New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson announces bid for county executive seat

New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson announced Friday that he will seek the Democratic nomination to unseat Republican Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino next year.

"It is time for a serious debate about our future, and I intend to offer a campaign of substance and ideas," Bramson said in a statement posted on his newly launched campaign website.

Bramson, 43, joins fellow Democrat Bill Ryan, a county legislator who announced his intention to run last month. Other prominent Westchester Democrats, including county Board of Legislators chairman Ken Jenkins, are speculated to be interested in the top post.

"We welcome him to the race. We have good people out there and we think he's a person who could do well" Reginald Lafayette, chairman of the Westchester County Democratic Committee, told Newsday.

County GOP chairman Doug Colety could not immediately be reached for comment.

The mayor is well-regarded among Democrats, with a reputation built on selectively growing New Rochelle's downtown business district and successfully managing one of Westchester's most diverse and populous cities. He's a product of New Rochelle public schools and has two sons who attend schools in the district.

A Harvard graduate, Bramson was a city councilman for a decade before he was appointed mayor in 2006. He was elected to a second four-year term in 2011, winning 79 percent of the vote.

Astorino has not yet announced his intention to run for re-election but it is widely believed that he will. In Astorino's first bid for the seat in 2005, he lost to incumbent Andy Spano, but surprised many with a strong showing. In 2009, a year when Westchester County felt the effects of the national recession and faced considerable debt, Astorino toppled Spano on a campaign platform of fiscal reform.