New Castle Councilman Eyes Run Against Murphy

CHAPPAQUA, NY — New Castle Town Councilman Jeremy Saland may challenge incumbent Terrence Murphy for the 40th District seat in the New York State Senate, the Daily News reports. Saland has just recently become a Democrat.

The 40th State Senate District is comprised of parts of Dutchess, Putnam and Westchester counties, including Beekman and Pawling in Dutchess; Brewster, Carmel, Patterson and Southeast in Putnam; and Briarcliff Manor, Buchanan, Cortlandt, Croton-on-Hudson, Lewisboro, Mount Kisco, Mount Pleasant, New Castle, North Salem, Peekskill, Pleasantville, Pound Ridge, Sleepy Hollow, Somers and Yorktown in Westchester.

It has been most recently represented by conservative Republicans. Greg Ball held the seat before Murphy, an early supporter of President Donald Trump who was on stage as at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland when Trump was officially nominated as the party's candidate for president.

Democrat Robert Kesten, a resident of South Salem, has already launched a challenge to Murphy.

Saland is the son of Stephen Saland, a longtime GOP state lawmaker representing Dutchess and Columbia counties, who lost his Senate seat in 2012 after he voted in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage in New York. Stephen Saland was edged out by a Democrat, Terry Gipson, who lost in the next election to Republican Sue Serino.

Saland is a criminal defense attorney and former treasurer of the Small Law Firm Committee of the New York City Bar Association. Prior to establishing his law practice, he worked as an Assistant District Attorney in Robert Morgenthau's Manhattan District Attorney's Office where he was assigned to the Domestic Violence Unit and was one of the original prosecutors in New York's first ever Identity Theft Unit (now the Cybercrime and Identity Theft Bureau).

He and his family have lived in New Castle since 2006. Before being elected to the Town Council in 2015, Saland served as a Town Prosecutor.

He left the GOP in 2006 because it became too conservative, and officially registered as a Democrat in 2017, the Daily News reported. Saland told the Daily News that he was considering both personal and professional ramifications before making a final decision.

Image via NY State Senate

Editor's Note: State Sen. Terrence Murphy was on stage at the GOP convention in 2016 when President Donald Trump's name was formally placed in nomination . His participation was incorrectly characterized in the original version of this report. Patch regrets the error.