On Nov. 6, voters in Yonkers will go to the polls and elect their next member of the Assembly in the 90th District, which consists of more than 80 percent of the city. Former Assembly member Shelley Mayer won election to the State Senate this spring, creating the vacancy in her old Assembly seat.
Voters have a choice between two candidates: Democrat Nader Sayegh and Republican Joe Pinion. The people of Yonkers have been lucky in this contest to have two candidates actively campaigning, exchanging their views, and participating in community debates and forums.
Pinion is a first-time candidate for office and a lifelong resident of Yonkers. He is a well-spoken candidate, who has brought fresh ideas to the debate table this year.
Pinion has attempted to touch on a nerve that a majority of Yonkers residents and taxpayers believe – that Yonkers has not received its fair share of state aid from Albany for decades. But Pinion’s cure for the problem, that Yonkers send a republican to sit in the Assembly with a supermajority of democrats, we do not agree with.
We endorse Sayegh for Assembly for several reasons. First, Sayegh has demonstrated a love and passion for the City of Yonkers and its people based on his 40 years of public service, most notably in education. Sayegh has served as a teacher, principal, and president of the Board of Education, climbing up the ladder through the Yonkers Public Schools and learning more about the children, parents and teachers that he now wants to represent in Albany.
Sayegh can also relate to the everyday concerns of the voters based on his other experiences, as a father, homeowner and small businessperson in Yonkers. We believe that Sayegh can use all of these experiences to serve the people he is elected to serve.
Specifically, Sayegh can use his education background and experience lobbying Albany for additional state aid for education while on the Board of Education, in the Assembly. The problems of underfunding Yonkers in Albany is not the fault of Sayegh, nor is it the fault of State Senators Mayer and Stewart-Cousins.
The fault lies with the republican majority in the State Senate, which has consistently denied Yonkers its fair share for the last six years it has been in power. On Nov. 6, all of that can change if democrats take over the State Senate and Stewart-Cousins is elected majority leader, and Mayer can do what she has done best for years in the Assembly –work inside the Senate crafting legislation that can benefit Yonkers.
And what better a partner could Stewart-Cousins and Mayer have in Albany than Nader Sayegh serving?
Pinion has brought youthful enthusiasm and new ideas to this race and we congratulate him for doing what many critics of our politics today don’t do – run for office. We believe that we will see Pinon running for office again.
But in this important time in Yonkers history, we want Sayegh in Albany, explaining the challenges that the city faces, and working through solutions. We endorse Nader Sayegh for Assembly, 90th District-Yonkers.
