The Rockland and Westchester Republican committees will hold a joint convention Tuesday night in Clarkstown Town Hall to select a candidate to run against incumbent Democrat Nita Lowey in the newly reconfigured 17th Congressional District. The released last week renumbered and redesigned the Hudson Valley congressional districts of Lowey, and Representatives Eliot Engel (D-Bronx) and Nan Hayworth (R-Bedford). The 17th district now includes all of Rockland County and Mount Kisco, Yorktown, Cortland Peekskill and most of New Castle in Westchester County.
According to Rockland GOP county chair Vincent Reda, there is one declared candidate,, two candidates who recently withdrew from the race and several more possible nominees. Carvin, the current Rye Town Supervisor, has formally declared his candidacy, and on the heels of that announcement, and Anthony Melé withdraw from the race. Reda said other potential candidates include Rockland County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef, Clarkstown Councilman Frank Borelli (R-New City) and possibly one other individual from Westchester.
With the court-approved changes of the newly drawn districts, Rockland, which had been split between Lowey’s 17th district and Engle’s 18th district, becomes the 17th district. Engel’s district is renumbered to the 16th and that will encompass the Bronx and southern Westchester. Hayworth’s 19th district becomes the 18th district and includes some of northern Westchester, all of Putnam and Orange counties and parts of southern Dutchess County.
Carvin, a hedge fund manager with Altima Partners in New York City, will challenge 24-year-career-politician Nita Lowey, who was first elected to the office in 1988. In announcing his run for the office, Carvin said the “nation faces serious and profound challenges.”
"The financial challenges facing our children and grandchildren surpass anything most of us can imagine and have been building for years,” said Carvin. “It is incumbent on us as responsible citizens to challenge a status quo that puts the nation at perilous risk at a time of great uncertainty. We have a clear choice between two futures, one that assumes that trillions of dollars and 40 cents on every dollar of US federal expenditure will be financed by foreign creditors into perpetuity and another that says we must act with urgency and focus to address our fiscal challenges now."
Larchmont Republican Mark Rosen withdrew from the race last week and endorsed Carvin. Anthony Melé made the same announcement in Chestnut Ridge on Sunday. Melé emphasized the need for party unity and solidarity on both sides of the Hudson River. Carvin thanked Melé for his leadership and work to address fiscal and constitutional challenges facing the nation.
Carvin is an agricultural investor who has lived and worked on five continents. He speaks five languages (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Wolof) and holds a M.B.A. from New York University and a M.P.A. from Harvard University.
He is in his second term as Rye Town Supervisor. According to Carvin’s statement, he does not accept salary from the town and has reduced its expenses by 25 percent during his tenure. Also, this week, his brother, attorney Michael Carvin, begins arguing against Obamacare before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The joint nominating convention begins at Town Hall in New City at 7 p.m. with sign-in and nominations at 8 p.m.
