And the Winner Is….

By Joe Kuhn

Election night has come and past, yet at the time of publication, citizens across the county and country remain unsure who will be representing them in the year 2021.

The biggest question, of course, rests at the federal level. Former Vice President Joe Biden currently has a commanding lead over President Donald Trump, the Democratic nominee, having won 264 electoral votes to Mr. Trump’s 214. Mr. Biden pulled ahead of President Trump earlier on Wednesday afternoon after it was announced that had won Wisconsin and Michigan, two key battleground states that netted Mr. Biden a combined 26 electoral votes. Nevada, Alaska, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia remain unaccounted for, and President Trump will need to carry every undecided state to secure his reelection.   Trump did emerge victorious here in Rockland, beating Biden by a margin of 55,991 to 47,931, but despite his claims to the contrary, the race remains very much undecided.

On a more local level, democrat Mondaire Jones, running for NY’s 17^th Congressional district has pulled ahead of Republican candidate Maureen McArdle Schulman and will likely be one of the first openly gay African American members of the United States House of Representatives.  Mike Lawler, running in NY’s 97th Assembly District has eclipsed Ellen Jaffee by a wide margin and is slated to be our newest representative in Albany. Conservative Bill Webber is likely to defeat Democratic nominee Elijah Reichlin-Melnick and claim a seat in the New York State Senate as the representative for the 38^th district.  Democrat James G. Skoufis is likely to remain the representative for the state’s 39^th Senate District.

The race for County Clerk remains close, though it appears that our current clerk Donna Gorman Silberman will retain her position. The race for New York Supreme Court’s 9^th Judicial District is also neck and neck, with democrat Alexandrea D. Murphy enjoying a very narrow lead.