Full disclosure: Josh Nathan is my friend. I have known him for 25 years, since we both moved to Rye. Our kids grew up together. And before The Rye Record, I helped on his political campaigns.
But I’m going to say it anyway: After our staff spent six hours interviewing all three mayoral candidates, it is abundantly clear to me that Nathan is by far the best choice for Rye. The recent League of Women Voters debate at The Osborn more than confirmed that.
His opponents, Rick McCabe and Bill Henderson, are both truly good people and solid candidates. Both know the issues and can be consensus builders. We are well-served by having these three qualified candidates who are having an open and civil debate.
No matter who is elected, The Rye Record will remain committed to covering our local government and elections thoroughly, fairly, and accurately and publishing diverse opinions.
Nathan’s deep understanding of the issues in Rye, his track record of success on both the City Council and school board, and his ability to find creative solutions with broad support clearly puts him at a much higher level than his opponents.
Electing Josh Nathan as our mayor is a big opportunity for Rye that I hope we don’t miss.
As for the city council candidates, I would encourage you to support Nathan’s running mates: James Ward, Marion Anderson, and Amy Kesavan. They are talented and have demonstrated a strong commitment to the Rye community, they are the stronger candidates, and their values and priorities align with Nathan’s.
Nathan has spent countless hours over the years mastering the many issues challenging Rye and helping the city make the best possible decisions. And of all three candidates, he is, without doubt, the most deeply engaged in the complicated issues around flooding, which is the single biggest challenge we face as a community.
At the same time, he also is focused on various issues that may seem smaller, but nonetheless have an effect on our lives here in Rye: the day-to-day goings-on in our neighborhoods and how council decisions can affect us personally. He cares about every resident of Rye and I am convinced he will not hesitate to move heaven and earth to help each and every one of us.
Nathan’s extraordinary problem-solving abilities were on full display during his nine years on the school board, including three as board president. He was especially successful at instilling fiscal discipline while negotiating teacher contracts during the recession that began in 2008.
He has a rare combination of abilities that can be seen in skilled political leaders: the ability to find common ground creatively and the patience and good will to work with anyone. He favors collaboration — with the county, other municipalities, and residents — over litigation. His unfailing instincts are always to reach out and talk, including with those who disagree with him.
While Henderson and McCabe are dedicated public servants who care about Rye, they both have notable drawbacks as candidates.
McCabe is a great citizen of Rye. I hope he’ll become more involved in city government — but not now as mayor, not before he has still more government experience and a deeper grasp of the issues and political dynamics.
McCabe is positioning himself as a nonpartisan candidate who will end squabbling and division on the City Council. Yet his campaign was launched and has been endorsed by the very council and community members most responsible for the divisiveness that has plagued the council.
And McCabe unfortunately is pushing for an unnecessary review of the city ethics code, in apparent support of outgoing Mayor Josh Cohn. Such a review would only play into Cohn’s unhealthy obsession with the ethics board, which he developed after he and several council colleagues were cited for an ethical infraction. Cohn is starting to resemble captains Ahab and Queeg on the matter. He even went so far as to sue the ethics board — the mayor suing the city! — a gambit he only dropped after the move was widely derided.
The ethics board is, in fact, excellent and Cohn should simply take the board’s criticism, learn from it, and move on. We should not allow council members who were criticized by the ethics board to try to intimidate those very same ethics officials. That defeats the purpose.
It was Nathan and Henderson who joined forces to improve governance on the City Council, creating new rules that made council decisions more careful by including greater participation from all council members and the public.
Henderson has been an ally to Nathan in helping the council function more successfully. But he’s not the leader Nathan is, and I’m convinced he would not accomplish nearly as much for Rye.
Another clear difference between Nathan and Henderson is Henderson’s seeming lack of concern for the environment. He opposed limits on tree cutting; voted against the city’s contract for cleaner energy with Westchester Power; was against a program to pick up food scraps; and opposed a plan to more quickly ban gas-powered leaf blowers.
Safeguarding our environment is not only the right thing to do, it’s an important part of preserving Rye’s appeal and addressing our serious flooding problem.
Henderson’s actions also raised questions when he supported installing artificial turf at Nursery Field only after a group of artificial turf supporters visited the Rye Republican Committee and issued a threat and an offer: they would oppose anyone who didn’t support artificial turf and help anyone who did.
Soon thereafter, Henderson was the deciding vote to approve the artificial-turf plan, and then he announced his run for mayor. Regardless of one’s position on artificial turf at Nursery Field, those events raise the obvious question of whether Henderson traded his vote for campaign support.
Henderson says no one in that group promised him anything and the group has not provided much manpower or financial support for his campaign. But he and the Republicans have raised twice as much money as their opponents, and one of his running mates was an active supporter of the group that pushed for the artificial-turf project.
By contrast, Josh Nathan has been a strong and consistent advocate for the environment and sustainability and he has addressed our flooding problem most aggressively and skillfully. Nathan has a deep understanding of all the issues facing Rye and what we need to do to manage them successfully. And he has a strong, demonstrated track record of success as a leader.
For all of those reasons, I heartily endorse Josh Nathan to be our next mayor. I hope you’ll support him too.
