2019 G.O.P. Slate Is Set

The East Hampton Town Republican Committee’s top candidates for 2019, announced at its nominating convention on Saturday, are political newcomers but no strangers to Town Hall. Filling out the ticket are candidates of diverse political persuasions including incumbents who won election as Democrats and others aligned with the group known as the East Hampton Reform Democrats.

The committee also named Diane McNally, a former longtime clerk of the town trustees, as its vice chairwoman.

Richard P. Myers, a Republican from Wainscott, will run against Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc, who is seeking his second term. Mr. Myers serves as the chairman of the town’s architectural review board, a term that is up at the end of 2020, and is a former chairman of the Wainscott Citizens Advisory Committee. He has lived in Wainscott since 2003, and in Springs before that, since 1995. He works as a luxury travel agent and has a long history of leading various companies and organizations.

For town board, the Republican committee chose Bonnie Brady, a registered Democrat, and Elizabeth A. Bambrick, known as Betsy, a member of the Independence Party, to run for seats occupied by Councilwoman Sylvia Overby and Councilman David Lys.

Ms. Brady, a Montauk resident, is the executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association. She has been a persistent critic of the proposed South Fork Wind Farm and of the Montauk hamlet study, which is one of several town commercial center studies that are nearing completion.

Ms. Bambrick, who lives in Springs, worked in town government for 28 years. She retired as the head of the Ordinance Enforcement Department in December of 2017, a position she had held since 2010. She was previously the chief animal control officer.

In a statement issued after their convention, the committee stressed unity among its diverse candidates, saying they are committed to environmental conservation, affordability, and quality of life for the town’s residents.

Along with Ms. Brady, several have publicly opposed the South Fork Wind Farm. “We believe not as Republicans or Democrats but rather as people that care and love our community that the government’s role is to enable our community to secure the benefits of society and help uplift those who are unable to do so,” Manny Vilar, the committee chairman, said in a statement issued by the committee.

In that same statement, Mr. Myers said that he offers “a balanced perspecthe reality of life and governance today” in the town. “My aesthetic and managerial experience as well as leadership was well honed with a background in business and the arts which extend to my efficiently having realistic goals as to the continued growth and change of the Town of East Hampton,” he said.

Ms. Brady said that she is seeking office because “I believe the well-being of the year-round community in East Hampton is being neglected by the town board and has been for as long as I can remember.” Except for two years serving in the Peace Corps, she has been a year-round resident since 1989, she said, “and the same issues from then are still here and have not been fixed.” She cited young adults who cannot afford to remain in their hometown and commercial fishermen who she said the town is not protecting against feared impacts of the proposed wind farm, among other issues. “Our town government has to serve the interests of all the people who live here, not just those who can afford to make political contributions,” she said.

Ms. Bambrick said in a statement that the present town board “does not respect viewpoints or voices that differ from their own,” as evidenced by “the push to industrialize our ocean,” a reference to the proposed wind farm, “and even our residential neighborhoods,” citing PSEG Long Island’s plans to relocate the Long Island Power Authority substation in Montauk, possibly to a wooded hillside on Flamingo Avenue, which has sparked opposition from the community. “As a 30-year public servant, I have witnessed and experienced firsthand the eroding trust in our elected officials,” she said. “I represent a fresh approach while bringing us back to the basics of good government.”

East Hampton’s Republicans have suffered lopsided losses in recent elections. Mr. Vilar lost a race for town board in November, and fell short in a bid for supervisor in 2017. Few of the party’s candidates prevailed in the 2017 election: Democrats hold a 5-to-0 supermajority on the town board and have a 7-to-2 advantage on the town trustees.

Susan Vorpahl and Jim Grimes, incumbent Republican trustees, are among the Republicans’ nominees for that nine-person body. Dell Cullum and Rick Drew, who were elected as trustees on the Democratic ticket in 2015 and 2017, respectively, are running on the Republican ticket this year. The Democrats endorsed Mr. Drew, but not Mr. Cullum, who said last week he had not decided whether to seek re-election.

The other G.O.P. candidates for trustee are Stephen Lester, a former trustee and a Democrat, who will be on the Republicans’ ticket but not on the Democrats’, Rona Klopman, a former Democratic candidate for trustee and a member of the Reform Democrats, Mike Havens, a former candidate for trustee, Fallon Ecker-Bloecker Nigro, the daughter of a former trustee, and Dave Talmage, a former Republican trustee.

The G.O.P. nominated Lisa R. Rana, the longtime town justice, for re-election and is again backing Highway Superintendent Stephen Lynch, who has been cross-endorsed by the Democrats. Justice Rana will run against Andrew Strong, the Democratic Committee’s nominee for town justice. He is an attorney who serves as general counsel to Organizacion Latino-Americana of Eastern Long Island.

Two longtime incumbent assessors, Jill Massa, a Republican, and Jeanne Nielsen, a Democrat, received the G.O.P. nod. They will run on the Democratic ticket as well.

A number of new committee members were named on Saturday, and the party also established a Young Republican Club to be led by Liz Jacobs. 

This article has been updated with the version that appeared in print on Feb. 28, 2019.