By: Daniel Friedman
 
Ramapo Supervisor Christopher P. St. Lawrence cruised to a resounding victory on Tuesday, a Primary Day which had the supervisor on both Republican and Democratic lines for re-election. In the Democratic Primary, St. Lawrence received 5,833 votes to Bruce Levine’s 3,963. The landslide election victory gave St. Lawrence a clear mandate over Democrats in Ramapo, but he also received heavy support in the Republican Primary. Republican voters across the town spurned their own fellow Republican Robert Romanowski, a longtime Preserve Ramapo leader. Christopher St. Lawrence won 58% of the vote, receiving 1,585 votes, and Romanowski lost by 16%, receiving only 1,168 votes.

In his victory speech, St. Lawrence was magnanimous in his victory, and urged Romanowski and Levine to come together and support the choices the voters made in the primary elections. He promised to reach out to them to bring them on board. It is unknown whether Levine or Romanowski will now support the winners of the primary, even though that is something that has traditionally been done in elections past. Having lost the primary elections, Romanowski will not appear on the November ballot at all, giving him a 0% chance of winning, while Levine will have the Preserve Ramapo line. Supervisor St. Lawrence will be the candidate of 5 political parties, putting Levine’s chances of victory in November only slightly above Romanowski’s.
 
In any event, now that both Romanowski and Levine have taken part in the primary election process and lost, they have the opportunity to put the unity of Ramapo before their personal ambitions and support the nominee of their respective parties. It remains to be seen if they will take advantage of that opportunity.