Rob Astorino returns to run for state Senate seat held by Peter Harckham
Former Westchester County Executive Robert P. Astorino, a Republican, has announced his candidacy for the state Senate seat currently held by Democrat Peter Harckham.
In 2018, Harckham won the 40th Senate District seat by defeating then-incumbent Republican Terrence Murphy. The district covers parts of Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess counties.
According to biographical information on the Friends of Rob Astorino website, Astorino is a national affairs and political commentator for CNN, serves as Cardinal Timothy Dolan”™s delegate to the Mother Cabrini Foundation and is a member of the board of directors of Everyone”™s Earth Inc. Astorino served as Westchester’s county executive from 2010 through 2017.
In a YouTube video announcing his candidacy, Astorino pointed to his record as county executive and said his major accomplishments included holding the line on spending, cutting property taxes, creating more than 44,000 new jobs, opening up day care slots for working parents and earning for Westchester the highest credit rating of any county in the state.
“My plan to fix and rebuild New York starts with holding Albany politicians accountable,” Astorino said. He promised to push for term limits, transparency and tough new ethics laws.
“Next, we”™ll jump-start the economy by reducing taxes, reining in the excessive spending and eliminating the regulations that do little but kill jobs and ingenuity,” Astorino said. “We”™ll improve our schools by putting parents and teachers back in charge and strengthen public safety by repealing the reckless cashless bail law and by improving our police, not defunding or abolishing them.”
Harckham issued a statement welcoming Astorino”™s candidacy and added, “I am confident that voters will send me back to Albany in November because they are even more ready this year to say ”˜no”™ to Trump and surrogates like his close friend Rob Astorino.”
Astorino has been regularly providing comments about current affairs on his Twitter feed. “What happened to George Floyd is a tragedy & justice will be served,” he recently wrote. “We must all come together to condemn wrongdoing wherever it exists & strive for a better country. Shame on those who support or excuse the violence & destruction caused by some phonies in the name of justice.”
In a Tweet related to the COVID-19 situation, Astorino wrote, “We can pretend our problems all started with the lockdown or we can be honest with ourselves and recognize how New York has been structurally imbalanced and economically uncompetitive for decades and begin to fix it and rebuild, not just reopen.”
In a post on his Facebook page today, Astorino said, “To change NY we have to change the politicians. We need responsible leaders who can bring people together and get things done. I”™ve done it before, and I will do it again.”