Primary election 2019 results: 5 key takeaways
Steve LiebermanMount Vernon Mayor Richard Thomas was trailing Shawyn Patterson-Howard in Tuesday's Democratic primary.
In Rockland, retired Judge Thomas Walsh handily won the party's nod for district attorney in the Nov. 5 election against three opponents.
Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano easily won the Democratic Party primary as he seeks a third, four-year term.
VOTE TOTALS:Primary election 2019 results for Westchester, Rockland
MOUNT VERNON:Patterson-Howard leads Thomas in close Mount Vernon mayoral primary
ROCKLAND:Walsh rides Ramapo bloc vote to Rockland district attorney primary win
OTHER ROCKLAND PRIMARIES:Earl, Paul, Wieder win Democratic line
Here are some key takeaways from Tuesday's primaries:
Mount Vernon mayor trails
In the Democratic mayoral primary, Shawyn Patterson-Howard appeared to defeat Mayor Richard Thomas, who faces charges stemming from the theft of campaign funds.
Thomas trailed by more than 200 votes with 100% of districts reporting, according to unofficial Westchester County Board of Election results. Clyde Isley and Council President Andre Wallace trailed the field.
A victory in November in the heavily Democratic city would make Patterson-Howard the first woman elected mayor of Mount Vernon.
In the City Council primary race for the Democratic Party line, incumbent Lisa Copeland, Derrick Thompson and Yuhamma Edwards led the seven candidates seeking the two ballot spots. Copeland had a lead, while Thompson and Edwards were neck and neck, according to unofficial Board of Elections numbers.
Walsh wins Rockland DA primary
Retired Judge Thomas Walsh easily defeated three other candidates for the Democratic party's nomination for district attorney, giving him three major ballot lines in the Nov. 5 election.
Walsh, a judge for close to four decades who retired to run for district attorney, defeated Assemblyman Kenneth Zebrowski, former prosecutor Patricia Gunning, and Victor Alfieri, a retired Judge and former prosecutor and public defender over four decades in criminal justice.
Walsh rode a strong turnout among the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Ramapo to win the nomination, by more than 4,000 votes.
In November, Walsh will run on the Democrat, Republican and Conservative lines and will face Zebrowski on the Working Families line and attorney Michael Diederich on the independent Serve Rockland line. Diederich opened his second attempt at becoming district attorney running by targeting the lack of secular education in Hasidic Jewish schools as a potential misdemeanor crime.
Rockland Legislature races
Legislator Aron Wieder, the governing body's only Hasidic Jewish member, easily defeated Vivian Street, a former president of the Spring Valley NAACP, for the Democratic Party line in November. Wieder will seek another four-year term representing District 13, which predominately covers Spring Valley.
Legislator Aney Paul also cruised to victory in District 14 against Antonine Amistal and Agin Anthony, a member of the New City Library Board. Paul will seek another four-year term in November.
Legislature Chairman Toney Earl defeated Rudy Laurent and Claude Jean-Louis for the Democratic line for District 8, representing mostly Hillcrest.
Mari Morrison Rodriguez defeated Michael Parietti, a Preserve Ramapo leader, for the Democratic Party nod for Legislature District 1, which covers Stony Point and western Ramapo. The GOP candidate in November is Douglas Jobson, whose parents have been Stony Point GOP leaders for years. His father is a former county highway superintendent.
Spano cruises to victory in Yonkers
Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano cruised to victory in the Democratic Party primary on Tuesday as he runs for re-election leading the state's fourth largest city.
Spano defeated attorney Karen Beltran and Ivy Reeves, a legislative aide to the City Council. Spano is seeking his third term — the cap on the terms a mayor can hold under the city's term limits. The council had extended the limit to three terms, allowing Spano to run again in November.
In Yonkers City Council Democratic primaries:
• Incumbent Democrat Shanae Williams defeated Terence Miller in District 1.
• Tasha Diaz won a three-way primary for District 2 against Dennis Robertson and Olasubomi Macaulay.
One incumbent wins, one loses in Spring Valley
Zach Clerina finished first in a Democratic primary for two Spring Valley trustee spots while voters ousted Trustee Sherry McGill in favor of Yisroel Eisenbach, who lost previous runs for the Board of Trustees.
The Democrats usually win in November in the the village where registered Democrats far outnumber Republican voters.
Clerina and Eisenbach rode a strong ultra-Orthodox Jewish vote to defeat seven other candidates for the Democratic Party ballot line. They finished ahead of McGill, Schello Jean-Louis, Chrispin Eugene, Limote Benjamin-Freda, Dianna Millien, Aaron Morse and Ghulam Fani.
Judge David Fried easily won the Democrat nomination for another term on the bench.
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