It will be Rick McCabe versus James Ward for the fall City Council race. The seat is being vacated by Sara Goddard, who was appointed by the Council after Ben Stacks resigned at the end of 2023 with two years left in his term. Goddard will end up serving just one year, leaving a single year (of Stacks’ six year term) up for grabs.
Each has been of service to the community in different capacities, but it will be a first run at elected office for both McCabe and Ward.
McCabe
McCabe is an independent and will be running on the GOP line. The GOP had former Councilman Richard Filippi set to run until they convinced McCabe to be their candidate.
Most recently McCabe has been before council as the Chair of the Recreation Committee around the contentious artificial turf proposal for Nursery Field. He has been on Rec for several years and just took over as Chair on January 1st after Bart DiNardo stepped down after almost 30 years.
McCabe is multigenerational Rye, as is his wife Beth. His father served 31 years with Rye PD from 1974 to 2005. They moved to Rye in 1979 and McCabe went to Osborn Elementary and on through Rye High. McCabe bought his in-law’s Hix Park house in 2012.
“The most important thing in my mind right now is hopefully creating a real civil discourse at the council and having these conversations be issue focused and not necessarily about factions or personalities or things like that,” said McCabe. “I think it’s important in a town like right where there’s no need for us to be hyper partisan.”
He said he is just getting up to speed on the various other issues in front of the city council. McCabe’s day job has been in the communication business, currently as the SVP of Communication for CBS Broadcasting.
Ward
Ward is running on the Dem line.
“My candidacy is all about sustainable efforts,” said Ward, who serves as the chair of the Rye Sustainability Committee [see the recent MyRye.com profile]. “I think the City supports those efforts. I think they’re moving in the right direction. But I think having environmentally focused people on the council is good. And I just want to get into the comprehensive plan. I think that needs people who can lead that project.”
Ward was speaking about Rye’s master plan – a bit of a perennial issue these days as it has not been updated since 1985. Recently Mayor Josh Cohn started the effort in January to begin to refresh the plan. Ward sees issues like flooding and residential construction within the context of a comprehensive plan.
“He’s wicked smart,” said Rye Dem Chair Danielle Tagger-Epstein. “You know, he’s well traveled. He’s a finance guy who has roots in sustainability, he coaches sports. So he’s extremely well rounded. And he wants to get things done and understands to do that, you have to bring our community together and we are in dire need of that right now.”
Ward’s day job is in finance as head of valuation for Viking Global Investors.
