2019 Candidate Profile: Damon Maher For County Legislator

NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Westchester County will have several contested races in this fall's election, including Westchester County. New Rochelle Patch asked candidates in the contested races to answer questions about their campaigns and will be publishing candidate profiles as election day draws near.

Damon Maher, 63, a Democrat from New Rochelle, is running for re-election as Westchester County Legislator for District 10, which is comprised of Tuckahoe, Eastchester and most of New Rochelle. His opponent is Republican Christopher Garitee.

Maher has been a lawyer for 39 years. He has a wife and three grown children. Maher has been county legislator since 2018 and was New Rochelle Public Library trustee from 2014 to 2017.

The single most pressing issue facing our community, and what I intend to do about it.

Continuing to rehabilitate the county's finances that were in disarray due to years of Republican misfeasance. Making sure we pay our current bills currently and borrow only for needed long-term capital projects; and continuing to fight proposed wasteful spending in certain of the county's component departments.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidate seeking this post?

I am a fiscally responsible, progressive Democrat who believes government has a role in investing wisely in people and infrastructure for our long-term future. My opponent is a knee-jerk, ideological Republican who believes that government is nothing but a burden and that his thinly veiled, dog-whistle appeals to "law and order" and anti-immigrant sentiments have some sort of broad support here in lower Westchester. I think he's wrong.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform.

Keeping the county portion of property taxes frozen for the next 2 years; incentivizing real estate developers to build and rehabilitate more housing units, at all levels of affordability, mostly in compact areas convenient to mass transit; more funding for day care for working families.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

As chair of Labor & Housing Committee of the County Board of Legislators, shepherding through several new worker protect laws; county-assisted financing of over 300 affordable housing units in downtown New Rochelle; convening several housing forums and intervening on behalf of constituents with housing authorities and other landlords. We also banned the gun show from our County Center as soon as our new Democratic majority took office, the must-do item that pushed me into elective politics in the first place. And I'm proud of few things that didn't happen, such as the spending of millions of dollars of goods and service for the county, that I worked against as a good steward of the taxpayers' money entrusted to me as a public official.

The best advice ever shared with me was …

My high school guidance counselor, Father McCaffery, suggested that I apply to Yale, where a whole new world was opened up to me and where I made friends who are among my closest to this day.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

I am not afraid to stand up for what is right, even if sometimes it appears to be politically unwise at the time.

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