Yorktown & Eastchester-New Rochelle Ground Zero for Campaign 2019
By Dan Murphy
In many ways, Westchester County is a tale of two political extremes. As you travel north along the Sprain Parkway, and then the Taconic Parkway, the leanings of the voters become more conservative. Likewise, in southern Westchester, the more progressive beliefs tend to come out more.
Two important elections are taking place in Westchester, which exemplify this divide. In southern Westchester, voters from Eastchester and parts of New Rochelle will be casting a vote for county legislator, with progressive democrat incumbent Damon Maher being challenged by first-time republican candidate Chris Garitee.
And in the race for supervisor in the Town of Yorktown, republican challenger Matt Slater and his supporters are embracing President Donald Trump as they hope to defeat democratic incumbent Supervisor Lanny Gilbert.
Two years ago, Damon Maher rode the blue wave of progressive, democratic support that flowed over Westchester County to defeat republican incumbent County Legislator Sheila Marcotte in the 10th District, which includes Eastchester, Tuckahoe and parts of New Rochelle.
Even the 10th District shows the differing political views in our county, with Eastchester still represented by republicans in town government, while New Rochelle has become a progressive-democratic-led city.
Stepping forward to challenge Maher this year is first-time candidate Chris Garitee, who brings a wonderful life story to this race. “My family are immigrants from Italy and I’m the first American born citizen in my family,” he said. “They came to America in 1963 because they wanted to give their children the opportunities available in this country.
“I’m running for county legislator to make sure those opportunities are available for the next generation. My mother recently became a citizen and she gets to vote for her son in this election. That is the American Dream. Our story is the American Dream; we came here in poverty and now we are the middle class.”
Garitee, like many Westchester residents who graduated from high school here, has watched as most of his classmates leave Westchester because they could not afford to buy a home a raise a family. “Our taxes are so onerous that young people can’t afford to buy a home and pay the property taxes, seniors are being forced out also, and parents are leaving after their kids graduate from high school,” he said. “I want people to be able to retire here and afford it.”
Garitee, who is a Tuckahoe resident, and his campaign of volunteers have knocked on more than 10,000 doors to talk about his five-point plan – curb spending, hold the line on taxes, repeal or revise the Immigrant Protection Act, support law enforcement and protect country parklands.
Despite Garitee’s positive message to the voters and hard work in this campaign, the outcome of this race is a referendum on the incumbent, Legislator Maher.
Maher has sparked controversy in his first term on the County Board. Maher, who calls himself “the progressive champion of the county,” drew front page media coverage when he confronted a Westchester County police officer at a New Rochelle School Board meeting in March.
Maher said he was simply discussing the proposed school resource officer program with the man, Sgt. Amery Bernhardt, who was invited by the New Rochelle School Board to discuss safety measures in the school district. Maher said he “continues to have the support from the community” after his comments, which he did not apologize for.
Those in attendance say Maher was confrontational with the officer and placed the blame for the concept of SROs on a county police sergeant who was invited to the school board meeting. Some accounts have Maher berating the officer about the “demographics of northern Westchester public schools, police sharing information with the federal government and about students being treated differently due to their race,” according to the Journal News.
Maher went on to claim “there is scant evidence that full-time armed officers in schools make students safer and that some teachers and students feel less safe. He said it is “a wasteful allocation of limited financial and human resources,” according to the same account.
One member of the School Board to Maher that Bernhardt was not in attendance to be grilled. “She advised that I was invited as a guest to present on my area of expertise involving school resource officers,” said Bernhardt. “The Westchester County PBA asked that Legislator Maher be removed from the BOL public safety committee, but Maher did not apologize for his comments, and instead ‘doubled down’ and reiterated many of them, including stating at a BOL meeting in June that ‘placing armed police officers in schools does harm.’”
Garitee said that while campaigning, he has heard from voters that he “doesn’t represent the views of this district. He is anti-law enforcement and should be held accountable for his far left, socialist agenda by voting him out of office.”
We agree, and we endorse Garitee for Westchester County legislator, District 10, on Nov. 5, and the days before that in early voting.
In northern Westchester, Yorktown Republicans are trying to recapture the town supervisor’s office that was lost in the blue wave of 2017, when republican Supervisor Michael Grace lost to democrat Lanny Gilbert by 200 votes.
It is important to note that in Yorktown, President Donald Trump won the town by 100 votes in 2016 and County Executive George Latimer lost the town by 300 votes, proving that while the town is equally divided, in a slim and narrow election, republicans might be able to squeak out a victory by tying themselves to Trump and trying to tie Gilbert to Latimer.
Blaming Gilbert for the empty storefronts that have been vacant for years before he took office, and for the retail slowdown that has resulted in store closings all over Westchester, have also been part of the republican playbook in Yorktown.
The tactics are very similar to those waged against Latimer in his successful race for county executive in 2017 and by State Sen. Terrence Murphy in his unsuccessful run for re-election in 2018 against Sen. Peter Harckham.
Will these tactics work in Yorktown this year? What we do know is that every vote counts in Yorktown this election.
In the race for county legislator in the First District, including Peekskill, Yorktown and Cortlandt, republican Legislator John Testa is retiring. Former Peekskill Mayor Frank Catalina, a republican, is running to replace Testa and the County Board. His opponent is democrat Colin Smith. We endorse Catalina because we want to have some balance, and opposition in our county government.
Finally, in the race for County Board in the Ninth District, including Briarcliff Manor, Cortlandt, Croton-on-Hudson, Ossining and Peekskill, democrat Catherine Borgia is seeking re-election, and facing off in a rematch against republican Bob Outhouse.
We see this contest as a difficult race for republicans to win. The seat has been held by Borgia, and democrats before her, for a generation. But what we do think deserves attention is a recent decision by the Westchester Campaign Fair Practices Committee.
A complaint against Borgia filed by Outhouse claimed that Borgia “defamed his character and incited ‘fear mongering’ in her speech at the July 10 Indivisible Westchester forum, which was recorded and published as a YouTube video titled ‘BOL Forum 7/10/19.’ In the video, Ms. Borgia makes reference to Mr. Outhouse and the contents of a defamatory mailer she said was sent out against her.”
In fact, there was no such mailing made against Borgia. She is guilty of “fake news.” The committee found that: “Contrary to candidate Borgia’s statements, there was no proof that any such mailer ever existed or was ever sent. Ms. Borgia’s comments are in violation of one of the committee’s principles: The candidate will neither engage in nor be involved with false or misleading attacks upon the character of an opponent…”
Let’s tell the truth, folks… on both sides of the aisle.
