Politics & Government

Thomas Roach Looks to Unseat Castelli for 89th Assembly Seat

Roach joins the race along with Mark Jaffe of West Harrison.

Thomas Roach of White Plains, a Democrat,  has joined the race for the 89th District of the state assembly. He will be running for the seat currently occupied by Republican Robert Castelli. Mark Jaffe of Harrison, also a Democrat, has already announced his bid.

Roach is currently president of the White Plains Common Council and has been on the council for 8 years. Spending several years in local government is what is making him run for the state legislature, he told Patch.

"I think the situation is Albany is terrible. I've spent 8 years on common council. so I have perspective of its impact on the localities," he said. "That makes it look worse than to the average citizen."

Find out what's happening in Harrisonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The state legislature has been shifting its responsibilities onto the local governments which means that they are stuck raising taxes and laying off workers," Roach added.

Roach says his goal is to help end the dysfunctional nature of Albany politics. "I am not going to go and live 4 nights a week away from my family just to plug into the system and wait to see what happens. I am going to advocate changes to make state competitive."

Find out what's happening in Harrisonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Jaffe welcomed Roach to the race in a statement. "Now the democrats of the 89th district will have a clear choice of whom they want representing them." Roach voted to raise property taxes and cut police and firefighter jobs, Jaffe stated.

"What I have tried to do on the council is to make our actual expenses match our income," Roach said. The city relies heavily on sales taxes and parking revenue and when those drop, the budget starts out in a hole, he noted. "What we have done is make up the differences as best we could."

Roach and his wife have two children and live in north White Plains, but he was raised in Shrub Oak and Mahopac. "I'm not a stranger to the North County area."

Running against an incumbent is always hard, but Roach thinks he has a good chance. He has won the endorsement of the New Castle and Mount Kisco Democrats.

On Wednesday, Roach received the endorsement of the Bedford Democratic Committee, which interviewed both him and Jaffe.

"Mark has a lot of energy and passion and brings a lot of business and outside experience, but Tom Roach has a proven record of cutting waste and consolidating during tough times," said Bruce Yablon, chair of the committee. Albany is trying to be all things to all people and is not cutting back or raising taxes, he said. "They are dumping this on the towns and making the towns absorb it." he said. Roach helped win concessions from unions in White Plains, which helped keep a tax increase lower than would have been needed otherwise, he said.

Castelli has only been representing the district since February, when he won a special election for the seat.

The 89th district covers Bedford, Lewisboro, Mount Kisco, New Castle, North Castle Pound Ridge, Harrison, and part of White Plains.


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