Committee Rules for Cohen in 37th Senate District Campaign Flap
The Westchester County Fair Campaign Practices Committee last week found state Senate candidate George Latimer’s campaign committed an unfair practice but did not rule on a complaint the Democrat lodged against Republican foe Bob Cohen.
Last Friday, the committee ruled that the Latimer camp had wrongly divulged to The Journal News on Sept. 28 that it had filed a complaint with the body. However, Latimer’s charge, which took umbrage with a Cohen television ad interviewing average citizens in the street regarding Latimer’s public service record but instead used political operatives, was ignored.
“News releases concerning the filing of a complaint may come only from the Committee,” the Oct. 5 ruling stated. “If notice of the filing of a complaint is made public by any other source, the Committee will consider the action an unfair campaign practice.”
Simultaneously, it issued no finding on Latimer’s charge, only briefly explaining that since Cohen’s ad was obviously identified as a political commercial it didn’t rise to the levelo of an unfair practice.
“The implication of a staged reporter hosting a spontaneous interview as a framework could have been misleading to some; however, the commercial was clearly labeled as a political advertisement,” the committee’s conclusion stated.
Latimer last week decried the ad, saying that among the people interviewed in the commercial were Jim Coleman, state Sen. Greg Ball’s campaign manager, and the wife of Yorktown Republican councilman and former county legislator candidate Terrence Murphy. The Murphys don’t live in the 37th Senate District, he said.
“If you go on the streets of Mamaroneck or Larchmont or Harrison and say what do you think of George Latimer, if someone says ‘Oh, that guy’s a bum,’ then that’s legit,” Latimer said. “But this wasn’t grassroots, it was Astroturf.”
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the Cohen campaign said the committee’s decisions highlight how the Republican candidate has been careful to run a clean, albeit hard hitting campaign.
“We have been careful to run an accurate and issue-oriented campaign, but, unfortunately Mr. Latimer has chosen to go another way,” said spokeswoman Jessica Proud. “Our criticisms have been on Mr. Latimer’s record as the number one property taxer in Westchester and his efforts to block Governor Cuomo’s property tax cap and pension reforms. We’re going to stick with the issues and not get personal in this race. It’s what the voters want and deserve.”
The spat between the two sides is the latest chapter in what has become an increasingly nasty campaign between Latimer, who has served the past eight years in the Assembly following 13 years on the county Board of Legislators, and Cohen, who has returned to compete for the seat after losing narrowly to retiring Democratic Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer in 2010.
Latimer charged last week that close to 30 mailers have been sent to district residents during the past month and a half, many of them distorting his record. Among the ones he cited was a mailer stating that he “ducked out of over 70 votes” while on the Board of Legislators, with others stating he opposed the tax cap and supported the original MTA payroll tax.
He said he participated in more than 5,600 votes on the Board of Legislators, opposed the 2 percent tax cap because it didn’t have mandate relief and agreed to support the payroll tax because without it there would have been drastic cutbacks in Metro-North service and fares would have spiked.
“I’m offended by it and the way they’ve introduced me into Armonk and Bedford and Yonkers…to introduce me as some kind of bum who doesn’t care about people,” he said. “I can’t accept that. If I lose this election on the merits, I’ll lose it on the merits but I’m not going to lose it because he misrepresents my record.”
Last week, a mailer on behalf of Latimer reached the district’s homes suggesting that Cohen, who owns a real estate firm, is a slumlord, a charge that Oppenheimer made two years ago. Latimer said he was unaware of the mailer before it went out and that it was the work of the state Democratic Committee.
Proud said that most of the Cohen mailers have also been sent out by third parties.
Last week a Siena College poll gave Latimer a three-point lead in the race, within the margin of error.
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/
