Murray, Funchion, Zachary Sweep Buchanan Election

The Buchanan Democrats defeated the Republican challengers in today’s Village election. Incumbent Mayor Sean Murray won the election with 378 votes and Republican challenger and former mayor Al Donohue earned 195 votes, according to Village Administrator Kevin Hay.

Murray’s slate included candidates for Village trustee positions, Richard Funchion and Nicholas Zachary, who both won re-election with 373 and 369 votes, respectively. Trustee challengers Angelo Iacomini and Edward Delmonte earned 191 and 191 votes, respectively.

Murray, Zachary and Funchion will all serve their second two-year terms as mayor and trustees. Currently, Democrats hold four of the five board seats. Trustee Theresa Knickerbocker is an independent. Trustees are paid $5,000 a year and the mayor earns $6,500 annually.

Murray’s campaign focused on the work that his administration has accomplished over the last two years that he says has have costs, opened up community dialogue and brought the Village into compliance with state comptroller regulations. Prior to the election, he also touted his administration’s work on a replacement vehicle program, where they set aside money to rehabilitate vehicles rather than let them die and have to buy new ones; technological upgrades to digitize records and become more efficient, which were paid for by old grants from the mid-2000s that had not been used; putting change order clauses in its contracts and holding more public hearings.

“I just want to keep the team together you know, we started a lot of good policies, moved a lot of people around, came into compliance…We have a lot of policies we just got off the ground last year we want to finish,” Murray said.

Murray, 45, has lived in Buchanan his whole life and works as a senior nuclear mechanic at Indian Point Energy Center.

Donohue had served as Buchanan Village mayor from the 1980s to the early 1990s and then from 1998 through 2002. He is a 76-year-old war veteran and retired New York State trooper who has lived in the village for 48 years.

Donohue focused on village financials and said he wanted to reduce spending. 

In the 2010 election Donohue lost to Murray by 205 votes, when Murray earned 430 votes and Donohue earned 225. 

The next Village vote comes in May following public hearings on the 2012-2013 budget to take place in April. The organizational meeting on the budget will be held on April 6. 

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