District leaders within the Mount Kisco Democratic Committee voted to install Tom Luzio as the local party’s next chairman less than a month after the former leader resigned from the post.

Luzio said last week his main goal is to unite a party that has had internal divisions after a contentious primary campaign followed by a rough-and-tumble run-up to the general election. He plans to use his leadership style of negotiation and listening to everyone, which was effective in his many years as an assistant district attorney, in hopes of mending fences within the committee.

“You have to listen, not just to the folks that are close to you, but listening to opponents, listening to the opinions of everyone in the room, in the town,” Luzio said. “It really all begins with listening. If folks feel like they’ve had an opportunity to be heard, and a decision that they don’t agree with ultimately becomes the way forward, people feel a lot better having been respected and having had that opportunity to be heard.”

He was approved by the committee in an 8-0 vote with two abstentions.

Luzio burst onto the village’s political scene early last year when he sought the Democratic nomination for mayor, then received the committee’s endorsement. However, he was defeated in the June primary by current Trustee Lisa Abzun. Michael Cindrich, a registered Democrat who formerly served as the village’s mayor for 14 years, ran as an independent for mayor and was victorious over Abzun in the general election.

Following his loss in the primary, Luzio said he hoped to remain involved in village politics.

“I see this as a natural extension of that,” he said last week. “Just staying committed to Mount Kisco, and I still don’t have any bigger plans and I hope to help in any way I can.”

A new chairman was needed after William Serratore resigned at last month’s committee meeting following his September indictment by a Rockland County grand jury for allegedly forging signatures on Luzio’s nominating petition last spring. Luzio was not implicated in the matter.

The case was moved to Rockland County because of Luzio’s longtime employment at the Westchester County District Attorney’s office.

Cindrich said that he has not been involved in the committee, but was glad to see that the party has taken the next step toward moving on after such a politically divisive 2023.

“I would hope that the Democratic Committee can come together and develop a plan to resolve the issues that occurred for almost a year,” Cindrich said.

Another action that the committee took last week in hopes of moving in that direction was to vote in Karine Patiño as a district leader to fill one of the remaining vacancies, Luzio said. Patiño lost along with the remainder of the Democratic ticket in November after serving one two-year term on the board.

Luzio said Patiño being elected as a district leader can help to unify the party.

“I always thought that there’s a lot more things that we can all agree on than we differ on,” he said. “It’s sad that those differences, which I think are not that wide, it bubbled to the top. There are five or six different areas where I think that was true.”

Luzio will serve out the remaining months of Serratore’s term, then the committee will have to vote again on a chair in the summer or early fall.

Martin Wilbur

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/