By Dan Murphy
Four years ago, Congressman Eliot Engel became our unofficial Westchester congressman, since after the 2010 Census and redistricting, the 16th congressional district he represents now includes more than two-thirds of the county, including all lower Westchester and north to Rye, Greenburgh and Scarsdale.
Engel, who has served for 28 to 30 years, faced a challenge two years ago from Mt. Vernon community activist and entrepreneur Derickson Lawrence. This year, he will again face Democratic challenges from Lawrence and from Scarsdale businessman Jonathan Lewis.
Lawrence was knocked off the Democratic primary but ran on a third-party line in 2016, getting 5 percent of the vote. This year, Lawrence got enough signatures to get on the ballot in the June 26 Democratic primary for Congress in the 16th district, which includes Yonkers, Mt. Vernon, New Rochelle, Eastchester, the Sound Shore communities of Rye, Mamaroneck, and Greenburgh.
Lawrence is attempting to run a low-spending, high-impact campaign, with a slogan of “Where’s the Accountability?”
“We are running because our incumbent has literally stopped solving problems in our district for the past decade, and we deserve a representative that will proactively and aggressively champion the needs of the district,” he said.
“I am the only authentic choice in this primary. The insane world of Trump has paralyzed an already gridlocked Congress. We need a Congressman who can cast votes that benefit the people, and who can solve problems in the district. My varied background of private and public experience has prepared me for this role. Further, my 30 years of activism in terms of solving problems in the areas of jobs and upward mobility, health care and prescription drug prices, taking guns off the streets, and education reform differentiate me from my competitors.”
“In my view, our incumbent is compromised because some 96 percent of his funding comes from special interests, Political Action Committees and big corporations,” continued Lawrence. “It’s time for a change. I am sure you agree that something is wrong in Washington. But the truth is nothing will change unless we act – no one else is going to do it for us. Where’s the accountability?”
Lawrence said he has the experience and contacts based on his run for Congress two years ago. “We planted the flag two years ago and we have returned to reclaim it,” he said. The challenge for his campaign is now that there is a third candidate on the Democratic primary ballot for June 26 – Jonathan Lewis.
Another unknown is that in a post-President Trump Westchester world, where do the young, progressive indivisible voters go in this race? Lawrence said that while individual, young progressive Democrats who are members of local indivisible organizations, “we will have to wait and see” who they come out and vote for.
One testament to Lawrence was from Edgemont Democrat Robert Bernstein, who wrote: “I just recently met Derickson K. Lawrence, a Democratic district leader from Mt. Vernon at the regular monthly meeting of the Greenburgh Democratic Committee, and I was blown away. He is truly the “community organizer” that Barack Obama says we need right now in every neighborhood in this country.
“I am a lawyer, chair of the Edgemont Democrats, a Democratic district leader and president of the Edgemont Community Council,” said Bernstein. “I’m fed up with the status quo in Congress, where, as far as I’m concerned, both sides have failed us. I know I’m not alone in saying it’s time we called on a new generation of progressive Democrats to lead us.”
Lawrence has been unable, so far, to raise adequate campaign funds (he has $2,431 in his campaign account) to compete against Lewis, who has $379,000 on hand; and Engel, who has $570,000 on hand.
Lewis, a Scarsdale businessman, launched his campaign in March. “I’m running for Congress because I believe our democracy is in trouble,” he said. “We must all stand up and participate to ensure we have a full debate on the issues within the Democratic Party. I am running in the Democratic primary to ensure there is a complete discussion on issues such as campaign finance reform, health care and affordable prescription drugs, and equality of educational and economic opportunity.”
“Now more than ever, we need candidates and elected officials who stand for democratic values and who haven’t gone the way of Washington – which is fundamentally broken. Too many politicians take corporate money, do the bidding of lobbyists for big corporate interests that aren’t even in the district, take perks, enjoy privileges, and go on privately funded trips, rather than working for the district. Instead, they come to work for themselves and their donors. If our Democracy is to survive, this needs to stop.”
Getting corporate money out of our elections is especially important to Lewis. “Corporate money is undermining our democracy and silencing our representatives,” he explained, saying he will not accept corporate PAC donations to his campaign and he will not be beholden to special interests. “We must stand up to Donald Trump and the Republicans with a clean heart if we hope to deliver on priorities like good jobs, affordable health care for all, and major investments in education. We Democrats must strengthen our party from within if we are to be victorious in this struggle.”
Born in Mount Vernon, Lewis spent his early years in Eastchester, where his father was town Democratic chairman. He has lived and raised his family in the district for the past two decades. “I’m troubled that many of my neighbors have not benefited from the economic recovery since the Great Recession,” he explained. “We have large numbers of our neighbors in this district living in poverty, without access to opportunity, health care, or a great education. The hard-working people of Westchester and the Bronx need someone in Washington who is fighting for the folks back home and I will deliver on that commitment. Anyone who goes to the drugstore to fill a prescription knows that the cost of staying healthy is spiraling out of control. This is unfair to working families, and a threat to the financial viability of our healthcare system.”
A trustee of Yonkers Partners in Education and a former elected trustee of the Scarsdale Board of Education, Lewis is also a member of Business Executives for National Security. He will focus on areas where he has extensive experience and expertise including education, economic opportunity, health care and homeland security.
Lewis, 55, is a successful business executive and entrepreneur who co-founded a firm that invests in municipal bonds that finance roads, bridges, schools and universities. An active nonprofit volunteer and a dedicated parent, he has served as president and a board member of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Westchester County Chapter. Both of his children have Type 1 Diabetes.
He is a former trustee of the American Jewish Historical Society and a staunch supporter of the state of Israel. He is the author of two books on U.S. foreign policy and national security issues. A longtime member of Business Executives for National Security, in 2004 he received the CIA’s Agency Seal Medal for his work on intelligence reform.
Lewis holds a MA in history from New York University and an MBA in finance and management from Columbia University.
Learn more about both campaigns at JonathanLewisForCongress.com and dericksonkforcongress.com.
