Murphy Easily Retains County Legislature Seat

John Murphy retained the District 16 seat on the Rockland County Legislature he has held for 40 years with a comfortable victory over Democrat Eliot Tozer and third-party candidate Andrew Wiley Tuesday.

"The most important thing to me was the peole supporting the causes I represent, which are essentially for the county government to take care of our fragile people, people who are helpless, essentially, because of either birth defects or diseases or old age. The vote is a declaration of the county's determination to protect human care."

Murphy won with 2,406 votes, 62.4% compared to Tozer's 26.9% and Wiley's 10.6%.

"One of the people running against me was a person willing to throw disabled people, elderly people and helpless people under the bus to prove he would go to any extent to reduce taxes," Murphy said of Wiley. "That frightened me, because in the final analysis, the role of government is to protect the citizens. That's what I stand for. I'm thrilled that the public endorses a humanitarian government."

In the other Rockland County Legislative District that includes Pearl River, District 15,  Patrick Moroney (R-Pearl River) ran unopposed and was re-elected.