Left, Westchester County Executive George Latimer, right, Congressman Jamaal Bowman
By Dan Murphy
Now that a February 14th deadline for registered voters in New York State to change political parties has passed, sources tell Yonkerstimes.com that more than 1,300 registered voters in the 16th Congressional district in New York have switched parties and have become registered democrats.
The switch comes after an effort by several independent organizations was made to get voters in NY-16, primarily republicans, to switch their party affiliation with the NYS Board of Elections, and register democrat.
Two Westchester democrats are facing off in a democratic primary on June 25. Incumbent Congressman Jamaal Bowman is being challenged by Westchester County Executive George Latimer.
Supporters of Latimer were behind the effort to get registered republicans and independents to switch party affiliation and register democrat by Feb. 14.
Data from the NYS Board of Elections appears to back up the information from Westchester democrats in the 16th district. There are now 271,000 registered democrats in the 16th congressional district in NY. Four months ago, in Nov. 2023, there were 268,000 registered democrats.
3,000 more voters in NY-16 have registered as democrats, giving them the right to vote in the democratic primary between Rep. Bowman and Latimer. And our sources tell us that about 1,300 of those 3,000 new democrats are former republicans.
“Some of George’s (Latimer) supporters wanted to get moderate republicans in the district (NY-16) to switch parties so that they can vote in the June 25 primary. According to the tally’s of some of the groups who tried to accomplish this, about 1,300 republicans in the district did just that-they are now registered democrats,” said one sound shore democrat.
One of the motivating factors behind the effort to get registered republicans to switch to democrat were the comments made by Rep. Bowman in regards to the State of Israel. Several Westchester Rabbi’s penned a letter calling Bowman out for his lack of support for Israel before the October 7 attacks by Hamas.
Since then the issue has intensified, as has the opposition of many Westchester Jews against Bowman. How many Westchester Jews switched parties in this time period is unknown.
But another Westchester democrat told us, “1,300 votes was close to the number that they were looking to switch to democrat. Remember Mike Lawler won his Congressional seat by 2,100 votes, and that was for a November election. This will be a democratic primary, and the number of democrats coming out will be less. Those 1,300 voters could tip the primary election,” said a Yonkers democrat.
