On December 4, the Village of Mamaroneck residents swore in Sharon Torres as their new Mayor. Torres emerged victorious against Democratic incumbent Tom Murphy in the recent mayoral election, ending Murphy’s term of six years in office. While running as an Independent, Torres was endorsed by the Village of Mamaroneck Democrats despite Murphy running on the Democratic line. Torres ran on the “Building Bridges” party line, which focused on mending relationships with residents and holding the Village of Mamaroneck to its “friendly village” slogan. The Globe spoke with Torres on December 13, 2023, to better understand her background, perspectives, and history with municipal involvement.
Torres defeated three-term incumbent Murphy by a 4% margin; of the 15,000 eligible voters, only 3,800 or 25% turned out to vote. Defeating an incumbent was set to be a challenge, and Torres’ succeeded in her goal to build a passionate coalition of active community members to defeat Murphy with energy and a notion for change. Torres explained that she was “the underdog [that] went from a relative unknown to the mayor” in the several months leading up to the election. She attributed much of her success to the community’s support throughout her campaign and the importance of upholding her values. During her campaign, Torres primarily focused on connecting with the residents of the community.
To that end, she “spent a lot of time on phone calls, on social media, on email, going to people’s homes, going to different events and talking to everyone and listening to what they wanted.” While Torres has lived in Mamaroneck for 15 years and is an active community member, she felt she needed to expand her demographic and reach people from all corners of the Village.
While campaigning, Torres found a large group of residents who agreed that transparency was an essential factor of a local government and, in their opinion, one lacking under Murphy’s administration. Torres claims she and other residents felt concerned with “where [her] tax dollars were going” and the municipal leadership’s lack of transparency. During the campaign, Torres criticized this lack of communication, saying the ability of municipal leaders to make choices without full awareness from residents was “uncomfortable.” Torres claims that readily accessible, unbiased news sources that portray administrative actions are critical in improving community transparency. This way, residents can be more “informed” and “… decide on their own [political beliefs] instead of trying to follow somebody with the loudest voice on social media.”
Torres faces an uphill battle: while community dialogue is limited, the vast majority of conversation surrounding municipal politics happens by word of mouth or on social media platforms like Nextdoor. Reaching both engaged and disengaged residents will likely be a challenge.
And yet, her values of transparency and communication were still a key theme in her campaign. She hopes that these values would “bring people together across the political spectrum [to] bridge some of that divisiveness that [has] started.”
Torres believes this disjointedness is one of the most significant issues plaguing our community today, with “the culture in our village and within our board getting very negative and very divisive.” Torres feels the political culture has a very “us versus them” attitude and was fueled by irresponsible social media usage. She claims that social media makes it easy “to hide behind a keyboard” and “respond to something in a way that you would never respond in person,” creating unnecessary tension and conflict.
Despite Torres’ negative views about irresponsible social media usage, much of her campaign occurred on such prominent social media sites she herself criticized. During the October mayoral candidate debate, Murphy accused Torres of not condemning (and debatably partaking) in ‘cyberbullying’ leading up to the campaign on the popular social media site Nextdoor. Torres has not commented on the nature of these claims and did not provide the Globe on specific situations on when they occurred.
Despite these social media-induced issues, Torres feels that sites such as Nextdoor and Facebook can “bridge divisiveness” and connect with “people from all areas of the Village who [have] never met, who are of different political parties, who would have [never had] conversations.” She hopes that connecting citizens of different backgrounds through these platforms would reduce the division that occurred during the Murphy administration. Torres claims she doesn’t “foresee the divisiveness or animosity that we had before,” and is eager to unite the community and attempt to end the area’s political divide during her next two years as mayor.
Torres also attributes her success to prior experience and knowledge from the workplace. While she currently works as a “Chief Human Resource Officer” for a social services agency in the city, she has had jobs in accounting, business, and operations, giving her a wide range of experiences. In addition to her work responsibilities, Torres has volunteered at local organizations to give back to the community. Her volunteer experience includes the Police Reform and Reinvention Committee, the Larchmont/Mamaroneck Food Pantry, and New York Pet Rescue.
Throughout the interview, Torres emphasized the importance of giving back to the community through volunteer work, especially considering her upbringing in the Bronx as a young, “mixed-race Hispanic woman.” Her “childhood was not always easy” because of the “racial isolation” she experienced. She explained, “…when you end up having someone like me, we don’t really fit into the exact mold [of a specific race].” As the first Hispanic Mayor of the Village of Mamaroneck, she recognizes the difficulties that minorities might face. She hopes to see “more people of Hispanic origin or people of color coming up and volunteering on the committees and learning how government works, as she sees it as crucial to “see that diversity reflected in politics ’cause that’s where those decisions are made.” Torres seeks to bring this inclusive attitude to her community throughout her term.
The Globe will continue coverage on Mayor Sharon Torres in the coming weeks.
