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PHIL REISMAN

Reisman: Yonkers GOP needs candidate for mayor

Phil Reisman
preisman@lohud.com
Phil Reisman

The 2015 elections are far off. Nevertheless, the clock is ticking. And right now the Republican Party has no one to run against Mike Spano, who as mayor of Yonkers presides over New York's fourth-largest city.

One big name already has turned the GOP down: John Cahill.

Cahill has sterling credentials to be mayor, certainly enough to put a scare into Spano. The Yonkers native was Gov. George Pataki's secretary and chief of staff and was commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Conservation. Last year he ran a spirited but unsuccessful campaign for attorney general against Eric Schneiderman.

Cahill told me he wasn't interested in being a mayoral candidate after having just gone through a grueling statewide election.

"As much as I love my city, the thought of going back into another campaign ... it's just not the right time," he said. "So, it ain't gonna happen."

Rumor had it that Cahill was asked to consider running in Yonkers by none other than Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino. Cahill shot down the rumor.

"It wasn't Rob who reached out to me at all," he said. "We've talked since Election Day but he never reached out to me to talk about Yonkers politics."

Be that as it may, there is no love lost between Astorino and the Spano political family. The enmity dates at least as far back as the 2009 county executive election when the mayor's brother, Nick Spano, the former Republican state senator, campaigned against Astorino.

Astorino won anyway but the feud persists — in part because Mike Spano, who under Yonkers law is restricted to two consecutive terms as mayor, might have his sights set on running for county executive in 2017. You could fill a small stadium with all the Democratic politicians who want to be county executive but it would be in Astorino's interest to bump off Spano in the early going. Indeed, some conspiracy theorists believe Astorino will do anything he can to prevent Spano from looking good — to the point of stalling local projects that might involve the county's participation.

Paranoia runs deep in Yonkers politics.

Other possibilities for mayor have arisen but no one has taken the bait. City Council President Liam McLaughlin is frequently mentioned as a potential candidate but the thinking is he will wait until 2019.

John Spencer, who was mayor from 1996 until 2003, seems to have more than enough passion left in the tank to make another run for City Hall. Spencer seriously considered running for state Senate in the 37th District last year against George Latimer, D-Rye, but ultimately declined. Some observers believed Spencer's tough-guy temperament was better suited for an executive job, especially one that is closer to home than Albany.

Will he or won't he? It's anybody's guess.

City Councilman John Larkin, the majority leader, also has come up in conversation.

"I've heard it from a number of people," he told me. "But I haven't given it any serious thought."

Spano has distinct advantages in 2015, not the least of which is that he's an incumbent with an overwhelming edge in voter enrollment. Democrats outnumber Republicans in Yonkers by better than 2 to 1. That's one very large reason why Spano became a Democrat after serving for many years as a Republican in the Assembly.

Another advantage is the Spano machine. The Spanos are adept in the art of patronage. They know that a favor, an appointment or a job with a steady paycheck can go far toward neutralizing a potential rival, regardless of party.

At this point, Spano's fiercest political fight seems to be with the Yonkers firefighters union. The union has been in bitter contract talks since he took office, and recently released a TV commercial criticizing the mayor for approving raises for members of his City Hall inner circle.

Like I said, it's early.

It's important to have a contested election, especially in a city the size of Yonkers. But Larkin identified a larger issue that long has bedeviled the city.

"We've unfortunately shot ourselves in the foot so many times," he said. "The politics of it — a developer comes to town and the developer wants to do something and if it's going to make a particular mayor look good, you know what? Maybe we'll wait two years to see if we have a mayor from 'our' party.

"And then we do nothing."

Reach Phil Reisman at preisman@lohud.com Twitter: @philreisman.