Joe Kenner: The Other Historic Candidate

What does it take to get elected in a heavily Democratic village like Port Chester, where Democrats outnumber Republicans two to one? According to Joe Kenner, the simple act of walking.

Political slang for going door to door to dialogue with residents and listen to their concerns, 'walking' is crucial to forming that personal relationship with voters, something Kenner's excelled at. He's so good, in fact, he's had registered Democrats come up to him and say, "I never vote Republican, but I'll vote for you."

Pretty special? In this divided and bitter partisan era we live in, the answer is an emphatic yes. Kenner's message of saying no to spending, debt and ever-increasing taxes resonated with voters and played a big role in winning converts.

Kenner made history in 2007 as the first ethnic minority and African-American appointed to the village board. Now, with Port Chester's historic election in the books, Kenner is the first ethnic minority and African-American elected to the village board. Kenner joins Sam Terenzi -- a conservative who ran as a Republican -- as well as another conservative, one independent and two democrats.

The result? A clear shift in attitudes, as the issues of spending and deficits resonate with voters. When the new board members are sworn in on July 6, there will be a conservative majority -- the two elected Democrats and Mayor Dennis Pilla, also a Democrat, will be out-manned by four conservative-minded colleagues.

Joe's story traces back to a not-so little town called Burlington, NJ, outside of Philadelphia -- and a woman named Christie Todd Whitman.

Political Roots 

"Both of my parents are Democrats," Kenner said.  "I was a Democrat in high school, but I was always pro-life and a staunch fiscal conservative."

Despite their political differences, there was never any friction at home.

"My parents were always very supportive," he said, "and they knew I was educated about my choices."

While a student at Williams College in Massachusetts, Kenner was involved in the James Garfield Republican Club, which was responsible for bringing William F. Buckley Jr. to campus, along with Bill Kristol and journalist Peggy Noonan.

Kenner is quick to point out that in 1991, he "voted a lot of Republicans in," but also voted for Paul Tsongas, a Democrat congressman and former Massachusetts senator who ran against Bill Clinton in the Democratic presidential primaries. Tsongas was a fiscally conservative Democrat. 

Kenner voted for Bill Clinton for the same reason, although he acknowledges his vote was partly due to frustration with the Republican party and George H.W. Bush's big government track-record. But in 1993, Joe took the red pill and formally changed his voter registration to republican largely because he was inspired by Christie Todd Whitman, who was running for Governor of New Jersey at the time and talking about across-the-board tax-cuts.

The Graduate  

Graduating from Williams with a B.A. In political ccience and economics, Kenner moved to Elmsford to work as a financial institutions underwriter, commuting to White Plains and mid-town Manhattan. After a brief stint as an insurance analyst for Lehman Brothers in 2001, before the crisis, Joe moved on to Pepsico. to work in risk management, and later in capital markets and sales strategy.

Village Trustee 

Kenner found the village board in a precarious state back in 2007 after Cesar Ruiz claimed the village's at-large voting system discriminated against Hispanics. Ruiz had run and lost in the previous year's trustee election. At that point, all positions were stayed for four years until the recent election.

"They wanted to carve up Port Chester into smaller districts, each with their own trustee" Kenner said. "The judge granted us the remedy of our choice, which was cumulative voting. We wanted anything short of districts."

While Kenner was formally elected in this month's cumulative voting experiment, he's unsure about whether the election was the right one.

"The early voting system didn't really help with turn-out," he said, "and bullet-voting is almost another form of districts since you only need to cobble together 300-400 votes out of 3,000 or so."

Nevertheless, Kenner is ready to get to work making tough decisions.

"Our goals are to establish a five-year capital plan, come up with a fiscally responsible, flat budget, build on our housing code enforcement efforts, taking a zero tolerance approach to enforcement and not adding in any way to the current tax burden."

To read Rob Rennie's Q&A with Joe Kenner, click here.

Robert Rennie is a pianist, campaign strategist and business development consultant. A native of Valhalla, Rob is currently working with the Jim Russell for Congress transition team. Rob is a graduate of the University of Rochester. He earned a Masters degree in English Education at The Warner School in Rochester and holds a Masters in Higher Education Administration from Baruch College in New York City.