Councilman Richard St. Paul received his party’s nomination for Mayor of New Rochelle at the Republican Convention held last night at the Radisson Hotel in downtown New Rochelle.
St. Paul is a lawyer and small business owner who currently represents District 4 on the New Rochelle City Council. He will face off against incumbent Mayor Noam Bramson who is seeking re-election. The general election is November 8th.
In his remarks last night, St. Paul wasted no time going directly after what many see as his opponents biggest weakness: failed development efforts in the downtown and waterfront areas. St. Paul announced he intends to introduce a resolution at next week’s City Council meeting to abolish the IDA.
St. Paul said he will also move to introduce ethics reform to prohibit developers and other vendors doing business with the City from making campaign donations to elected officials. Bramson and the Democrats have benefits from tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from accounting firms, real estate developers and contractors over the years. Most recently Talk of the Sound disclosed that Andrew Beveridge, the consultant selected by Democrats over the objection of Republicans to advise the City on its recently adopted redistricting plan. Bramson belatedly returned the funds donated by Beveridge claiming he was unaware that Beveridge had donated to his campaign fund in 2009.
The GOP nominated six candidates for City Council:
District 1: Lou Trangucci*
District 2: Al Tarantino*
District 3: John Earvin
District 4: Kevin Barrett
District 5: Ilyse Spertus
District 6: Stephen Mayo
The races break down as follows (GOP v. DEM):
Mayor: Richard St. Paul v. Noam Bramson*
District 1: Lou Trangucci v. Roberto Lopez
District 2: Al Tarantino v. unopposed
District 3: John Earvin v. Jared Rice**
District 4: Kevin Barrett v. Ivar Hyden
District 5: Ilyse Spertus v. Barry Fertel*
District 6: Stephen Mayo v. Shari Rackman
*incumbent
**serving remainder of unexpired term of James Stowe who passed away in August 2010