Fiscal Conservatives Back GOP Board Hopefuls

Two years after successfully supporting Republican County Executive Rob Astorino, a self-styled fiscal watchdog group is now endorsing GOP candidates pledged to back his play in the Democratic-controlled county legislature.

With Mount Kisco’s Metro-North commuter rail station as a backdrop, New Yorkers for Growth endorsed Iris Pagan and seven other GOP candidates at a Tuesday morning news conference. The group’s spokesman, former Larchmont mayor Liz Feld, described the challengers as eager to break the Democrats’ current veto-proof 12-5 hegemony. 

“They’re tired of the partisan bickering at the county board level,” she said. The Republican candidates have pledged, Feld said, to support any tax-reform measure brought before them. The watchdog group, in a statement, maintains that the majority last year blocked 247 of Astorino’s reform efforts.

Pagan, a White Plains resident, seeks to unseat Democratic incumbent William J. Ryan of White Plains in District 5, which takes in Scarsdale and White Plains.

“I’m running because I agree with Rob Astorino’s stand—fiscal responsibility,” she said. “If we do that, we will make it through this economic winter.”  

The other GOP candidates sounded similar themes, portraying the current Democratic majority as free-spenders opposed to Astorino’s fiscal reforms.

The candidates included Peter Michaelis, R-C of Bedford, in District 2; Michael Smith, R-C of Greenburgh in District 3; Terrence Murphy, R-C of Jefferson Valley in District 4; Suzanna Keith, R-C of Rye, in District 7; and Susan Konig, R-C of Croton, in District 9. 

Two other endorsed candidates, David Gelfarb, R-C of Rye Brook, in District 6 and Sheila Marcotte, R-C-I of Tuckahoe, in District 10, were not at the event.

“Each of these candidates represents tax relief, responsible fiscal policies, open government and job growth in Westchester County,” Feld said in the group’s prepared statement.