Garcia-Guerra Holds 30-Vote Advantage in Mt. Kisco Trustee’s Race
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The two Mount Kisco Village Board candidates whose outcomes were not decided on Election Night are still awaiting final word from the Westchester Count Board of Elections on the status of their race.
Angie Garcia-Guerra, who ran on the independent Village Inclusive Party line with Mayor-elect Michael Cindrich and her board running mate Theresa Flora, holds a 30-vote lead over Democrat Jean Farber. Flora, the top vote-getter in the four-way race for two seats, is comfortably in the lead to get on the board next month.
Garcia-Guerra said it is her understanding that the only step that needs to be completed is the Board of Elections certification.
“As far as I know, everything has been tallied,” Garcia-Guerra said. “I was told the last bit of tallying had to do with absentee ballots.”
Farber said she has heard very little from official channels at the Board of Elections about where the count stands.
“I’ve been going about my business, waiting for somebody to tell me what’s actually going on,” she said.
While candidates anxiously await certification, particularly when absentee ballots might be needed to decide the race, the process takes on more importance in Mount Kisco. Swearing in of the new officeholders is held at the start of the first meeting in December, which this year is Dec. 4.
Similar to Garcia-Guerra and Farber, Cindrich said he has heard very little despite attempts at contacting the Board of Elections offices.
In order to prepare for the quick transition, Garcia-Guerra said she, Flora and Cindrich have plans to meet informally once the results are official and before they’re sworn in to discuss priorities, then meet with the rest of the board in hopes of quickly get up to speed.
In looking back at the race, she said that old-fashioned pavement pounding and knocking on hundreds of doors may have played a key factor in the ticket’s success. Garcia-Guerra estimated that they knocked on more than 800 doors in the village during the campaign.
“We’d go and visit some places, talk to a bunch of people, we sort of lost track actually, and then I thought maybe we should kind of track this,” she said.
Flora and Garcia-Guerra were first-time candidates and will be make their first ventures into elected office. Although Cindrich had a 14-year run as mayor, he hasn’t been on the board in six years.
Cindrich defeated current Deputy Mayor Lisa Abzun, a Democrat, by 278 votes (1,318-1,040), according to the latest count from the Board of Elections. Flora and Garcia-Guerra also defeated Democratic incumbent Karine Patino.
In 2017, when Cindrich was defeated by now outgoing Mayor Gina Picinich, she was successful on an independent line when Cindrich had the Democratic backing.
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/
