With less than two weeks away from Election Day, News 12 is taking a closer look at the county executive race in Rockland.
County Executive Ed Day is running for his third term. Day is a retired police commander and former legislator.
"I'm the chief executive officer of an organization with a three-quarter of a billion-dollar budget, 1,750 employees and 30 departments. My opponent should show where her skillset is," Day says.
Day is a retired police commander and former legislator. He says his proudest achievements include beating the measles crisis, navigating through the pandemic and brining Rockland out of a $138 million hole to a now $90 million surplus.
"My goal here is to finish the fiscal job we are continuing work on economic development. We have brought in $8 billion worth of rateables to Rockland County. That creates jobs," Day says.
Day is running against Democrat L'Tanya Watkins, a defense attorney, who believes running a private practice and being a lifelong Rockland resident makes her a great candidate.
"We have a failed mental health crisis in this county, we have a homelessness problem in this county, we have a criminal justice problem," Watkins says.
She says her goal if she is elected is to serve the marginalized communities that she says are not being helped.
"The problem solving that's taking place here doesn't address the needs and issues of those communities," Watkins says.
The Rockland County League of Women Voters will host a debate between Day and Watkins over
Zoom next week.
The debate is set for Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. and county residents are encouraged to submit questions. They have to be submitted by Sunday night by following this
link.
Early voting starts Saturday, Oct. 23 and Election Day is Tuesday Nov. 2.