Westchester Republicans have placed the name of Christine Sculti to be their candidate for County Executive on their petition for the upcomng Nov. 2 2021 election. Sculti is a longtime employee in county government for republicans, working for former County Executive Rob Astorino and in Yonkers for former Mayor Phil Amicone, and also at the County Board of Elections.
But she has never run for office, and her name comes out of the blue, as Westchester republicans scrambled for a candidate to put on their petitions, which are due this week. One Westchester elected republican told us that “she (Sculti) is a place holder, and hopefully they will find another candidate.”
To her credit, Sculti stepped forward and allowed her name to be put on the ballot for the GOP. This was a very common occurence years ago, when it was incumbent on party leaders to find candidates to run for office or put themselves on the ballot.
And there are other Westchester republicans who have done VERY well working for county government, earning a six figure income for almost a decade that could have stepped forward to run, and should have stepped forward to run before Sculti did. So we say thanks for putting your name on the ballot so at least the people of Westchester have a choice when they go to the polls this fall.
One Westchester republican told us, “my how the mighty have fallen. There once was a time when Westchester and Yonkers had a vibrant GOP. Ah, the good ole days.”
County Democrats were also shocked at the selection. “Who is she?” was the response of several democratic leaders and elected officials that we contacted. “They resorted to picking her (Sculti) becuase everyone else knows they can’t win and they won’t be able to raise money against Latimer, and it would be a waste of campaign funds for a losing cause. Why ruin your reputation and get trounced? When things turn around (for the GOP) you may not get a chance to run again if you lose by 40 points to George.
Another local republican leader said, “I still think that the republcian party can run candidates and win here in Westchester, especially if the trend continues to go far left and far progressivve on so many issues. But right now we have no farm team and no bench. All that we have are the old time candidates we aren’t going to run and aren’t going to give up their nice, cushy tax payer funded job.”
The only other Westchester republican to consider running for County Executive was Dan Branda, from Somers, another political unknown who also worked for Astorino. Branda entered the race late last year (2020) and then got out of the race in Jan of this year (2021).
County Executive George Latimer is running for a second term and is extremely popular in Westchester, based on his leadership during the pandemic, his more than 20 years of elected experience on the county board, assembly and state senate, and his ability to keep all parts of the democratic coaltion together.
Sculti’s name as a County Executive candidate first appeared on the Yonkers insider, yonkersinsider.blogspot.com.
