The Journal News published a very strong endorsement today in support of my re-election. The full text of the endorsement is below. It is gratifying to receive such a positive vote of confidence from the Journal News editorial board.
The accomplishments and plans referenced in the Journal News editorial truly depend upon a team effort. I must have serious, responsible Council Members around me in order to continue achieving progress in New Rochelle, so please support my Council running mates when you vote on Tuesday.
When they head to the polls Tuesday to elect a mayor, New Rochelle voters should have little difficulty returning incumbent Democrat Noam Bramson to City Hall.
The New Rochelle native easily outdistances Republican challenger Richard St. Paul, based on his steady performance and sound vision for the city’s future. Bramson has served in city government for 16 years, first as a City Council member representing District 5. He has been mayor since 2006, steering the city through times of economic prosperity and challenge.
His opponent is a one-term member of City Council representing District 4. St. Paul has seen his candidacy, weak from the start, become clouded by revelations about thousands of dollars in unpaid child support and personal financial problems.
As mayor, Bramson has guided New Rochelle through troubled financial times. Working with the City Council, he confronted budget challenges in a forthright manner. The city has sought savings through program cuts and efficient energy use, has taken an aggressive approach to seeking grants, and has enacted hiring and salary freezes.
“There are no pleasing choices in this environment,” Bramson told the Editorial Board. “We have an obligation to wrestle with them and to explain them as clearly and as honestly as we can to the people we represent.”
Bramson’s tenure in city government coincides with a period of general economic revival in New Rochelle. Large swaths of the city have seen major redevelopment and economic expansion — with hope for real progress down the road. Bramson speaks realistically about New Rochelle’s prospects for growth during this post-recession period — and about the need to maintain a proper balance between residential and commercial interests, key to maintaining New Rochelle’s small-city charm. St. Paul makes vague assertions about the need to strike better development deals with builders. He offers scant evidence he can improve upon Bramson’s accomplishments.
Bramson has helped foster a new partnership with Iona College, an economic powerhouse, to ensure that the college continues its growth in ways that best complement the city’s character. He touts work being undertaken to reconceive the city’s comprehensive plan that would make waterfront areas more accessible and improve infrastructure. Bramson, a consultant for Rep. Nita Lowey, D-Harrison, is seeking a second term. He was selected by his peers to fill the term of Timothy Idoni, now Westchester’s county clerk, in January 2006, and was elected in own right in 2007.
St. Paul is an attorney who worked on the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign in 2004 and has represented former state Sen. Pedro Espada, who was rejected by voters in 2010 amid longstanding charges he used a Bronx health-care facility as his personal piggy bank. St. Paul, who stood with Espada at one of the disgraced senator’s denial news conferences, declined to discuss his work with Espada. In any event, we think the choice is clear. Re-elect Bramson on Election Day.