By Dan Murphy
Yonkers Rising has received several letters to the editor concerning this November’s elections. The following letter, from resident Arlene Shatner, is something we have heard about some of the races, or lack thereof:
Dear Mr. Murphy, thank you for the Yonkers Rising every week. I love reading about the local content in your paper and Eric Schoen’s column, and the weekly history stories.
I read your story last week (Oct. 11) about Mr. De Giorgio and his campaign for mayor. As a Yonkers republican for 40 years, I will consider voting for him, but hopefully he will provide more details on what he would do. But I give him credit for running and giving the voters a choice.
Right now I am voting for Mayor Mike Spano. Like many older voters in Yonkers, and republicans, many are happy with the way Mayor Spano has led the city. Yes, things could be better, but they could also be worse. That is what I hear from my neighbors and friends in Yonkers who think Mayor Spano deserves another term. Yes, it’s a third term, but so be it.
While I’m not crazy about the way in which term limits were changed, I don’t blame the mayor, I blame the City Council. Mike Breen is my councilman and I will be voting for him for another term, as well.
My primary reason for writing concerns the two republican seats on the County Board of Legislators from Yonkers. In one race, Legislator Gordon Burrows is running, and he has a serious opponent in democrat Ruth Walter.
In the other race, Legislator David Tubiolo is running unopposed. My question to you and to the political leaders in Yonkers is: Why does Burrows have such a tough re-election race while Tubiolo has no opponent?
I read a letter a few weeks ago in your paper complaining about there being no opponent in the fifth council district against Breen. I’m asking a different question: Why does it appear that the democrats are going after Burrows but not putting up a candidate against Tubiolo?
Burrows has been around for many years, both as a legislator and as a city councilman. Tubiolo is young and only in office for a few years. I would think that Tubiolo would be more beatable if I were a democrat.
I have also heard the rumors that Tubiolo is going to switch and become a democrat. But I also heard you, Mr. Murphy, on the WVOX morning show with Dennis Nardone and Nardone, said that he was told by Justin Tubiolo, who is the Yonkers Republican chairman, that his son David “will never switch parties.”
I wondered if that were true? And if that were true, then why would democrats not run against him?” (End of Shatner letter.)
Thanks for your letter, Ms. Shatner. To answer your questions the best I can, I agree that democrats are pointing their opportunities to win more seats on the County Board in the Burrows district, number 15, including East Yonkers and Bronxville. Ruth Walter is running a serious campaign with the help of a well-known political consulting organization.
But Burrows will be a tough candidate to beat. He won re-election in 2017, winning as a republican during a “blue wave” of democratic victories in Westchester, and in Yonkers. Turnout will be lower than in 2017, but Walter has Spano at the top of her ticket, which could help her in the Yonkers portion of the district.
I do not know why democrats declined to run a candidate against Legislator Tubiolo or Councilman Breen. I do think Breen would have been difficult to beat and is popular in his district.
I do not know why Tubiolo doesn’t have an opponent. The conspiracy theories are out again, with the rumor being that he was given a free pass because his father is the republican chairman of Yonkers. I don’t see any proof in that because I do not see what Yonkers democrats got in exchange for not running against Tubiolo.
Some say Spano was given a pass in exchange for Tubiolo getting a pass, but as last week’s front-page story proves, Spano has an opponent in Mario De Giorgio. Whether you support De Giorgio or if he is not your cup of tea, that is up to you. The republicans in Yonkers did their job in putting up a candidate for mayor.
Finally, I would say to you, Ms. Shatner, that it is up to individual candidates to decide whether to run, and to collect signatures in the winter and cold, and early spring. It is more difficult now than ever to get candidates to run for office.
Upcoming mayoral debates include Oct. 22 at 7:30 a.m. at the Chamber of Commerce breakfast at St. John’s Hospital; and Oct. 28 at 7 p.m. at the League of Women Voters’ annual candidates’ forum at Sarah Lawrence College.
And don’t forget that voting starts Saturday, Oct. 26 and continues every day through Sunday, Nov. 3, at the Will Library for voters on the east side of Yonkers and the Riverfront Library for west-side voters.
