Democrats Name Candidates for Town Elections

Bedford Democrats, already looking ahead, have chosen their candidates for November’s town races; they've also, perhaps after looking back, conceded the supervisor contest to Republican Lee V.A. Roberts.

The Bedford Democratic Committee endorsed incumbent Councilmen Chris Burdick and David Gabrielson and Town Justice Kevin Quaranta for re-election to their town positions. The town organization also backed County Legislator Peter Harckham, who needs the endorsement of all six party committees that make up his Second Legislative District, a nod he is expected to win easily.

Roberts, a popular Republican incumbent since 2003, will not have a challenger. Bruce Yablon, the Democratic town chairman, said the party considered potential candidates for the supervisor race but in the end had decided, on Yablon’s recommendation, not to pit anyone against Roberts. She has been opposed only once for supervisor—in 2009—and collected two out of every three votes.

The town GOP committee has not yet selected its candidates but is expected, in addition to Roberts, to pick challengers for the town board and justice posts. “We are in the process of interviewing a number of candidates for all the positions,” said Don Scott, the Republican town chairman. “We anticipate a full slate.”

Burdick and Gabrielson were elected to four-year terms on the town board in 2007, breaking up a solidly Republican five-member panel. In separate interviews, they use words like “collaboratively” (Burdick) and “cooperatively, collegially” (Gabrielson) to describe their working relationships with the board’s GOP majority.

Despite its political divide, the town board displays less acrimony than a foursome at GlenArbor. What differences may arise are rarely made public and never with the kind of partisan vitriol marking political discourse elsewhere. “Kudos go to the residents on this,” Burdick said.

“It’s been very good working with them,” he said of the majority, suggesting the town would not tolerate a board bogged down by partisan divisions.

Not surprisingly, both men identified municipal finance as the big challenge confronting the town board. Gabrielson said that “managing the difficult economic situation the town finds itself in” is the No. 1 issue. Indeed, he said, “there is no No. 2, in the sense that we [already] have great facilities, great departments, great employees.

“We have a great town,” Gabrielson said.

Both came into office just as the national housing bubble burst, sending shockwaves through the economy and leading to the protracted downturn. That ultimately eroded such traditional town revenue sources as the mortgage-transfer tax and Bedford’s cut of the county sales tax, transferring an increasing share of the local tax burden to the property levy.

“We feel pretty good about our record of holding down taxes,” Burdick said, “but that doesn’t mean there isn’t more to be done.” 

Campaigning will likely consist of “knocking on doors,” Burdick and Gabrielson agreed. In a prepared statement released by the town Democratic organization, both said they had made good on 2007 campaign promises, like today’s webcasts of town board meetings.

Democrats made their candidate designations at a March 9 meeting of the town committee. Yablon said 21 of the Bedford Democratic Committee’s 36 members and others represented by proxies voted unanimously to endorse the slate of incumbents.

In endorsing Quaranta for town justice, the Democrats tapped their longest-serving incumbent. Quaranta, who was first elected to the town bench in 2003, said, “Serving all the people of Bedford has been the greatest honor in my 16 years of public service, including as a United States Army officer, assistant district attorney, and now for eight years as town justice. I thank all of my fellow citizens for their continued support in the coming election.”

For Harckham, the majority leader in the county legislature, the Bedford committee’s vote is just the beginning of a nomination process that also includes party committees in Lewisboro, Mount Kisco, North Salem, Pound Ridge and Somers, the component parts of the Second Legislative District. 

"It's early and we're just starting the process,” said Harckham. “It's my job to be respectful and ask for and earn endorsements from each committee."

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