Bedford readies for Election Day

BEDFORD, N.Y. - Voters in Bedford, where Democrats enjoy a 2-1 enrollment advantage over Republicans, will have few decisions to make when, or if, they go to the polls this year.

Only one race, in the County Legislature’s 2nd District, and a Bedford ballot proposition to increase funding for the town’s three libraries, will offer voters a choice on local matters.

In the legislative contest, Republican-Conservative Braille Diaz of Mount Kisco looks to unseat two-term County Legislator Erika Pierce of Katonah (D-WF) in sprawling District 2 (Bedford, Lewisboro, Mount Kisco, North Salem, Pound Ridge and part of Somers).

Diaz is a volunteer firefighter and member of Mount Kisco’s Board of Ethics. Pierce is a vice chair of the National Association of Counties’ Environment, Energy and Land Use Committee.

The ballot question asks voters to approve a $2,628,845 annual town contribution to be shared for library operations in Bedford ($766,999); Bedford Hills ($810,058) and Katonah ($1,051,788). The money would be collected through a separate library assessment on property owners’ tax bills.

Democrats go unchallenged in balloting for five town posts and have Working Families Party endorsements in four of them.

Supervisor Ellen Calves (D-WF), a Katonah resident who faced an opponent only in her first contest for the post in 2021, is seeking a third two-year term in town hall’s busy corner office. A former volunteer and staffer with the environmental activist organization Bedford 2030, Calves, a lawyer, was first elected to the Town Board in 2019.

Two seats are up for grabs on the Town Board. Stephanie McCaine (D-WF), a school administrator and longtime Katonah resident, is defending her seat. McCaine was appointed to the board in January 2021 and elected to a four-year term that November, along with Andres Castillo of Bedford Hills.

When Castillo chose not to seek re-election, Midge Iorio (D), a Katonah resident, threw her hat in the ring. She directed Bedford 2030 initiatives for 13 years and has also served on the Katonah Chamber of Commerce, Katonah Village Improvement Society and Katonah Elementary School PTO.

Town Justice Jodi Kimmel (D-WF), elected to the bench in 2021, is also unopposed in her bid for another four-year term. Kimmel, a Bedford Hills resident, has served on Westchester’s Domestic Violence Council and New York’s Cyber Abuse Task Force.

In March 2024, when Lisbeth “Boo” Fumagalli retired after more than two decades as town clerk, the Town Board asked Allie Whalen to serve in the post till year’s end. A 10-year veteran of the community’s volunteer ambulance corps, Whalen was elected last November to fill the final year of Fumagalli’s term and is now seeking, on both Democratic and Working Families lines, a full four-year term.