By Dan Murphy
One wise, Yonkers political observer told me in the days after the Democratic Primary on June 23 that the City had become a supermajority democratic City. Yonkers Democratic Chair Tom Meier has also spoke about the unsurmountable edge that democrats hold over republicans, and how that advantage is growing every year.
The ‘Blue Wave’ that hit Westchester in 2017 never left Yonkers, as three democratic candidates for City Court Judge won election Nov. 3. With about 15,000 absentee votes left the count, Dan Romano, Karen Best and Verris Shako all hold a 9,000 vote lead over Judge Tom Daly, who ran on the republican line after losing the Dem. primary.
In the days and weeks before Nov. 3, Daly’s supporters rallied to his cause, and urged voters to re-elect him to the Yonkers bench. But despite these efforts, and despite political errors and blunders by one candidate, democrats went into the polls on election day, and in the days before, and voted to remove President Trump, casting their ballot for Joe Biden and then voting straight democrat all the way down the line.
Dan Romano received the most votes for City Court, which shows his broad appeal from all voters in Yonkers. Congratulations to Romano and also to Verris Shako and Karen Best. Both Shako and Best will become the first African-American female judges on the Yonkers City Court.
In other races, State Senator Shelley Mayer won re-election on Nov. 3, defeating republican Liviu Saimovici by a 54%-39% margin. 7% of voters in the 37th District voted for President and left the state senate race blank.
Also on election night, Yonkers elected a new member of Congress to represent them in Washington DC. Democrat Jamaal Bowman got 68% of the vote, and handily defeated Conservative candidate Patrick McManus, who got 14%. 18% of voters in this district voted for President and walked out.
State Senator and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins was re-elected without opposition, as was Assemblyman Nader Sayegh.
