Three insights from the Town elections that will make you go hmmmm...
Edgemont came out in force on Tuesday! Our vote count for the 2019 Town Supervisor’s race was more than double our count in the 2013 Democratic primary for Supervisor and near the level of turnout for the 2005 school budget re-vote. Further, Edgemont’s proportionate participation was materially higher compared to other Town precincts, including those that cover the existing Greenburgh villages.
What drove Edgemont's great turnout? While we believe 3+ years of incorporation discussions have led to greater knowledge of Town affairs and overall civic engagement, a vote for an individual is not a proxy for a vote on whether to form a new government. Certainly, some anti-incorporation Edgemont residents support a leadership change and voted for Lucas Cioffi.
Nonetheless, we learned that:
When something matters to Edgemont, we find our voice. Superb participation on Tuesday suggests a referendum on incorporation would also enjoy excellent turnout.
With only 20% of the Edgemont vote, Mr. Feiner is squarely out-of-touch with community sentiment. Of course, that did not stop him from predicting the outcome of an incorporation election that he will never approve (recall his assertion that “relevant circumstances have changed significantly” as a basis for rejecting our petition to vote).
Even with great turnout, Edgemont votes are more than offset by those from Greenburgh’s villages. Residents of the Town’s incorporated areas have virtually no stake in the outcome of the Supervisor election (indeed, they only pay a few hundred dollars in Town taxes), yet their sheer numbers render Edgemont a rounding error in elections. Perhaps that explains why the challenging an incumbent Supervisor is a Sisyphean task (fun fact: there have only been three Greenburgh Town Supervisors over the past 60+ years). How does one convince villagers to change an arrangement that has long worked for them?
See below for one village's ability to all but neutralize Edgemont's voice.
Winning only 20% of the vote in Edgemont will likely further Town Supervisor-elect Feiner’s resolve to keep Edgemont from ever voting on its preferred form of governance. We look forward to hearing from the State Supreme Court soon and will keep you posted.
-- The EIC
