President Promises Hope & Change, Castelli Delivers with 89th District Special Election Win

 With a victory of 55% to 45% over his challenger, Republican State Assemblyman-elect Robert “Bob” Castelli proved that his message and exorbitant taxes are more important than his Democratic opponent Peter Harckham’s rhetoric. In a phone conversation with Bob early this morning, he told me he was anxious to get to Albany to get to work, but didn’t know what the time table was for his swearing-in and “seating” in Albany. He also hoped to be able to thank his supporters and those who helped in with his campaign in short time.

Bob Castelli has been a dedicated public servant, as a Vietnam veteran who, after a distinguished 21-year career in the New York State Police, received his graduate degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Bob uses his experience to help shape the future leaders of our government as a college professor. He is a small businessman, operating a security consulting business where he provides expert advice and commentary to television and print media on criminal justice and homeland security matters. He is a former Lewisboro Councilman, and was chair of the Public Safety and Emergency Services Committees of County Executive Rob Astorino's transition team. Bob is the father of two sons: Christian, a Lt. Colonel in the United States Army Special Forces, and also a graduate of the Kennedy School, and Paul, an ordained Minister, serving a congregation in southern Florida.

Harckham, who had won the November reelection of his county legislative seat, was thought to be disingenuous with his run for county legislator and by ignoring his constituent’s trust running for another office, with ultimately nothing to lose. We’ve seen this same scenario before with Thomas Abinanti, also a Westchester County legislator who fell back to his “safe” county position after being similarly defeated. One more County Legislator, Mike Kaplowitz, is currently pursuing a comparable move. Harckham, has been a county legislator since 2007, and served on six county legislative committees this past term. The lowest amount of additional money paid to a committee member is $3,000. Multiply this amount by his six committees and he made at least an additional $18,000 on top of his $49,000 yearly salary for a part-time job. In these tough times, maybe he and his colleagues should forego their extra salary perks for simply doing their part-time job. 

If the electorate is truly fed up with the shenanigans of our legislators, Bob Castelli’s victory, right after Rob Astorino’s in Westchester and Scott Brown’s in Massachusetts, may be a sign of the hope and change President Obama promised during his campaign. Both candidates sold themselves as outsiders whose main goal was to reform Albany's dysfunctional operations. Interestingly, at a forum held in Chappaqua with Castelli and Harckham, both men discussed the reforms they planned to initiate if elected. Apparently, the electorate could not get past Harckham’s contradictory claims of being a reformer and in the forefront of the uncontrollable and über-bloated Spano administration.

The record setting snowstorm that just ended may delay Bob Castelli’s getting to Albany by a day or two. Hopefully, that will be the only delay in the beginning of a new era of reform in Albany. God knows we're ready!