Rye City Councilwoman Catherine Parker won a very tightly contested District 7 Democratic primary for County Legislator September 10, beating former Village of Mamaroneck Trustee Tom Murphy, with about 51 percent of the vote.

 

By Tom McDermott

 

Rye City Councilwoman Catherine Parker won a very tightly contested District 7 Democratic primary for County Legislator September 10, beating former Village of Mamaroneck Trustee Tom Murphy, with about 51 percent of the vote. On election night, some called the race in Parker’s favor early, but much of the final vote tally went to Murphy. At press time, with 100 percent of districts now reporting, Westchester.gov showed Parker winning 1,089-1,067. She also picked up 28 votes on the Independent Party line.

 

District 7 includes Mamaroneck, Rye, Larchmont, and parts of Harrison and New Rochelle. It is currently represented in the County Legislature by Democrat Judy Myers, who chose not to seek a fifth term. Instead, she convinced Parker to run for her seat. Subsequently, Parker registered as a Democrat.

 

In the November 5 election, Parker will face Republican real estate attorney John Verni, who resides in the District 7 section of New Rochelle and works for the White Plains law firm Kent Hazzard. In addition to being on Rye’s City Council, Parker owns an eponymous retail travel and accessory shop in Rye.

 

Murphy and Parker agreed on a number of issues, including keeping taxes low, prioritizing flood mitigation, and supporting County Executive candidate Noam Bramson (D) over Rob Astorino (R). One issue on which they diverged was Playland, where Parker supported the Sustainable Playland (SPI) proposal as being the best one for Rye and the County. Murphy said that the legislators should decide Playland’s fate and that the SPI plan was neither “sustainable nor Playland.”

 

Murphy is well known along the Sound Shore in Mamaroneck and Larchmont, while Parker was extending her reach beyond Rye for the first time. Many thought that, with Myers’ clear endorsement, this might not be such a close race. Clearly, those people were mistaken.

 

Still, with Murphy and other Democrats now behind her, Parker seems well positioned to take on John Verni in the general election.