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Rand Says He’s Selling Business Acumen and an Accomplished Record of Service to Rockland County
By Tina Traster
If the Rands are Rockland royalty, Joe Rand is the prince.
And if he can convince voters to elect him in November 2026, he could become District 38’s next State Senator. Rand is hoping to leapfrog from his two-term mayoral stint in the Village of Nyack to state politics. To his credit, he has high-octane name recognition, a proven track record in real estate, and impressive achievements in managing a complex village that has economic and demographic challenges.
The 38th District Senate seat was held successively by former Democrat David Carlucci from 2011 to 2020 and then Democrat Elijah Reichlin-Melnick from 2020 to 2022. Reichlin-Melnick was defeated by Sen. Bill Weber, a Republican, in 2022 and again in 2024.
The 38th State Senate district includes the towns of Clarkstown, Orangetown, Haverstraw, and Ramapo.
Rand, a pragmatist who thinks of himself principally as a problem solver rather than a partisan politician, is hoping to ride an anticipated blue wave in next year’s election. But he’s counting on a roster of achievements over the last five years to get him there. These include navigating Nyack through the pandemic (while he was a village trustee), dealing with homelessness and vandals, stimulating economic activity, and the crowning achievement, steering the team that snagged a $4.5 million New York Forward grant this year.
Rand says his success comes from being involved in the “granular work.” From working social media to making himself a presence, the mayor rolled up his sleeves and got busy from day one. He uses his frenetic energy to generate strategies to tackle everything from Nyack’s panhandling crisis to stimulating programming and event planning to make the village a magnet.
“The mayor is supposed to run a government (which he does), not be a business marketer,” he said. “But that’s my background. For 25 years, I’ve been bringing people to Rockland. My product is Rockland County. That’s what I’ve been selling.”
In 2020, Rand pivoted from real estate to public service. He said his first inclination for public service began when Reichlin-Melnick was vacating his village board seat to become a state senator. “It was the fall of 2020, during COVID, and I didn’t feel like local governments were doing enough to help businesses. For my company, I was running daily Zoom calls, explainers for PPP and unemployment, giving brokers updates on the rules for house showings and best practices for keeping healthy.”
His first foray on the board promoted “promenades,” which were organized ways to platform local businesses by closing the main streets to traffic and encouraging ways for people to visit safely. Rand says he raised $30,000 to fund the events because the village didn’t have money for that. What emerged from this has been a mayor who has played an outsized role in advocating for local programming, seasonal event guides, a robust social media presence.
“We’ve got something going on here practically every day,” said Rand. “We love Nyack (which is also the name of the Facebook page he manages). A lot of people are so negative about Rockland. All you hear are complaints, so much toxic dialogue, a lack of civic pride.”
It’s unclear how much of the tension and dissatisfaction Rand mentions is a product of the deeply polarized nation we’re living in and how much of the division is related to unique local issues. But Rand’s indefatigable and upbeat energy has been infectious in his own village, and it’s been paying dividends. Among the arrows in his quiver is the $4.5 million New York Forward grant, which is slated to aid waterfront development, village beautification, historic preservation, tourism, and partial funding for eight apartments for volunteer firefighter housing. The village has completed its recommendations for the allocation of the grant money, which New York State needs to approve.
Rand said the village wants to rebuild a restaurant on the former site of the River Club and lease it to an operator on the waterfront with roughly 25 percent of the grant money. Another 25 percent of the grant would be used for traditional lighting, improved sidewalks, wayfinding, and informational kiosks. Roughly $1.8 million, or nearly half, is slated for nonprofits, including The Angel Nyack, Nyack Center, the Hopper House, Elmwood Theater and the John Green house.
Rand acknowledges that winning the grant was a team effort but believes a strategic suggestion may have won the day. For three years running, the village applied for the $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant (the Village of Haverstraw won a DRI in 2021) but didn’t win. “I suggested we cut down the size of what we were asking for,” said Rand. “I figured this might be more competitive for us.” He might have been right.
Nyack is universally perceived as one, if not the most, progressive corner of Rockland County. Rand says he considers himself a “moderate Democrat,” adding that he’s a capitalist, while at the same time, he believes in protecting people’s civil rights. He advocates for the social safety net – a concept that appears to be in flux in our nation. But mostly he positions himself as a practitioner who is “not looking to impose ideological ideas – I’m practical and common sense oriented.”
Rand said he led an effort to remove benches in Easter Park to crack down on homeless people sleeping in the public square.
“I took a lot of heat but felt we had to do it,” said the mayor. “I had to think about the needs of the entire public. I’m still taking heat. But we weren’t doing anyone any favors by allowing them to sleep on the streets.”
Since the pandemic, Nyack has been grappling with a growing panhandling and homeless community, which has threatened the vitality of the downtown. But the village has responded by hiring a private patrol company to walk the streets, worked with the Orangetown Police Department to increase its visibility, launched Nyack Cares to encourage people to contribute to a fund to help panhandlers rather than give money directly, and more recently has hired a social worker to liaise between the village and the police department.
While the village’s efforts to pass an Emergency Tenant Protection Act law didn’t pan out because they didn’t meet the 5 percent emergency vacancy threshold, the village passed a Good Cause Eviction Law.
“Nyack became the first village in New York State to opt into the Good Cause Eviction Law,” said Pascale Jean-Gilles, the village’s deputy mayor. “Over the past three years, I have seen firsthand (Rand’s) tireless commitment to making Nyack more affordable and equitable for our residents.”
Rand hopes to parlay his vision and experience into a role that brings more financial relief to Rockland County. He believes Weber is a good man but has not brought home the bacon for the county, possibly because he sits in the senate minority.
“With our current Republican minority representation, taxpayers are simply not getting the return on investment they deserve from Albany,” said Rand. “I’m running to be that majority voice, to fight for affordability, to protect our quality of life, and make sure Rockland families get the results they deserve.
