Latimer Defeats Jenkins for Dems’ Nomination for County Exec
State Sen. George Latimer (D-Rye) has won the Democratic nomination for county executive, easily defeating County Legislator Kenneth Jenkins in the party’s convention on Wednesday evening.
Latimer received 71.4 percent of the tally that included district leaders from every town and city in the county. The state legislator received 100 percent of the votes in Bedford, Harrison, Mamaroneck, North Castle, Pound Ridge, Scarsdale, North Salem and the town and city of Rye. He also won about three-quarters of the votes in the cities of New Rochelle, White Plains and Peekskill.
Results were delayed until Friday afternoon after the party’s lengthy convention in White Plains extended past midnight by a near dead heat in the race for the nomination for county court judge.
Latimer announced his victory late Friday after the count was completed at Democratic Committee headquarters in White Plains.
“I’m grateful for the Democratic leaders who come together from every corner of the county to voice their thoughts on how to lead this party forward and build a better, stronger future for the whole county,” Latimer said.
It is expected he will face a primary challenge from Jenkins who has repeatedly vowed to stay in the race to give Democratic voters a choice. If there is a primary, it will be held Tuesday, Sept. 12.
Between now and September, Latimer’s task will be to unify Democrats in hopes of defeating two-term Republican incumbent Rob Astorino in the November general election. Latimer said he has a great deal of respect for Jenkins and there is much more in common between him and the Yonkers Democrat than separates them.
“My opponent plans to continue through the primary, and that’s a good thing,” Latimer said. “Primaries make our party stronger by giving voters choices and encouraging the best candidate to step forward and lead our party to victory. I fully intend to be that candidate, and I look forward to making the case to voters in the coming months.”
Latimer said the challenge facing him and fellow Democrats will be to turn out the party’s voters in November. Despite a 2-to-1 registration advantage countywide, turnout has been poor for Democrats in off-year elections, including 2009 and 2013, when Astorino comfortably defeated former county executive Andrew Spano and New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson, respectively.
Latimer said it’s critical that voters end the Astorino administration, charging that the county executive has embraced President Donald Trump in the past several months.
“We have an opportunity to end Rob Astorino’s disastrous leadership and restore opportunity and prosperity to our county,” Latimer said. “I will build on our growing coalition to bring new voices and new ideas into the process, and be a county executive that serves the people, and not the other way around.”
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/