Yonkers Democrats Meet, but Make NO Endorsements
By Dan Murphy
The Yonkers Democratic Executive Committee held a meeting on Dec. 17 to set a date for their convention next year, and to hear from candidates interested in running for office in 2021.
At that meeting, Yonkers City Councilwoman Shanae Williams spoke to the committee and announced that she will be running for Westchester County Clerk.
The current County Clerk is democrat Tim Idoni, who is running for re-election to a fifth, four-year term.
Williams announcement, which came as a surprise to many, means that if she can get on the ballot, she will face off against Idoni in a democratic primary in June.
Williams was appointed to the council by Mayor Mike Spano and recently won election to her first full term. On the council, Williams has supported legislation including requiring developers to include 20% affordable units of new apartments. The current law is 10%.
Williams has also submitted a resolution to make Juneteenth a holiday in Yonkers. That would result in City Hall being closed and city employees would be paid for the new holiday.
Some erroneous reporting claimed that the Exec. Committee endorsed Williams over Idoni at that meeting. We spoke to Yonkers Democratic Chair Tom Meier, who said that no endorsements were planned or happened at the meeting.
“We didn’t endorse anybody last night. We let all the elected officials and candidates speak, (by Zoom) but we didn’t take any votes or make any endorsements. We scheduled a meeting for our convention, which will be sometime in mid-late January,” said Meier.
While most Yonkers democrats were unaware that Williams would make her announcement, Westchester democrats were also puzzled by the move. Idoni has already met with half of the local democratic committees in Westchester and while no endorsements has been made, all of the county democrats Idoni has met with seem enthusiastic with his re-election.
Westchester democrats will meet on Feb. 10 to make their endorsements. “I would be shocked if Tim (Idoni) doesn’t get the endorsement, and I don’t see where the support for Shanae (Williams) is coming from,” said a Sound Shore democrat.
Another Westchester democrat said, “Williams is hoping to get support from the progressive-indivisible community, and that as an elected, young, black woman, the time may be right for her to go for it.”
A Yonkers democrat thought that Williams “could use this race for County Clerk to get her name out, especially in Yonkers, if she wanted to run for something in the future.”
The continued COVID-19 spread in Westchester will only make campaigning and collecting signatures more difficult, said another county democrat. “With COVID, its hard to campaign and hard to get the 1200 signatures, you would need 3,000 to be safe.” Governor Andrew Cuomo could lower the number of signatures required because of COVID.
Williams announcement was all the talk at City Hall. One Yonkers Democrat said that Williams announcement “came out of left field. I’m not sure what the rationale is but she’s a young, female, and in this political climate, she is an attractive candidate. She doesn’t have to give up her council seat, so what does she have to lose? It’s a little bit like Jamaal Bowman against Eliot Engel, and we now have Congressman Bowman. “
Idoni told us that he feels great and is ready to run on his record of streamlining the County Clerks office while delivering better service for the people of Westchester.
“I’m confident in running on my record of getting things done, but we still have a lot of work to do, and that’s why I’m running again, and why I would like to continue to serve, if the people will have me.”
Idoni said that she had only heard that Williams was running two days ago, and said, “I respect her candidacy.”
And so begins the political season of 2021.
