The first race in more than a decade for Westchester’s District 7 legislative seat pits two retired business executives against each other. And while the candidates seem to come from very different worlds, their campaigns focus on many of the same priorities.
Both Republican Kurt Van Kuller, 70, and Democrat Anant Nambiar, 55, are running for the Sound Shore district seat on platforms consisting of controlling Con Edison’s energy rates, flood mitigation, and addressing the high cost of living in Westchester.
Neither is highly partisan — at least when compared to the politically-charged campaigns so common this year.
Raised in Manhattan, Van Kuller spent 40 years as a municipal finance analyst. Nambiar, born in India and then raised in Tanzania and Canada before coming to the U.S. in 1996, spent 25 years as an executive in the credit card and payments processing industry.
The winner will take over the district from outgoing lawmaker Catherine Parker, a Rye Democrat, who is vacating the seat — she hit her term limit after serving 12 years — at the end of the year.
Van Kuller describes himself as a numbers guy.
“Municipal finance is all about working with state and local governments” to understand and anticipate factors that could affect their ability to service debt, he explained.
“This is a very good time for me to be assisting on the county’s finances,” said the Rye resident.
Nambiar, 55, said professionally and in public service he “runs toward problems” — not away from them. The Larchmont resident believes his strengths at listening, questioning, and coming up with creative solutions should serve him well in in the county legislature, as they did during his corporate career. His name appears on 12 patents related to payment processing and analysis.
Van Kuller sees himself as a moderate “Rye Republican” who should appeal to a wide swath of voters seeking “a pragmatic, middle-of-the-road candidate.”
For Nambiar, his time on the Mamaroneck Board of Education from 2009 to 2012 and on the Mamaroneck Town Council, where he currently serves, has shown that he can reach compromise solutions and “disagree without disliking,” he said.
District 7 has been a Democratic stronghold since now U.S. Rep. George Latimer won the seat in 1991. It has remained in blue hands ever since.
The district includes Rye, Mamaroneck, and Larchmont, as well as parts of Harrison, with more than 43,000 registered voters.
Nambiar has an advantage as Democratic voters outweigh their GOP counterparts by more than 2 to 1 in the district, enrollment figures show. He also has received $32,065 in campaign contributions compared to $5,492 raised by Van Kuller, according to the latest July filings with the New York State Board of Elections.
But the Democrat is not taking victory for granted and continues campaigning door-to-door to meet voters, holding virtual town halls, and participating in events alongside local Democratic heavyweights, including Latimer, County Executive Ken Jenkins, state Assemblyman Steve Otis, and state Sen. Shelley Mayer.
While Van Kuller may be fighting an uphill battle, he’s not going down without a fight. He said he has knocked on 1,500 doors across the district already this year to get his message out to voters. He believes his experience, with no incumbent in the race, should impress a growing number of undecided voters seeking a solutions-oriented candidate who would bring more “checks and balances” to the Board of Legislators.
Democrats on the county board have near-unanimous control, holding 15 of the board’s 17 seats.
Both candidates said they would be open to participating in debates, but none have been scheduled yet. The election is Tuesday, Nov. 4.
