By Dan Murphy
It’s been a long time since two well known and well liked Yonkers elected officials squared off against each other. We have to go back to 2006, when Shelley Mayer challenged Mike Spano for Assembly. Spano won 52%-48%. That was the same year that democrat Andrea Stewart-Cousins, narrowly defeated republican State Senator Nick Spano.
We have that type of contest again, with the petitions about to go our for City Councilman Mike Breen to run for Assembly, in the 90th District, against democratic incumbent Nader Sayegh.
Sayegh is seeking his third term, after serving for many years in the Yonkers Public Schools and on the Yonkers Board of Education. Breen is serving his 10th year on the council, representing the 5th District of East Yonkers.
Neither Breen nor Sayegh have formally announced their candidacies; Breen will announce on March 12; Sayegh on March 16.
We spoke to supporters of both candidates to get their takes on this race, which will be the most exciting in Yonkers. Supporters of Breen tell us that he is one of several Westchester republicans running against what they call “the progressive policies of the democrats in Albany, including State Senate Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins, from Yonkers.
“I think Mike wants to see what the people of Yonkers have to say about Bail Reform and some other issues, and see if this November is a ‘Red Wave’ of republican victories.”
Supporters of Assemblyman Sayegh tell us, “There is no reason to replace Nader, he has done a good job for Yonkers. This Assembly seat is a democrat seat and has been for the last 16 years. In every election, the democrat has won easily and Nader is one of the most popular elected officials in the City. Plus, there is a Governor’s race that I don’t think will help the republicans, especially in Yonkers,”said a Yonkers democratic leader.
Enrollment numbers for the 90th Assembly district are: Registered democrats-38,400; republicans-15,030, independents-17,311.
One wise Yonkers political operator said, “I like both guys. This is an election between two nice guys. It may be too early to count Breen out. Let’s see what happens in New York State and in Yonkers over the next 6 months”
