Daniel Padernacht, a 33-year-old housing lawyer who has joined the crowded list of challengers to incumbent Pedro Espada, Jr. in the race for 33rd District Senate seat, is a homeboy. A Kingsbridge homeboy.

His family has called the area home for more than 60 years, he boasts on a campaign flier. His grandfather, Sydney, moved the Padernacht clan there.

His father, Howard, who went to DeWitt Clinton High School, built up a successful business as a Bronx property owner and manager out of his office in Kingsbridge.

His mom is a teacher at Our Lady of Angels School, in Kingsbridge.

And when Padernacht finished law school in Chicago, he opened up his practice in the area he knew best: Kingsbridge.

He says the biggest reason why people should vote for him is that “I’m from the community. I have a good grasp of what’s happening in the community. I’ve been here and I’m not going anywhere.”

Padernacht, who ran unsuccessfully for City Council in 2001, is perhaps best known locally for his work as a volunteer member of Community Board 8, which includes Riverdale as well as Kingsbridge, where he was recently named chair of the Traffic and Transportation Committee.

Besides his deep community roots, Padernacht says his background — as a lawyer and also his degree in Economics from Fairfield College in Connecticut — make him a worthy candidate to represent the 33rd District.

On top of that, Padernacht says he’s “easy to work with,” adding that the political culture in Albany is sorely lacking in the arts of collaboration and negotiation. In law school, Padernacht said he finished second in the country in a negotiating competition.

In Padernacht’s opinion, state lawmakers live and work in a state of fear — fear of losing their jobs. That, he says, is the biggest reason for the state legislature’s infamous dysfunction. “Many people who get to Albany, they’re scared of losing their job,” Padernacht says. If things don’t work out for him, Padernact says, “I’ll go back to being a lawyer, a job I love.”

As a housing lawyer (he began practicing in February 2009), Padernacht says he has represented both landlords and tenants in court and is familiar with issues that affect both parties. (For example, he’s not completely supportive of pro-tenant groups’ sacred cow, the repeal of rent decontrol. But he does feel more tenant protections are needed and has represented low-income tenants on pro bono basis.)

His top three priorities if elected will be preserving affordable housing, creating smaller class sizes and bringing more transparency and access to government.

In the end, Padernacht says, he’s just a “fairly simple guy.” He goes to work, attends community meetings, runs around the Jerome Park Reservoir several times a week and spends a lot of time with his family. In Kingsbridge.