Shimsky to Challenge Abinanti, Force Democratic Primary for Assembly Seat
Five-term Westchester County Legislator MaryJane Shimsky plans to challenge veteran Assemblyman Tom Abinanti in a Democratic primary next year after announcing her candidacy Tuesday for the 92nd Assembly District seat.
Shimsky, the Board of Legislators’ current majority leader, said she enjoys being a legislator and hopes to carry that to the state level. The Dobbs Ferry resident was unopposed for a sixth two-year term last month but cannot serve beyond that because of Westchester’s law that limits county legislators to 12 years in office.
“Obviously, I have two years to find new employment, but I think being a legislator is far and away the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done,” Shimsky said. “You get to help people as individuals who call your office, you get to affect policy by doing legislative oversight on the executive branch and, as needed, you get to pass laws that improve your jurisdiction, whether it’s your county or your state.”
Her candidacy would set up a primary in June against Abinanti. The district has been a Democratic stronghold for decades. Before Abinanti took over in 2011, Richard Brodsky represented the area for nearly three decades.
Prior to her Board of Legislators service, Shimsky worked as community relations director for Brodsky. A Yale graduate, she went to NYU School of Law and worked as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan before teaching history at Marymount College.
Shimsky said she was motivated to run, in part, because Abinanti has “sat on the sidelines” on pandemic-related issues and has failed to help Westchester obtain critical state resources to mitigate serious flooding over the past decade. The shortcomings were once again apparent after Hurricane Ida struck the region on Sept. 1.
“I feel that members of the Assembly need to take a more active role in making sure that everything is as it should be and getting out and being proactive with information to help the community know where the resources are to make the right decisions,” said Shimsky, who followed Abinanti in the same Board of Legislators seat, which serves Greenburgh and Mount Pleasant.
She criticized Abinanti’s opposition to extend the eviction moratorium, which helped thousands of workers, many of them immigrants, who were laid off from their jobs in restaurants and other industries that were shut down or curtailed because of the pandemic.
Abinanti countered that he was the county legislator who drafted Westchester Master Plan to address flooding issues, which was approved in his final days in office in 2010 before leaving for the Assembly. He said former county executive Rob Astorino opted for what was called the Reconnaissance Plan a few years later, which has since become outdated.
Meanwhile, she and other county lawmakers never followed up with a plan to deal with stormwater, Abinanti said.
“I would be happy to fight on behalf of Greenburgh to get money to fix that problem, but somebody’s got to do the plan,” Abinanti said. “She’s attempting to fabricate issues, which just don’t exist. I did what needed to be done on that and it’s now a county issue.”
The assemblyman, who has been a leading advocate for providing special education resources in public schools and the disabled population, said he supported the rent moratorium twice, but by the second extension it was hurting small landlords who weren’t receiving help from the state. The small landlord owns most rentals in Mount Pleasant and Greenburgh, he said.
“I could not tell our one-, two- and three-family landlords that they had to continue supporting tenants and never see the possibility of state money,” Abinanti said.
He also chided Shimsky for announcing her candidacy for a district that may be altered significantly once redistricting is complete.
“We don’t even know what the districts are,” said Abinanti, a Pleasantville resident. “She’s running for a district that hasn’t even been designed yet.”
Petitioning is scheduled to begin around Mar. 1.
Neither candidate has heard yet of other potential candidates who may consider a run from either major party.
For Abinanti, this would be the second consecutive election cycle where he would have to fend off a challenge within his own party. In 2020, he outlasted little-known Jennifer Williams in the Democratic primary before winning a fifth Assembly term in November without opposition.
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/
