How Say You, Tarrytown?

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November 1, 2024

By Barrett Seaman and Solace Church–

As far back as the late 17^th century, citizens of New England towns decided communal matters at “Open Town Meetings,” in which public issues and elections were discussed by the entire population gathered in one place at one time. When all sides had been heard, an elder or selectman would call for an up-or-down vote: “How say you, (Woodstock or Salem or Lowell)?” The people would then answer, “Yea” or “Nay,” and the issue would be decided.

New Englanders saw this as the purest form of democracy, and in the smaller towns of Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire, something akin to Open Town Meetings continues to this day. In an increasingly complex world, however, it is impractical, if not impossible, to conduct the business of the people in such a straightforward manner.

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Elections for national or even state office are especially complex, as the distinctions between villages and towns blur and the issues themselves are often entangled in layers of local, state and federal—and sometimes even international—authorities.

Take Tarrytown, a village of just under 12,000 people, about 7,500 of whom are registered voters, subject to five levels of government: local, town, county, state and federal. In the national arena, recent redistricting changes have divided the village’s voters between two congressional districts, one tied to northern communities and those across the river, the other to central and southern Westchester County and parts of the Bronx.

The village’s cultural and economic ties are strongest with the other Hudson Valley rivertowns, including immediate neighbors Irvington to the south and Sleepy Hollow to the north. Tarrytown is part of the Town of Greenburgh, whereas Sleepy Hollow falls under the jurisdiction of Mt. Pleasant, though the two villages have more in common with each other than with their respective townships.

In the greater scheme of things, how Tarrytown votes on Nov. 5 will have miniscule impact on the race for president and only slightly more on its congressional races. Yet conversations ranging from casual sidewalk chit-chat to more structured interviews by The Hudson Independent suggest a widespread sense of political engagement, strong opinions and, in some cases, deep anxiety about the presidential contest. Because the Congressional race in District 17 is close–and may determine which party controls the House of Representatives, it too raises anxiety levels in the village.

In a brief survey of voters whose identities we agreed not to publish, The Hudson Independent asked what each considered the two most important issues in the campaign. The choice of issues emerged as a reliable indicator of how they would vote. Those who chose immigration and the economy were much more likely to back Trump, while those who chose reproductive rights, “character” or “the future of democracy” almost invariably sided with Harris.

The voters we surveyed live on or close to the dividing line between Districts 16 and 17—close enough so that if they lived just across the street, they would be choosing between a different set of candidates. In the District 16 race between County Supervisor George Latimer and Dr. Miriam Levitt Flisser, the Republican, the issues voters thought to be most important were not nearly as closely linked to their voting preference as they were in the race between incumbent Republican Congressman Mike Lawler and former Rep. Mondaire Jones in CD-17. All of the registered Republicans with whom we spoke, some of the independents and at least one Democrat allowed that they would or might vote for Lawler. In District 16, Latimer was the choice of voters regardless of affiliation.

Mondaire Jones and Mike Lawler: the race to watch on November 5

We also asked how comfortable these voters were talking about the election in their social or work settings. Many confessed feeling discomfort outside immediate family and trusted friends, some but not all of whom were anti-Trumpers. One woman, a registered Democrat planning to vote for Trump, complained that “if you say anything [good] about the Republican party, you are vilified,” she said, “There’s a lot of distortion about a lot of issues.”

(For a sampling of responses from our survey, go to: https://thehudsonindependent.com/tarrytown-voters-in-their-own-words/)

Politics in Tarrytown have not always been a blood sport, according to long-time residents and participants in the process. The political and cultural demographics have in many ways turned upside down over the past few decades. It used to be, one former office holder observed, that most of the village’s elites were Republicans, albeit what were known as “Rockefeller Republicans.” They tended to be fiscal conservatives and social pragmatists. Working class voters, many of them employees of the General Motors plant on ground now occupied by the Edge-on-Hudson complex, were the mainstay of the Democratic party.

Today, in terms of party affiliation, as reflected in the County registration records, Tarrytown is heavily Democratic. As of the 2020 Census, for every four registered Democrats in the village there are two unaffiliated (independent) voters and one Republican. Not all those Democrats will vote for Kamala Harris, just as not all Republicans are committed to Donald Trump.

George Latimer and Miriam Levitt Flisser: not likely to be close

While the ratios vary slightly, Democrats dominate in the rivertowns generally. They are likely to be college-educated, socially liberal and skewed towards women, while among the predominantly white working-class voters forming the Republican base, the vocabulary is one of grievance and resentment of what they see as protected classes—people of color, those who identify as LGBTQ+, immigrants and the elites who control the money and the levers of power. Rockefeller Republicans are a relic of the past.

The Democratic parties in each of the rivertown villages tend to be well organized, with district leaders, regular meetings and a willingness to go out and get out the vote. Republicans in Tarrytown have no visible party structure, and when they run for local office, they often register as members of a third party, “Village First,” for example, in addition to or instead of the Republican ballot line.

How say you, Tarrytown? There is not much doubt that most voters here will cast ballots for Kamala Harris in the presidential race. Those living on the District 16 side of town will back George Latimer—probably by a large margin. How the battle (and it has been a battle) between Mondaire Jones and Mike Lawler ends is anybody’s guess, but its outcome may be the closest local reflection of the current climate of American politics, with long lasting social as well as political consequences.

To review stories about this 2024 election previously published by The Indy, go to:

https://thehudsonindependent.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=96409&action=edit&classic-editor

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