regard the EPA guidances as inadequately health-protective, in part because they are based exclusively on cancer risks” and overlook “the many other substantial, negative health impacts of PCBs,” she wrote in a letter to the EPA.

The EPA, in its statement, said, “We will continue to work closely with New York City on the pilot program, which we believe is providing valuable information about the extent of the PCB problem and measures we can take to address it.”

That continuation will begin this weekend with an additional round of testing at P.S. 199.

In January, both Legislative chambers passed an ethics reform bill nearly unanimously. The bill would have required additional disclosures from legislators and those doing business with the state. Gov. David Paterson vetoed the bill, saying it was too weak without an independent ethics panel for the Legislature.

O’Donnell, who voted for the vetoed ethics bill, will now be leading the committee that may have to draft compromise legislation.

“The question is whether or not we can come up with another version of that bill that the governor won’t veto,” O’Donnell said. “I’d certainly like to continue conversation and dialogue with minority members in our house and Republicans in the State Senate, as well as the governor’s office, to come up with an ethics package that addresses concerns New Yorkers have with how this place runs.”

O’Donnell, elected in 2002, conceded that “functioning” and “Albany” are rarely used in the same sentence these days, which might impede comprehensive ethics reform.

“Obviously, from my perspective, public financing of elections will create a much more level playing field,” O’Donnell said. “But when you have a Senate with a one vote majority, there’s little that can be agreed upon that makes everyone happy.”

“Historically, Manhattan Valley has not received the attention nor the resources it has deserved,” O’Donnell said. “I convened this forum as an opportunity for Manhattan Valley stakeholders to discuss the neighborhood’s strengths and future.”

O’Donnell believes the forum will bring attention to the neighborhood and work toward improving the quality of life. For the purposes of the meeting, the area under discussion runs from West 100th and 110th streets between Broadway and Central Park West.

The meeting will take place at the Red Oak Apartments, 135 W. 106th St., between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues, Saturday, March 6 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. The event is co-sponsored by the Columbus/Amsterdam Business Improvement District, The Pratt Institute and the Municipal Art Society.