Official Press Release from Anthony Merante
Yonkers 6th District Councilmember and mayoral candidate Anthony Merante has succeeded in getting sufficient petition signatures to create the Restore Term Limits ballot line. In the choice for Yonkers Mayor Merante will now appear on both the Republican and Restore Term Limits lines. Merante’s success brings him closer to victory since Democrats and independent voters outnumber Republicans. There are a vast number of Yonkers voters who have been angered since four members of the Council and the mayor in a self- serving move nullified the will of the people by extending their own terms. These voters will now have a ballot line to express their discontent.
Anthony Merante has made term limits a cornerstone of his mayoral campaign. In addition, to creating the Restore Term Limits line, Merante led a petition process to add a referendum to this year’s ballot. This initiative was undertaken in alliance with Democrat, Republican, and independent voters organized to submit the restoration of term limits to the November 2023 ballot. The group collected nearly 5,000 signatures. The requirements of New York State law have been met. Now the Yonkers City Clerk and the Yonkers City Council, must take the necessary steps to place the term limits proposition on the ballot in November.
Merante in a bi-partisan vote, voted against extending the terms for mayor and City Council from 3- 4-year term to 4- 4-year terms. Merante said “Restoring term limits for Yonkers voters to decide is not a Republican or Democratic issue, but one of moral integrity. We must free our city from the cancer of cronyism. Although the courts may have found the City Council had the legal right to extend their own terms and that of the mayor that doesn’t mean it was moral or correct. That move was self-serving and a slap in the face to democracy. It is time elected officials respect the will of the people.”
Merante concluded, “In all our lives we do some things we regret. For me it was voting with the Spano administration to extend term limits the first time from the original 2 terms to 3. That was a huge mistake. I naively believed their empty assurances that it would only be a one-time extension similar to Mayor Mike Bloomberg in NYC. I underestimated their lust for power. What’s their next move after 16 years? Eliminating term limits altogether? Yonkers is not Cuba or North Korea. We refuse to be ruled by a family dynasty with an absolute grip on power. We must return democracy back to Yonkers. When elected mayor, I pledge to reconstitute the Charter Revision Commission and look to return all terms back to the original two terms set by voters.”
