John Testa is seeking a second term as District 1 representative on the Westchester County Board of Legislators this fall.
"I'm running again because we're just getting started on what we need to do to straighten the county out," Testa said.
The Peekskill Republican announced his candidacy last month at the Cortlandt Colonial restaurant to a room full of supporters including County Executive Robert Astorino, who has already given Testa his endorsement.
Testa, a technology and history teacher at Peekskill High School for the past 31 years, served as mayor of Peekskill for three terms before stepping down in 2008. Prior to that, he served as a city councilman for a single four-year term.
Testa believes the county was on the right track in cutting spending and consolidating departments under Astorino even though the Democrat controlled legislature has overridden several Astorino vetoes.
"The successes we've had so far working with the county executive are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what needs to be done to straighten out the county" Testa said. "The government organization of the county is too big. There are too many positions, too many department expansions. We need to consolidate and bring down spending levels."
Testa is against splitting Peekskill between legislative districts 1 and 9, which the board of legislators passed by overriding an Astorino veto on May 23.
"There's no governmental reason to do it, it was a pure political move backed and supported by the local Democratic leaders here," Testa said. "It's the wrong thing to do and people are upset about it. It's going to be a major issue going forward."
Board Chairman Ken Jenkins, a Democrat, has insisted the redistricting was done in a fair well-planned manner.
Testa said he hopes that Republicans can break the supermajority on the board in the coming election in order to make the changes he said need to be made.
"If we do that, we can make tremendous advances," he said.
The Peekskill Democratic Committee has not announced its 2011 candidates yet but is expected to field a challenger to Testa.
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