By Janice Llanes Fabry

The Rye, Rye Brook, and Port Chester League of Women Voters, together with the Sound Shore Leagues of Larchmont/Mamaroneck, Harrison, and New Rochelle, hosted their annual spring luncheon at Orienta Beach Club on April 21. Featured speaker State Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins discussed “Political and Policy Issues on National and State Levels of Government.”

She urged her audience to “roll up your sleeves” and assured them they have “power at your fingertips” to fight for the issues that are important. “It’s time to shake it up, elevate your voice, time to be indivisible, because government matters,” said Stewart-Cousins, the first woman in New York State history to lead a conference in Albany.

Among the political notables at the luncheon were fellow State Senator George Latimer, Mamaroneck Mayor Norman Rosenblum, Rye City Councilmember Danielle Tagger-Epstein, Town of Mamaroneck Supervisor Nancy Seligson, and former State Senator Suzi Oppenheimer.

The event emcee, Elisabeth Radow, League Committee Chair on Energy, Agriculture and the Environment, addressed sustainability and the restoration of environmental protections. Radow, the creator of Earthwise, a LWV New York State initiative, urged those in the audience to vote with their consumer dollars and actions to benefit Mother Earth (lwvny.org/earthwise).

Radow announced the creation of a new task force whose dual focus is to improve voter registration and turnout at the local level, and to advocate for voting reforms at the state level.

To that end, Stewart-Cousins discussed eliminating all impediments to voting in order to increase participation in the electoral process.

“Voting matters,” she said. “If we believe we have the luxury of slumber, then all the hard work, passion, and sacrifice will be lost.”

CAPTION:

State Senator George Latimer, Rye City Councilmember Danielle Tagger-Epstein, State Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and LWV Elisabeth Radow