Bronxville Mayor Coy Despite Democrat Terror

BRONXVILLE, NY — 14 January 2019

Tonight's meeting of Bronxville's all-G.O.P. Board of Trustees (a.k.a. the Vobbots) featured an unusual interloper in the church pews of Village Hall's TRUSTEES ROOM: A Democrat. It was the first time I've seen an acknowledged Dem at 200 Pondfield in my 15 months on the Bronxville beat. Jennifer Colao, the recently elected chair of Bronxville's Democratic Committee, was present tonight "just to observe" — and prepare, presumably, for January 24.

That's the night of the big caucus VOB Dems plan to hold in the Community Room of the Bronxville Public Library. Next Thursday will decide which brave Dems are to stand for the seats currently occupied by Trustee Randolph Mayer and Deputy Mayor Robert S. Underhill.

But there are three open seats. Who are the Dems planning to run opposite "America's Favorite Mayor — and Mine"? (To quote, from prior occasions, County Legislator Gordon Burrows's routine but undoubtedly heartfelt endorsement of 7-term incumbent Mayor Mary Marvin.)

The answer from the Dems is a waffle. As in TBD. As in, don't hold your breath that VOB Dems will offer up a presumed sacrifice to a career politician who, oddly, has never received a quorum of VOB's eligible votes. The 70 stalwarts (I was one) who turned out unanimously for Mary in 2011 was an all-time low for our mayor, but typical of Bronxville's failure as a democracy: VOB's moth-eaten voting record (it starts in 1977 — no earlier documentation survives) speaks to a community of 6,500 that seems quite satisfied with not voting.

Chairwoman Colao specifically noted Mary Marvin's permanent soapbox in every local paper as the reason for "the perception that she is so popular."

It will be difficult enough, according to Colao, to find candidates to unseat Messrs Mayer & Underhill on Tuesday, March 19.

"A lot of people don't want to run in elections they know they will lose," Colao told me.

Ms Colao is not without hope of some Democrat turnout in March, however — citing the off-cited fact that Bronxville "went twice for Obama." (Memo to VOB Dems: You really do need to stop sounding like the dad in Jordan Peele's Get Out, who would have "voted again for Obama" given the chance.)

As for Mayor Marvin, Her Honor refuses to say if she plans to maintain her office into 2021: "I handle those things in my own timeframe," she assured me tonight. I will ask again, in February, if Mayor Marvin is to stand — or actually run — for mayor in March.

Because by then VOB's Dems ought to know, too, if they are good for a three-seat challenge.

[This article was subsequently edited by its author to record Village of Bronxville's total population (30% of VOB residents are disenfranchised by their youth); to observe the author's own vote in a prior election; and to change the phrase "Colao confided to me" to "Colao told me": Ms Colao was aware at the time that she was speaking to a reporter on the record. Nothing was said in confidence.]