Word came down last week from the Queens County Republican Party that they are backing Manny Caruana, a Maspeth activist, to run for the State Assembly seat in the 30th District against 14-year incumbent Marge Markey.

The district covers Maspeth, Elmhurst, Woodside, Middle Village and parts of Rego Park and Jackson Heights.

Now, nobody in this newsroom claims to be the most photogenic banana in the bunch, but the biggest problem we see for the Republicans in this race: how are they going to get the notoriously sour-faced Caruana to smile for his campaign literature and mailings?

It will certainly be a first.