By Dan Murphy
County Legislator Virginia Perez, in her quest to challenge State Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, has submitted enough valid signatures to appear on the democratic primary ballot in the 35th Senate district, which includes West Yonkers, Greenburgh, Mt. Pleasant and parts of Scarsdale, New Rochelle and White Plains, on September 12x.
With 1,000 valid democratic signatures required, Perez and her supporters submitted 1,300. In a strategic move, Perez and her volunteers, collected their signatures in Yonkers, mostly in the same areas that Perez is familiar with representing Yonkers on the County Board. Stewart-Cousins, and members of the democratic parties outside of Yonkers, collected most of their signatures outside of Yonkers.
“This means that every signature that Virginia got in Yonkers, if it was from a democrat in the district, is good because Andrea’s campaign didn’t collect in Yonkers, so there are no duplicate signatures,” said one Perez volunteer. “We knew that Virginia’s signatures were good, she’s been doing this a while with little or no help from the democratic party in her county board races.”
Perez’s signatures were initially challenged at the Board of Elections by Susan Berger, Chair of the Greenburgh Democratic Committee. But according to two sources, after further review, there were not enough ‘specific challenges’ to move ahead and try to knock Perez off the ballot.
The question that many democrats are asking about the upcoming Perez vs Stewart-Cousins primary; what impact if any, will the Blue Wave, and the election of Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez have on this race in Westchester?
Some supporters of Perez like to make the comparison to Ocasio-Cortez and the fact that Cortez came out of nowhere to defeat a longtime incumbent just two months ago. Ocasio-Cortez defeated Congressman Joe Crowley in the 14th District of Queens and the Bronx in New York City. But here in Westchester, longtime incumbent Congressman Eliot Engel easily won re-election by defeating three challengers.
So, what will be the tendency for Westchester democrats coming out for a September primary that will also have Governor Andrew Cuomo—Cynthia Nixon on the ballot, and four democrats on the ballot for Attorney General?
Most democrats, and political insiders we spoke to gave Perez no chance to defeat Stewart-Cousins next month. “There’s almost no comparison between Virginia Perez and Ocasio-Cortez other than they are both Latino and lived in Westchester (Cortez grew up in Yorktown),” said one county democrat.
“Virginia has a proven conservative record and for a time was a registered Conservative. She doesn’t know the Senate district outside of Yonkers and they don’t know her That is why she got her signatures in Yonkers, and her petitions in Greenburgh said Village of Greenburgh and not the town.
“Despite being leader of the Senate democrats in Albany, Andrea has done an excellent job representing the district and when it included Scarsdale, Greenburgh and New Rochelle. What democrats know about Virginia is her ties to Astorino, and you can’t say that Virginia is an Ocasio -Cortez democrat when she is tied to a Trump conservative like Rob Astorino.”
When asked if the Stewart-Cousins camp was worried about Perez, this same county democrat said, “The biggest concern is what this does for Senator Stewart Cousins time and resources throughout the state. Instead of going to Long Island and upstate to support other senate democratic candidates, she will have to be in her district against another democrat. So, anyone who would say Perez’s challenge is a progressive move, I would argue that the way to move the NY State Senate to the left is to defeat senate republicans and not take out longstanding democratic leadership,”
“Andrea ain’t no Joe Crowley and Virginia ain’t no Ocasio-Cortez,” said another county government insider. Ocasio-Cortez is a left wing democratic-socialist taking on the establishment democratic party. Virginia Perez has been in bed with republicans for 5 of the last 6 years. She’s much closer to another State Senator, Diane Savino, than Sen. Stewart-Cousins.”
“I told her that I think this will be the end of her political career,” said the same county official. “When you take a shot at the king (or the queen), be sure you don’t miss. But she is ambitious and doesn’t take people’s advice.”
Stewart-Cousins has the support of almost every traditional democratic interest group, including all of the county unions. One union leader said it best “I’m not supporting Virginia Perez. Our Democratic Senate conference leader has done so much for our state and our district. It’s no time for change when all is going well.”
What will progressive and indivisible democrats do when they go to the polls in Westchester next month. One wise Westchester democrat wrote after Ocasio-Cortez’s victory.
Tonight’s victory by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over Incumbent Joe Crowley proved a couple of things:
1 – Political Machines are a thing of the past. No longer do you need the support of a major political party to run for a major office.
2 – Democrats (and voters overall) are done with establishment politics, especially when a viable alternative option is available to them. People are seeking out alternatives instead of accepting the tired, recycled and bogus options they may be presented with.
3 – The words, “wait your turn” or “I paid my dues politically” or “I am owed that office” no longer apply in this new RE-birth of activism and civic engagement.
4 – If you work hard, work for your community and focus on the work, you will be a winner.
Congrats to all the long shots who won tonight. Congrats to all those who were re-elected tonight because they are true to the work.
The comments above elicited a response from Virginia Perez, who has been quite about her State Senate challenge to Stewart-Cousins except for this response.
“I’ve heard # 3 plenty of times. Heck I’m in office now and I’m still hearing it. Apparently, we have to wait for somebody to feel like retiring or to die so that we the younger generation can finally get up and do things for our communities. Well, not anymore,” wrote Perez.
