Latimer Faces Ex-Scarsdale Mayor in 16th Congressional District Race
No matter who wins next week’s 16th Congressional District election, there will be a new member in Congress in January.
The incumbent, Rep. Jamaal Bowman, lost to Westchester County Executive George Latimer in June’s Democratic primary. Latimer will now face former Scarsdale mayor Miriam Levitt Flisser, the Republican nominee.
While the primary was one of the season’s most closely watched races, with millions of dollars pouring in from outside the district, the general election has received far less attention. The 16th Congressional District, which takes in the southern half of Westchester and a piece of the northern Bronx, is a reliable Democratic stronghold.
Flisser, a pediatrician who lost to Bowman in 2022, said residents asked her to run again this year.
“I felt that I had to represent the people who requested that I do that,” Flisser, the medical director for the Bronxville School District, said in an interview with The Examiner. “I felt that it was important for our area, and also for the United States of America, to have someone who wasn’t part of what I would call the lifelong aristocracy, of people who have been in office their whole lives.”
Latimer, meanwhile, is now looking to head to Washington after a long career in local, state and Westchester County politics.
“I was troubled by the nature of representation in the House that we have in Westchester Country,” Latimer told The Examiner, explaining his decision to run. “People have had the confidence to send me to White Plains, to send me to Albany, and they’ve sent me back to those places because when I was in office, I produced results and was accessible and down to earth.”
While Bowman has been one of the House’s most left-wing members, Latimer would represent a return to the mainstream of the Democratic Party. He points to affordability as voters’ top concern and said that the ability to pay for housing, fuel and groceries outweighs what any economic indicators show.
Latimer, the county executive since 2018, said his top priority is restoring the full state and local tax (SALT) deduction, which was reduced to $10,000 as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
“If that can be restored, either in part or in full or a phase-in restoration, that is going to be money back in the pockets of people who live in Westchester, or the Bronx for that matter, who own homes and can’t deduct local taxes,” he said.
With some provisions of the 2017 tax cuts set to expire at the end of next year, Latimer said that an extension of the tax cuts should focus on the middle class.
Flisser also called the SALT cap unfair, and said she would look to increase or eliminate the cap if elected. Otherwise, she praised the Trump tax cuts, which Flisser said were a shot in the arm for the economy.
“Those were a tremendous engine of economic growth, of economic revival,” she said. “They created jobs.”
Flisser said that irresponsible spending has spurred inflation over the past four years.
“The government can make sensible use of our taxes, which does not increase inflation if it’s done properly,” she said
Immigration
Latimer cited immigration policy as an area of weakness for President Joe Biden, saying that the administration addressed the need for a border security only in the past year. He called for more judges to adjudicate asylum claims. The government must find a middle ground between open borders and mass deportations, he said.
“You have to secure the border better,” he said. “I don’t think a big, beautiful border wall is necessary from the Rio Grande to Tijuana. I do think, though, you need to secure the border in specific ways in certain areas where it’s more likely to be crossed, and you need to use more officers.”
Flisser called the surge of illegal immigration a “tremendous failure of government,” and warned that the porous border has contributed to fentanyl coming into the country.
“There can be terrorists coming in, and you could have people who are bringing children for horrible reasons,” she said. “We deserve a secure border.”
Flisser also criticized the 2018 Immigrant Protection Act that Latimer signed as county executive, which according to a press release at the time “prevents Westchester County from using any of its resources to assist in federal investigations based on race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity or national origin.” The law, Flisser said, had made it difficult for local police to coordinate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). She described Westchester as a sanctuary location.
“Our police have to be able to coordinate with (ICE),” she said. “They have to.”
A spokesperson for Latimer responded that the Immigrant Protection Act does not impede cooperation between ICE and local police and said Westchester is safer because residents are willing to report crime regardless of immigration status.
Energy and climate
Latimer pointed to addressing the impact of climate change as a priority, saying that constituents are concerned that not enough is being done on the federal level.
“We need allocations from the federal government to help us with our flooding problems,” he said. “We cannot possibly fix the problem just on local, county and state money alone.”
He advocated an incremental approach to the transition to renewable energy.
Flisser focused on the need for the U.S. to control its energy production.
“We can have fuel independence and bring our costs down rather than depending on fuel from other countries,” she said. “That is definitely something that can be done.”
While concerned about the impacts of climate change, Flisser emphasized the need for a measured approach.
“I am not a climate alarmist,” she said.
Abortion
Since the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe vs. Wade, abortion policy has play a key role in congressional races across the country.
Latimer said he believes Republicans will look to pass a federal abortion ban, and promised to fight such a ban. Flisser said she preferred to leave abortion policy up to the states rather than imposing a federal solution.
Foreign policy
Latimer and Flisser each shun withdrawing from the world stage. Latimer sees threats to U.S.-allied democracies across the globe, including Israel and Ukraine today and potentially South Korea and Taiwan in the future, and believes that those threats will eventually be felt at home.
“If you believe that America First leads us to isolationism and non-involvement in these things, what you’re really saying is America Last. America will be the last domino to fall,” Latimer said. “If you let tyrants gain turf and populations by force or by terror, you will pay a bitter pill. Not this year, not next year, not during my lifetime on the planet, but you will pay a bitter pill.”
Flisser was born in Europe shortly after World War II and brought to the U.S. on a Marine ship after two years at displaced persons camps in Germany. She said her experience shaped her worldview.
“The United States of America must remain the world leader, she said. “We cannot be dependent on other countries. We can’t be dependent on other countries for fuel, and also, we can’t be militarily behind them.”
She worries that the U.S. military position in the world is slipping, and said that supporting other constitutional democracies that are under threat, such as Israel and Ukraine, should be a priority.
Backgrounds
A former sales and marketing executive, Latimer, 70, entered politics in the late 1980s, serving as councilman in the City of Rye from 1988 to 1991. He was elected to the Board of Legislators in 1991 and served 13 years, including as board chairman from 1998 to 2001. In 2004 he was elected to the Assembly, serving eight years. In 2012 he was elected to the state Senate and served five years in that chamber.
In 2017, Latimer was elected county executive, defeating two-term incumbent Republican Rob Astorino. He was re-elected in 2021.
Before getting involved in politics, Flisser, 79, was an officer of the Overhill Neighborhood Association. She served on the Scarsdale Village Board from 2007 to 2011, was fire commissioner in 2009 and 2010 and police commissioner in 2010 and 2011. She served as mayor from 2011 to 2013.
Flisser ran unsuccessfully for the Board of Legislators in 2013, seeking to represent District 5, which covers parts of Scarsdale, Harrison and White Plains, but lost to Democrat Benjamin Boykin II.
