Dear friends,

As many of you know, I had the daunting task of obtaining 1,000 proper signatures of registered New Rochelle Democrats in 5 weeks to get on the primary ballot for Mayor of New Rochelle after withdrawing from the New Rochelle Democratic Committee preference poll that I have already explained was based on an incomprehensible last-minute reallocation of weighted votes. Local and county Party bosses called me a bad loser and an election denier. The Party apparatus circulated only my opponent’s ballot petitions. One local career politician sent me a text, which I have set down as a Tanka, the form of Japanese poetry second in popularity only to Haiku

  Damon, I’m sorry
  But I just don’t see your path
  To victory any
  More as too many of the
  Major Players’ve left the train

True that I haven’t lined up endorsements from any Party bosses or any career politicians outside New Rochelle as my opponent has. That I’m not the hand-picked successor to the incumbent. That I won’t take money from developers doing business with the City or municipal unions whose contracts I vote on in my capacity as an elected official.

But, with the help of a coalition of rank-and-file Democrats, friends that I have made over many years of social and political activism who are members of NewRoAR, Bethesda Baptist Church, Temple Israel of New Rochelle, Indivisible Scarsdale and Larchmont-Mamaroneck Indivisible, together with the unjustly fired Housing Authority commissioners and their supporters, and a handful of loyal New Rochelle Dem District Leaders who recognize the value of my record of service to the Party, the County Legislature and the New Rochelle community as a whole, we compiled 1,569 signatures and I will be on the ballot for the June 27 primary!

MANY THANKS TO ALL WHO SIGNED, EITHER TO SUPPORT MY CANDIDACY OR EVEN JUST TO SUPPORT THE CONCEPT OF HAVING A CHOICE — DEMOCRACY, THAT IS — AND ESPECIALLY TO THOSE WHO CARRIED MY PETITIONS. IN MY WORLD, YOU AND ALL WHO VOTE IN OUR WONDERFUL CITY ARE THE ”MAJOR PLAYERS.”

Personally, I’ve rung up and knocked on over 3,000 doors in all sorts of weather since mid-February and have had many interesting conversations, long and short, especially informative in the parts of the City that I have not represented in the County Legislature. This is a BIG “small” city!  I will try to get to the door of each and every one of the likely Democratic primary voters by June 27. I hope some of you will join me. I see the path to victory and look forward to your support in my primary campaign and your vote!
 

Compare wear and tear on my knocking knuckles (my right, your left), especially the middle one, to the non-knockers  

Many thanks,
Damon