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November 2, 2008
The Election | Yonkers
Call to Ease Property Taxes Resounds in
35th District
By JULI S. CHARKES
Yonkers
THE crowd of 60 or so at the Grinton I. Will Library here sat quietly
during the first portion of a forum for Congressional and state
legislative candidates on a recent Thursday evening. Then the issue of
property taxes came up.
“When are you going to lower them?” came a question from the back row,
followed by sighs and affirmations of “that’s right” by others seated
nearby.
That response is typical of what candidates have been hearing on the
campaign trail in Westchester, where taxes are among the highest in the
country.
“Taxes are a growing burden, and the desire and demand is for government
to find a way to alleviate that burden because people are at the end of
their ropes,” State Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a first-term
Democrat in the 35th District who is up for re-election, said a few days
after the library event.
Her opponent, John Murtagh, a Republican who is a Yonkers City
councilman, said, “I think government spending and taxes are the issues
— most certainly, that’s all I hear about.”
The local races on Tuesday’s ballot provide an opportunity to choose
government leaders who determine everything from tax policies to
government spending to road repairs. But the local elections may have an
impact beyond Westchester, with control of the State Senate at stake.
The Republicans have a slim edge there.
The 35th District race is one of two in Westchester that the Republican
Party is pouring money into as part of its bid to retain a Senate
majority. In the past three weeks, the Republican Campaign Committee
spent $3.2 million on Senate races, according to campaign filings.
Elizabeth N. Feld, 47, a Republican who is the mayor of Larchmont, had
received $184,942 from the state party in her 37th District Senate race
against the 12-term incumbent, Suzi Oppenheimer, 73, whose campaign
received $123,776 in Democratic financial support.
Republicans had also spent $269,527 on Mr. Murtagh’s campaign, said
Joseph E. Conway, a Republican campaign spokesman, far more than the
Democrats’ infusion of $10,320 for Ms. Stewart-Cousins.
“This is a critically important election,” Mr. Conway said. “John
Murtagh is a powerful leader who works hard and knows how to connect
with voters.”
Two years ago Ms. Stewart-Cousins, 58, won a Senate seat long held by
the Republicans. Her campaign this time has the support of Gov. David A.
Paterson, whom she described as a friend and ally. “He is very involved
and paid close attention to this district,” she said. She said successes
in her two-year term include the continued operation of the Dobbs Ferry
Community Hospital; she fought its scheduled closing. “That was huge,”
she said. “That facility stayed open and saved hundreds of jobs.”
The tax burden remains a core theme, Ms. Stewart-Cousins said. She said
she did not support the property tax cap favored by Mr. Murtagh but
would consider a tax linked to income instead of property value.
Like Ms. Stewart-Cousins, Mr. Murtagh, 48, said belt-tightening was
essential for state government. “The reality is that there is no sense
of control on state spending in Albany at all,” he said.
Mr. Murtagh, who also practices law and teaches law and public policy at
the Fordham University College of Liberal Studies, described himself as
“an equal opportunity finger pointer” when it came to state spending. “I
hold both sides responsible,” he said.
He said the elimination of government waste and fraud was a priority,
including in areas like Medicaid. Spending on member items, known as
earmarks, should be curtailed, he said. “It’s a massive amount of money
that is handed out without oversight,” he said.
In two terms as a Yonkers councilman, Mr. Murtagh wrote a stringent
ethics code for the city. As a citizen, he lobbied successfully for term
limits for the city administration, including for members of the City
Council and mayor’s office.
Ms. Stewart-Cousins and Mr. Murtagh have compelling personal stories.
She lost her first Senate race, in 2004, by just 18 votes and then
defeated the incumbent, Nicholas A. Spano, by 2,200 votes in 2006. “When
I ran in 2004, I ran against all odds,” she said. “I always understood
it was not going to be easy.”
Mr. Murtagh has a tie to Senator John McCain campaign’s strategy of
linking Senator Barack Obama to William Ayers, a founder of the radical
Weather Underground, which claimed responsibility for bombing the
Pentagon, the Capitol and several other buildings — including Mr.
Murtagh’s childhood home. He described awakening to flames early one
morning when he was 9 after three gasoline-filled firebombs exploded at
his home. The intended target, he said, was his father, John Murtagh
Sr., a New York State Supreme Court justice who was presiding over a
trial involving members of the Black Panther Party.
That incident was cited in a press release issued last month by the
McCain campaign. “I quickly learned what Andy Warhol meant about 15
minutes of fame,” Mr. Murtagh said.
The economy has been at the forefront of Congressional races as well.
Nita M. Lowey, 71, a Democrat who represents the 18th Congressional
District, which includes portions of Westchester and Rockland Counties,
told the crowd at the Yonkers library that “the most important thing we
need to do is stabilize the economy.”
She is being challenged by the Republican Jim Russell, 54, a computer
consultant from Hawthorne. His main campaign themes include fiscal
control and immigration control. He said he is opposed to military aid
to any foreign country.
John Hall, 60, the first-term Democrat representing the 19th District,
which includes parts of Westchester, is being challenged by Kieran Lalor,
32, a Republican from Peekskill who is a former marine and served in
Kuwait and Iraq. Mr. Hall, chairman of the Veterans’ Subcommittee on
Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs, has sponsored legislation
related to veterans’ disability benefits, including a bill signed into
law by President Bush last month aimed at overhauling the disability
claims bureaucracy.
Adelaide DiGiorgi, vice president of the League of Women Voters of
Westchester, said turnout at local political events had been higher than
ever. But high turnout does not necessarily translate into voting in
local races, said Steven Greenberg, a spokesman for the Siena New York
Poll. He said there can be a 5 to 15 percent falloff, particularly in a
presidential year when first-time voters ride a wave of participatory
excitement over the top names, but do not vote in local races that are
farther down the ballot.
“There is definitely a category of voters that come in and vote for the
president and then leave the booth,” Mr. Greenberg said.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: November 9, 2008
An article last Sunday about elections in Westchester County, including
the 19th Congressional District race between Representative John Hall
and Kieran Lalor, misstated the status of legislation affecting
veterans’ benefits that Mr. Hall sponsored. It was signed into law by
President Bush last month, not merely passed by Congress.
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