Siegel Holds Lead in Yorktown Town Board Race
Former Yorktown Supervisor Susan Siegel appears to have defeated Republican Thomas Diana to serve the last 13 months of former Councilman Dave Paganelli’s unexpired term, according to unofficial results posted by the Westchester County Board of Elections.
With 100% of the 43 districts reporting, Siegel received 5,543 votes (51%) to 5,414 (49%) for Diana.
However, with an unknown amount of absentee ballots still not recorded and a pending recount, Diana, a retired police officer and local business owner, said he was not ready yet to concede the election.
“Who knows? You get this close and it remains a nail biter,” Diana remarked Wednesday morning. “Someone could have changed a 91 to 19 very easily. She had four lines, we had one. I think we did pretty good with one line.”
Siegel, who served one term as supervisor before being unseated by Michael Grace in a three-way race in 2011, said with Republicans performing well throughout the nation she was happy to win as a Democrat. She also ran on the Conservative, Independence and Working Families lines.
“I’m very heartened by the diversity of my support. It shows that they were voting not by a party but for me as a person and what I stand for,” she said. “I’m looking forward to it and I want to open this government back up. I’m only interested in what’s best for Yorktown.”
Siegel noted she was “shocked” by what she perceived as negative campaigning from Diana, an allegation he refuted.
“I don’t feel I ran a negative campaign. She was the one who ran negative with the rubber stamp label she gave me,” Diana said. “Everything we put out was the truth. It was comparisons of the two of us.”
Siegel said she intends to try to foster a working relationship with Grace who she has been highly critical of during his three years as supervisor.
“I can work with him. I support him on a lot of things,” she said. “I want very much to work with Michael and I hope he shares the same goal. Openness and transparency are key to me.”
Rick has more than 40 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rick’s work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/