Government
Yonkers is typically a Democratic stronghold just like the rest of Westchester County and most of New York state, but until recently it has had a small democratic lean. In 1992, Yonkers voted for George H. W. Bush over Bill Clinton and Ross Perot for president, but has voted solidly Democratic ever since. At a local level, recent mayors of Yonkers have included Republicans Phil Amicone and John Spencer, while the Yonkers City Council was also mostly controlled by Republicans until recently when the Democrats took over the council again. The current mayor is Democrat Mike Spano. In the State Assembly, Yonkers is represented by Democrats J. Gary Pretlow and Shelley Mayer, and in the New York State Senate, by Democrats Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Jeffrey Klein. At the federal level, Democrats hold both congressional districts that include parts of Yonkers, with representatives Eliot Engel and Nita Lowey holding the seats as of 2011.
Yonkers is governed via a mayor-council system. The council consists of six members each elected from one of six districts. The mayor and city council president are elected in a citywide vote.
Read more about this topic: History Of Yonkers, New York
Famous quotes containing the word government:
“There exists in a great part of the Northern people a gloomy diffidence in the moral character of the government. On the broaching of this question, as general expression of despondency, of disbelief that any good will accrue from a remonstrance on an act of fraud and robbery, appeared in those men to whom we naturally turn for aid and counsel. Will the American government steal? Will it lie? Will it kill?—We ask triumphantly.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“[In government] the problem to be solved is, not what form of government is perfect, but which of the forms is least imperfect.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)
“I do not hesitate to say, that those who call themselves Abolitionists should at once effectually withdraw their support, both in person and property, from the government of Massachusetts, and not wait until they constitute a majority of one, before they suffer the right to prevail through them. I think that it is enough if they have God on their side, without waiting for that other one. Moreover, any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one already.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)