SURPRISE >>> POLL: Catherine Parker Leads Jamaal Bowman and Vedat Gashi In Congressional Primary Race

BRONX AND WESTCHESTER COUNTIES, NY: The Larchmont Loop is reporting that a poll taken after the start of early voting puts Catherine Parker at the head of the pack in a three-way race to become the Democratic nominee for US Representative in the new 16th Congressional District in New York.

POLL RESULTS: With just days till the unusual August 23rd Primary Election Day, 27.4% of Democratic respondents chose Westchester County Legislator #CatherineParker to represent the new district, with Congressman #JamaalBowman gathering 22.7% and County Legislator #VedatGashi getting the nod from 14.8% of the respondents.

BUT, BUT, BUT.... 31% remain undecided.

Vedat Gashi and Catherine Parker are both Westchester County legislators threw their hats into a crowded primary field as Democrats try to hold their 10-seat advantage in the U.S. House of Representatives this November.

All four candidates, including Jamaal Bowman, a Yonkers native, live in Westchester.

#JamaalBowman, 46, who unseated 16-term incumbent #EliotEngel as a middle school principal and political newcomer in 2020.

#CatherineParker, of Rye, emphasizes that she is in her 15th year representing constituents in the district.

She has the most legislative experience in the race, spending the last nine years on the Westchester County Board of Legislators, including a term as majority leader, following six years on the Rye City Council.

Legislator Parker, 56, pitched herself as someone who gets involved with the granular day-to-day aspects of the district – which she said she hasn’t seen from Congressman Bowman.

#VedatGashi, 44, points to his work drafting laws in Kosovo when he was fresh out of law school as it was working to gain its independence – the very place he fled from with his parents at the age of four, landing him in the Bronx and PS86 in Kingsbridge Heights.

He now lives in #Yorktown, which, although the town was part of an iteration of District 16 earlier this year, it now falls in District 17.

He says he wants to help other people achieve the American Dream like he did as a formerly undocumented immigrant who found a path to citizenship.Legislator Gashi began his work as a Westchester lawmaker in January 2020, he ran for higher office in 2018, losing to Assemblymember #KevinByrne, a Republican, in the general election.

Congressman Bowman hopes Democrats maintain control of the House and Senate following the 2022 midterms in order to pass women’s reproductive rights, criminal justice reform and voting rights legislation without roadblocks.

Jamaal Bowman’s challengers bashed the “defund the police” slogan, a phrase that Bowman shied away from in recent months.

But Congressman Bowman said he doesn’t want conversations around policing to be centered on defunding or not, but rather call attention to divested funding into public health determinants of crime – such as poverty, lack of resources and education attainment – rather than sky-high police budgets.

Legislator Gashi also says efficient public safety policies are needed and points to behavioral health professionals that partner with police in Westchester.

Legislator Parker says police need resources, but their current resources can be utilized better, like with implicit bias training.

She cites her efforts to ban gun shows from the Westchester County Center and a local resolution in support of statewide Red Flag gun laws.

Legislator Parker says she will fight for “sensible gun legislation”.

While Progressives’ calls for bolder climate change action, criminal justice reform and cancellation of student debt have often been criticized by some moderate Democrats as radical,Congressman Bowman says they are more in line with what the majority of American people want, citing a disconnect between critics and voters.

Legislator Gashi agrees that the environmental crisis cannot be ignored and is tied to economic development, pointing to Westchester County’s conversion of its fleet to electric.

Members of Congress are elected to two-year terms and make $174,000 yearly.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/YonkersNewswire/posts/3321398184784403/

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