Democracy 101
What office is this? What does this person actually do day-to-day?
The office in play is a seat on the Westchester County Legislature, representing the 17th District. The seat is currently held by José Alvarado, the longest-tenured legislator, and is not seeking reelection. Legislators represent their respective districts, or portions of Westchester County, crafting laws, approving budgets, and providing oversight over county-level infrastructure and social services, including SNAP, Medicaid administration, public transportation (Bee-Line buses), wastewater/sewer systems, parks, and housing programs. The legislator allocates county budget dollars and sits on committees (real estate, budget, seniors/youth, etc.) that shape policy in those areas.
What district/area does it cover?
Legislative District 17 comprises the Southwestern-most portion of Westchester County. To the South. It follows the county line to the South along the edge of New York City’s city limits, the Hudson River shoreline to the West, and portions of Yonkers to the North and East.
The Candidates
Wilson Terrero
Party: Democratic (party endorsed)
Campaign Website: WILSON TERRERO
Background: Former Yonkers City Council majority leader; built a career in real estate; immigrated to the U.S. as a teenager and worked in his uncle's grocery store while putting himself through college. Founder of the Dominican Cultural Association, which runs free youth and senior programs (arts, dance, tutoring); has helped over 2,000 residents become U.S. citizens and distributed 200+ scholarships to local students.
Why running: Cites his record as council majority leader and his real estate background as direct experience with the housing and economic development issues facing the district; says outgoing Legislator José Alvarado is backing his campaign.
Policy positions: Terrero has said that the affordability crisis in Yonkers is his top legislative priority, followed by improvements to public infrastructure, safety, and transportation. Details are scant as to how, specifically, he’d tackle those issues, however.
- Wants to chair the Real Estate Committee, pointing to his prior success getting a 10% affordable housing set-aside passed on the City Council (raised to 12% since he left, which he calls insufficient)
- Wants to convert county street lighting and bus fleets to greener technology, citing a similar streetlight conversion he led that saved the city over $10 million over eight to nine years
- Wants stronger consumer protection oversight on gas and food pricing to offset rising costs tied to federal funding cuts
Leslye Oquendo-Thomas
Party: Democratic (endorsed by the Working Families Party)
Campaign Website: https://www.leslyeforwestchester.com/
Background: Spent 12 years working in Yonkers City Councilwoman Corazon Pineda-Isaac’s office, including two years as chief of staff. Notably, she was fired from that position in February after expressing interest in running for office (for what she believed was political reasons). Prior to that, she worked internationally with the United Nations in Africa and with the Organization of American States in Ecuador. Raised in municipal housing on public assistance in a Spanish-speaking single-parent household; now a homeowner in Park Hill.
Why running: Says the district is historically one of the poorest in the county and needs a representative who has lived the same struggles (housing instability, navigating bureaucracy, language barriers) rather than a career politician.
Policy positions: Oquendo-Thomas’s core legislative priorities are affordability, increasing economic opportunities, improving county services, and strengthening immigrant protections. Her platform includes Yonkers-specific plans for stronger tenant protections, free bus service, free tuition at Westchester Community College, and improvements to how Westchester County handles requests from federal agencies handling immigration matters, among other things.
- Wants a new county housing needs assessment (current one is nearly a decade old) and wants to re-evaluate the income eligibility percentage used to determine "affordable" housing, since many residents earn too much to qualify yet still can't afford market rate
- Wants to make Westchester Community College free for district residents, citing the existing Excelsior Scholarship's income cutoff as a model
- Wants assisted/transitional housing for homeless residents that includes job search and mental health services, rather than overnight-only shelters that put people back on the street each morning
The Issues
The two candidates are similar in many respects, as are the main issues that the two are focusing on: Affordability, first and foremost, along with improving public services, infrastructure, and transportation. They’re both Democrats, but what voters should know is that Oquendo-Thomas is the more progressive candidate, advocating for more left-of-center policies than Terrero, in many respects, and being more upfront and public about her support for those policies. In many ways, this is more of an establishment Democrat-versus-progressive Democrat type of race.
The Campaign
Both candidates participated in a virtual forum hosted by The Rivertowns League of Women Voters on June 9. There weren’t any particularly terse moments, as over the course of roughly 50 minutes, Terrero leaned on his deep experience in local government to explain his qualifications, while Oquendo-Thomas explained her reasons for running, and differentiated herself by leaning into more progressive policy ideas and views. But there was a more direct confrontation during a second candidate forum, where Oquendo-Thomas called out Terrero's voting record directly.
As noted, Terrero has the backing of the Yonkers Democratic Committee and has been endorsed by Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano, Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins, and Congressman George Latimer. He’s also been endorsed by the 32BJ SEIU union, the New York Hispanic American Law Enforcement Officers Association, The Sierra Club, and the New York League of Conservation Voters.
Oquendo-Thomas has been endorsed by the New York Working Families Party, Westchester Coalition for Legal Abortion Political Action Committee, Hispanic Democrats of Westchester, New York Progressive Action Network, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, and The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local No. 3.
The Takeaway
This race is between a Democratic party insider with deep connections with Terrero, and a more progressive, left-leaning choice in Oquendo-Thomas. It may be summed up as a choice between an establishment Democrat and an upstart looking to shake things up on the Left.
They’re running in a very Democratic-leaning area, and the race is a microcosm, in some ways, of similar races playing out across the country, where we see left-leaning upstarts versus “establishment” Democrats. In that sense, it’s similar to a Bernie Sanders versus Hillary Clinton type of race, or on a more local level, Jamaal Bowman versus George Latimer.