By Dan Murphy
By Dan Murphy
More than 10 republican and democratic candidates for Congress, seeking to represent Westchester County voters in two different Districts (NY-16 and NY-17) participated in three different Westchester League of Women Voters debates. The debates can be seen online by visiting https://www.facebook.com/lwvwestchester
In the 17th District, Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney is seeking re-election, and is facing a challenge in the democratic primary from State Senator Alessandra Biaggi.
Rep. Maloney, who is also Chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, DCCC, has the endorsement of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and many local and regional unions.
State Senator Biaggi has the endorsement from AOC (Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez) and the Working Families Party.
During the debate, Maloney said that Biaggi’s views are too progressive and that she is disconnected from moderate democrats in Northern Westchester and Rockland.
Biaggi said that Maloney is out of touch with the democratic party and that support for programs like Medicare for All, and A Green New Deal are more popular and supported by a majority of democrats in the district.
Maloney pointed to his support for Israel and his rejection of defunding the police but supporting police reforms. Maloney listed several projects and initiatives that he has worked on for Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties. “The Rescue Plan, the Infrastructure bill, the Climate Plan, these are real results. Banning oil barges from the Hudson River, we did that together. The gun safety legislation, lowering prescription drug costs, protecting social security and Medicare, pre-existing conditions, and we must enshrine Roe v. Wade into federal law,” Maloney said.
Biaggi said that more power should be given to the people and less power given to corporations. “We need to make sure that we are getting big money out of politics. Restoring trust by proving that we are fighting for working families. Being committed to institutional reforms like ethics reform, and overturning Citizens United, and Supreme Court reform.”
Recent polling has Maloney comfortably ahead of Biaggi in the upcoming primary on Aug. 23.
Five republicans are seeking to be the GOP’s nominee in the 17th District. The favorite in the race in Assemblyman Mike Lawler who currently represents Rockland County. One of Lawlor’s opponents from Westchester is Bill Faulkner, a councilman from Somers.
Other republicans running in this primary in NY-17 are Jack Schrepel, Charles Castiglio and Shosana David, who did not participate in the debate.
While Lawler has most of the local republican endorsements, and has raised the most money, Faulkner is also mentioned favorably by many Westchester republicans we have spoken to. Faulkner originally was running for Congress in the 16th district when the original district lines ran from the Bronx north into Somers.
But after a NY Judge tossed out those lines, new lines were drawn that put Faulkner in the 17th district, and in a GOP primary against Lawler. Many Westchester republicans have called on Faulkner to get out of the race in 17 and run in 16, but so far he has refused. A few republicans we have spoken to say Faulkner could be a future republican candidate for Westchester County Executive. In a five-way race in this GOP primary, anything could happen.
Back to the 16th District, and another multi-candidate democratic primary. The incumbent Congressman Jamaal Bowman is running for re-election. He is being challenged by two Westchester County Legislators; Vedat Gashi and Katherine Parker.
Gashi got into the race early, Parker is a late arrival. The fourth democrat in this race is Harrison attorney Mark Jaffe.
The debate between the four candidates is also on the Westchester LWV website. Most democrats we speak to believe that Bowman is very difficult, if not impossible to beat, with three democrats running against him, and “splitting the vote of those democrats opposed to Bowman,” as one Westchester democrat told us.
Currently, republicans have a ‘placeholder’ candidate on the ballot in NY-16; John Ciampoli, a longtime republican and attorney from Long Island. While the 16th district is heavily democratic, most political observers believe that the Westchester GOP should find a candidate.
Editor’s Note: In the July 29th issue of Yonkers Rising newspaper, we printed a story titled, “In Yonkers, the Race for Congress is between Bowman and Gashi.” In that story we spoke to several Westchester democrats and Yonkers democrats who wanted Gashi to have a chance to face off against Bowman one on one, and were critical of Parker and Jaffe for getting into the race.
Our story faced push back from the political consultants hired by the Parker campaign, who disagreed with the story and emailed their objection. Based on their opposition, we have decided not to run the story in Westchester Rising, but we ask our readers to read the story in its entirety at: http://yonkerstimes.com/in-yonkers-the-race-for-congress-is-between-bowman-and-gashi/
