Candidates Trade Barbs As Primary Nears
As Democratic voters get primed for Tuesday’s primary, in which they will choose a candidate to face Lee Zeldin, the first-term Republican incumbent in the House of Representatives from the First Congressional District, the contest between Anna Throne-Holst, the former Southampton Town supervisor, and Dave Calone, a businessman, former prosecutor, and chairman of the Suffolk Planning Commission, has heated up, with each sending out multiple flyers containing scathing accusations about the other.
In telephone interviews earlier this month, candidates spoke about their records and drew contrasts in an effort to portray themselves as best equipped to defeat Mr. Zeldin. They pointed disparagingly to Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, whom Mr. Zeldin has endorsed, and described their stands on issues they said are important to South Fork residents. To a large degree, they touted their records on the environment.
Ms. Throne-Holst said “dealing with degradation of ground and surface waters was a top agenda item” during her six years as supervisor, during which the impact of multiple algal blooms on eelgrass and shellfish, as well as commercial and recreational fishing, became evident.
“I took great personal interest in this, and started working with Chris Gobler,” of Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, she said. When research pointed to excessive nitrogen as a culprit, “it became clear . . . for all thinking heads to come together under one roof and put their heads together on how to get to a final project that would be both affordable and able to treat nitrogen on site.” This, she said, came to fruition as the New York State Clean Water and Technology Center at Stony Brook University, which she helped establish.
Mr. Calone referred to his efforts as chairman of the planning commission to defeat, in 2013, a controversial housing development at 555 Montauk Highway in Amagansett. “We need to preserve what’s left here on the South Fork. We were under a tremendous amount of pressure from the town board, the town supervisor, and others to allow that project to go forward. I stood up to them on the county planning commission,” he said.
Mr. Calone criticized Ms. Throne-Holst over what he called her last-minute withdrawal of support for the East Hampton Town Board effort to impose curfews and restrictions at East Hampton Airport in response to noise. “She basically insisted there be a solution and then stabbed the town in the back when they went to implement it,” he said. “My position has always been, local control means local control.”
For her part, Ms. Throne-Holst criticized the prior town board’s implementation of a transition route for aircraft in and out of East Hampton Airport, which she said negatively impacted Southampton residents. She explained her concern about new restrictions at East Hampton Airport, which she said “were only going to push this problem east or west,” including to the Southampton Village helipad and Gabreski Airport in Westhampton Beach. “We welcome restrictions, but we just need to know that this does not unduly impact every other landing site,” she said.
Ms. Throne-Holst’s campaign has criticized Mr. Calone’s tenure on the Long Island Power Authority’s board, with Andrew Grunwald, her campaign manager, charging that Mr. Calone voted to increase utility rates. Mr. Calone said he had served on LIPA’s board because “there was no one on the board pushing for renewable energy. . . . During the time I was a volunteer there, the major thing I spearheaded was the largest increase in renewable energy in Long Island’s history.” Mr. Calone had directed a LIPA storm management committee and resigned from the board soon after Hurricane Sandy, for which the utility’s response was roundly criticized.
He also said climate change was both a federal and local issue. “But the federal government needs to step up in terms of support for renewable energy.” He wants to “make sure there is a cost for those who are engaging in carbon pollution. . . . That’s a way we can both fund renewable energy, move away from a carbon-based energy system, and do our share to fight climate change. We are on the front lines like almost nowhere else in the country, stuck out in the ocean as we are.”
Ms. Throne-Holst agreed that the federal government had “a huge role to play” in climate-change mitigation. “How are we working together to deal with not only preparedness and mitigation, but starting to do what it takes to reverse the effects of climate change and sea level rise? Coordinated leadership on all those, starting at the federal level, is hugely important.”
Mr. Calone said that he had consistently fought against overdevelopment on the South Fork and he charged that Ms. Throne-Holst had supported it in Southampton. He also criticized her past contributions to the Conservative Party and cited her recent registration change from the Independence to the Democratic Party.
“If you want a progressive, I’ve been doing that since I was 18 years old,” he said. “I’m a real Democrat who is interested in building our party.”
But Ms. Throne-Holst countered that, saying, “I’m the only one in this race who has actually managed and legislated proactively and gotten the job done in government. Having done both private sector and government work, there is a material difference between the two.” Neither Mr. Calone nor Mr. Zeldin, she said, had “gotten people of all political stripes to work together. That is what is missing in Washington today.”
The Independence Party has endorsed Mr. Calone, which he said would bestow a 3 or 4-percent advantage in the contest against Mr. Zeldin in November. Ms. Throne-Holst pointed to the wide margins in her election victories, which came “in a Republican-leaning district,” something that cannot be done “unless you know how to run a good, strong campaign and appeal to a general public.”
Both candidates positioned themselves between Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for president, and Senator Bernie Sanders, whose insurgent campaign galvanized younger voters.
“I see my own candidacy as a healthy mixture of both,” Ms. Throne-Holst said. “But I do think we will be in the hands of a very strong leader with Hillary,” who, she said, “brings a treasure chest of experience. When we’re talking about foreign policy issues, which are so front and center now, she is someone who has worked and forged relationships with world leaders.”
“It’s important we coalesce behind Hillary,” Mr. Calone said. “I think she is clearly the best prepared person to be president, and the best to build on President Obama’s record.”
Both strongly criticized Mr. Trump and predicted that either of them would benefit from a Trump-Clinton matchup in the race against Mr. Zeldin.
“I think people are absolutely going to reject the Trump-Zeldin ticket,” Mr. Calone said. He called the incumbent congressman “a far-right representative” who is “really out of step with Long Island values.”
“I’m very pleased that Hillary is free to go up against Mr. Trump,” Ms. Throne-Holst said, “and expose him for what he really is, which she will.” She hopes Ms. Clinton’s coattails will be long enough to carry her to victory.
“The fact that she is the first woman running for president is significant, and I would be the first to represent this district in Congress. There’s some synergy there. I think we have an excellent chance of winning this in November.”
Each of the candidates has won significant endorsements. The New York Times endorsed Mr. Calone last week. Other key endorsements have come from the East Hampton Town Democratic Committee, the Long Island Environmental Voters Forum, East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell and his Democratic colleagues on the town board, and five county legislators, including Bridget Fleming, formerly of the Southampton Town Board.
Those who have endorsed Ms. Throne-Holst include Tim Bishop, who represented the First Congressional District for six terms until his defeat by Mr. Zeldin, New York’s Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, six members of the House of Representatives from New York, State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman, and Judith Hope, a former state Democratic chairwoman and East Hampton Town supervisor, as well as Emily’s List, a nationwide organization.