There were no local elections in New Rochelle yesterday but returns from Westchester County Elections had two New Rochelle residents came up winners yesterday, Jim Maisano was re-elected as Westchester County Legislator from District 11 and former New Rochelle Mayor Tim Idoni was re-elected as County Clerk.
The biggest shocker was at the top of the ballot where upstart Rob Astorino trounced three-term incumbent Andy Spano for the County Executive job. The upset victory for the Republican Astorino — coming in a heavily Democratic suburb of a heavily Democratic state just a few miles from a heavily Democratic city — has national implications. The Astorino victory was referenced this morning on MSNBC.
As expected, Janet DeFiore was re-elected as District Attorney.
In about a month, the Board of Elections will release the official results and we will try to remember to post how New Rochelle voters cast their ballots yesterday.
recent election results
a fair interpretaton of the results is simply that the ballot box works for those who are willing to get up, go out, and vote their conscience which, I hope, is more fact-based than not.
the theme of this election is “yes we can, but we haven’t.” i hope our sitting officials see that we remain essentially a centrist nation, interested in truth, honesty, fair play, and transparency.
unfortunately we have not had the opportunity to vote for our municipal politicians in 2009 and no school board member is up for re-election until 2010.
the message should be simple. we need to change the current municipal powers unless they can demonstrate transparency, fiscal responsibility and city-wide transparency and participation.
more critical, the entire school board scenario must change. taxes and jobs are the themes in this economy. we cannot afford a bloated district shored up by an arrogrant, lackluster board. we need representation throughout all parts of the city, other arrangements that ensure a formal relationship with city council and mayoral staff, and a merit system among managers and administrators that surely would lead to the dismissal of the superintendent, some of his direct staff and a number of the principal and assistant principal staff. while we are at it, we need to strongly question every office candidate for city and board governance regarding their stand on the about and how strongly they will fight for these needs. can;t someone do simple math in this city — our extrraordinary taxes are largely (two thirds) a product of school taxes, yet the infrasttructure is crumbling or insufficient, our students productivity is falling down, the hurdles are set at lower levels each year, and as we see in bob cox’s recent blog, few if any responses to legitimate taxpayer questions are forthcoming.
i urge each reader to inquire from any council member running for office or reelection whether he/she is smart enough to see the relationships between the school district and taxes, school district and municipal growth, etc… if h/she gives you the stock answer of “separate constituencies”, etc. call h/her “pontius pilate” and walk away from the candidate. if all candidates fail to respond, well maybe we need our own brand of tea parties here to restore sanity and responsibility to the city and its prospects for the future.
warren gross