By the New RoAR News Editorial Board

On Friday, May 9th US Representative George Latimer’s address to the League of Women Voters at the Scarsdale Golf Club didn’t go as expected.  The program was interrupted by Climate Defiance and other protesters. With a forthright banner the protestors chanted,  “You’re not bold, you’re not bright, you’re just a Dem who doesn’t fight,” and “Hey George, what do you say? Why don’t you go to the Bronx today!”  Poor George, the 30+ year honeymoon appears to be over for the freshman congressman. 

At a time when most Republicans are shying away from holding town halls, it is ironic that Trump acolyte Rep. Michael Lawler has held a town hall in Westchester County, while Latimer, known as a consummate and beloved politician, has held no in-person town halls.  In fact he has kept his calendar private and limited his time in the district to familiar settings.

At 71 years of age, it may be that Latimer is unprepared for the demands of representing the 760,000 members of his diverse district during a time when performative politics is not palatable.  Perhaps his “I’m just a boy from Mt. Vernon” finally is ringing hollow. Perhaps he expected the activists that his predecessor, Rep. Jamaal Bowman, embraced would disappear or only take aim at his Republican colleagues.  

Despite having his staff assure constituents in scripted telephone responses that Rep. Latimer is a “man of action” and is “fighting” to protect their rights, the reality is that the country in this moment of crisis needs bold, energetic leadership;  that is simply not George Latimer.

Latimer called it back in 2018.  After winning the County Executive position he made it clear that the CE position was the last office he intended to hold.  With that assurance, he promised bold action as part of his legacy.  However, Latimer is not a progressive and was never going to leave a transformative legacy. So, while with great fanfare he commissioned a County-wide housing assessment that put forth clear recommendations to help solve the affordable housing crisis, he used none of his considerable political capital to move those recommendations from paper to policy.

With a D rating by the American Lung Association for Westchester County, Latimer did create a Climate Crisis Task Force, right before he extended by 10 years the license for the pollution generating Wheelabrator waste burning facilities in Peekskill. 

At a time when other elected officials are confronting ICE agents, demanding answers from administration officials about illegal actions, holding open forums to hear real life examples of how the current administration is impacting communities, what the constituents of Congressional District 16 get, for a fee, is a well crafted speech at the Scarsdale Golf Club. 

Poor George, he thought he could simply take American Israel Public Affairs Committee  (AIPAC) money to challenge a sitting progressive Democrat, win an easy general election and then sit on the back bench until a younger get-along-go-along Democrat approved by AIPAC could take his place.  Little did he know that the times would demand an active defense of our democracy and true community focused leadership, not just an affable performative politician.

Poor George.