New Castle’s Democratic-Endorsed Ticket Victorious in Primary
The New Castle Democratic Committee’s endorsed candidates were victorious Tuesday night in what was believed to be the first primary in a local election in the town’s history.
Candidate for supervisor Holly McCall and her running mates, Councilwoman Lori Morton, Michael Weinberg and Jennifer Bounds, defeated challengers Lisa Katz, a two-term councilwoman running for supervisor, and Andrea Sanseverino Galan and Tara Kassal.
The Westchester County Board of Elections, which updated results Wednesday that included all of the town’s 16 districts, showed McCall had won the primary for supervisor with 59 percent of the vote (1,013-701) . Morton and Weinberg, who are running for the two four-year terms on the Town Board, picked up 1,063 and 1,022 votes, respectively, ahead of Sanservino Galan and Kassal, who each collected 635 votes.
In the race for the two-year Town Board seat, Bounds finished ahead of Jennifer Louis-Jeune 956-174. Louis-Jeune, who announced last month that she would be moving out of town and, therefore, unable to serve, remained on the ballot for Tuesday’s vote.
Louie-Jeune was replaced on the slate’s Unite New Castle’s independent line by Chappaqua Board of Education President Victoria Tipp, who also had announced that she would be running as a write-in candidate for the Democratic nomination.
The Examiner learned that there were more than 500 write-in votes for the two-year seat but was still awaiting official totals from the Board of Elections.
“We were really committed to doing the work and talking to the voters and listening to all of the voters of New Castle and I think that that really made the difference,” McCall said. “Of course, having the support of the established Democratic Committee was very helpful because they all were in support of us and they helped us do the work.”
Katz and her running mates did not concede Tuesday night, saying that the outcome stills hang in the balance.
In the months leading up to the primary, much of the campaign focused on the proposed Form Based Code, a controversial zoning change for the downtown Chappaqua hamlet that has been debated during public hearings and on social media since last year.
Katz and her ticket oppose the code, arguing that it would negatively change the character of the town.
Morton, who is running for her first full term after winning a seat on the Town Board for an unexpired term last fall, said more voters liked what she and her running mates had to offer.
“I really think it’s about having a positive message and bringing detailed ideas to back up what we hoped to do as candidates,” Morton said. “I think the combination of those ideas resonates with people, and I think it’s a much better position having a positive message about driving positive change than driving solely from a position of being against something.”
Although there are no Republicans in the race, there will still be a contested election in November. The winners from the primary will appear on two lines in the fall, as Democrats and on an independent line. The endorsed Democrats will also run on the 4 New Castle while Katz, Sanseverino Galan, Kassal and Tipp will appear on the Unite New Castle ticket.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
