Merante Defeat Means End of Last Independent Voice
Mayor Mike Spano was the big winner in yesterday’s election. He wasn’t on the ballot, but he still managed to increase his support in the City Council, assuring that he will continue to wield almost unfettered political and governmental control of our city. Anthony Merante, a Republican and the only consistent voice willing to challenge Spano’s policies, was soundly defeated by Tim Hodges, a strong Spano supporter.
Turnout was about the same as it was in 2021, the last year in which there was a vote for City Council President. The unofficial total vote tally for this year indicates that 22,287 voters came to the polls, as opposed to 21,806 four years ago. There are about 117,000 registered voters in Yonkers.
Here are four takeaways from last night’s results:
Merante’s Defeat
In the 6th District, despite his eight years on the City Council, strong record of constituent support, and vocal advocacy for keeping taxes low, Merante was easily defeated by Tim Hodges. Hodges received 60% of the vote to Merante’s 40%. This was the third time that Merante had faced off against Hodges, but this time it didn’t go Merante’s way.
For this year’s election, the district’s lines had been changed to favor the Democratic candidate. Also, Hodges, a former Republican, benefited from a split in the Republican Party. Many old-time Republicans firmly support Mayor Spano, even though Spano is a longtime Democrat. (Spano changed his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat when he first ran for Mayor 13 years ago.) As a Democrat, Hodges commanded all the advantages of running in a district with more Democrats than Republican, and also garnered the votes of Spano Republicans. Moreover, Hodges received 6% of the vote on the Conservative Party line.
The traditional Republican Party has lost its identity in Yonkers.
Lakisha Collins-Bellamy Coasted to Victory
Collins-Bellamy easily defeated her challenger Dean Politopoulos, winning 56% of the vote to 39% for Politopoulos. (The Working Family candidate, Angelique Lopez received 5%, even though she was not an active candidate). Both Collins-Bellamy and Politopoulos were strong Spano supporters. In a Facebook post on election eve, former City Council Member John Murtagh commented, “the incumbent City Council President candidate, who can’t lose, is running against a Republican opponent who, rumor has it, was promised that if he was willing to take one for the team, the Democratic Mayor, a former Republican, would appoint him to something after he lost.”
Collins-Bellamy survived a five-candidate primary, which included two former City Council Presidents seeking to win back their seats. Although she emerged victorious from the primary, if Mr. Murtagh is correct, Politopoulos was the Mayor’s insurance policy if Collins-Bellamy didn’t win the primary.
Given the Dominance of the Spano Political Machine, Party Affiliations are Almost Meaningless
It appears that the Mayor now has the firm support of six of seven members of the City Council, with only Council Member Corazon Pineda-Isaac being an independent voice. Pineda-Isaac was not endorsed in this year’s primary by the Democratic Party, purportedly as retribution for her unsuccessful primary challenge to Mayor Spano in the 2023 mayoral race. After defeating the Party’s chosen primary challenger, Pineda-Isaac ran unopposed in the general election this year, with Democratic Party backing.
Mike Breen, a Spano supporter, will be the only Republican left on the Council as of January 2026. Two other Council Members are former Republicans: newly elected Hodges and the Council Majority Leader John Rubbo, who easily won re-election yesterday. It appears that the former Republicans who switched parties did so for political and not ideological reasoning. Today, in Yonkers elections, what truly matters is having the support of the Mayor and his political machine.
The Mamdani Effect
The political landscape in Yonkers is very different from New York City, where the upstart Zohran Mamdani built an energetic coalition that was able to leverage anti-establishment discontent around issues of affordability that ushered in generational political change. While Yonkers is clearly a more conservative city, one has to wonder if a similar charismatic and progressive candidate could do the same thing here?
It appears that the entrenched political forces in Yonkers already see where the next challenge to their power may originate. In the League of Women Voters candidates’ debate for City Council President the week before the election, in response to a question about reinstating term limits in Yonkers, candidate Politopoulos commented that he would only vote to suspend the further application of Yonkers’ term limits law if a Mamdani-like candidate were to be running for Mayor.
It’s not so farfetched to believe that an insurgency candidate could succeed in Yonkers. In fact, there is precedent. In 1987, a 28-year-old, one-term City Council Member Nick Wasicko (the subject of the book and HBO mini-series Show Me a Hero) stunningly defeated the incumbent Angelo Martinelli, the longtime Mayor and head of a then powerful Republican political machine.
We will have to wait to see if a Mamdani-like candidate will appear to shake up the political scene in Yonkers, but in the meantime, Mayor Spano and his supporters on the Council must at minimum show that they can competently maintain our city’s financial health and well being. There are many challenges ahead including the potential loss or diminishment of Empire City Casino revenue, and diminished federal funding stemming from President Trump’s policies. The potential loss of revenue comes at an inopportune time, as the City’s municipal labor contracts are now up for renewal.
Mayor Spano, the true winner of the 2025 election, will have to show he has what it takes to be an effective leader. We wish him all the best. Our city depends on his success.
