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Committee Contests, Too

By
Christopher Walsh

The Democratic Party primary election next Thursday will determine not only the party’s nominee for the fifth seat on the East Hampton Town Board, but also the membership of the town’s Democratic Committee, which, atypically, is hotly contested this year. In every one of the town’s election districts, each of which has two seats on the committee, there are primary challenges.

A fight to determine the successor to Jeanne Frankl, the committee’s chairwoman until her retirement earlier this year, opened a chasm between establishment party officials and a group that has come together under the name “East Hampton Reform Democrats,” the latter group charging that Ms. Frankl had underhandedly maneuvered to ensure the outcome of her successor’s selection. That, the group charges, is emblematic of a broader culture of “bossism and cronyism.” 

David Gruber, who sought but did not win the Democratic Committee’s endorsement as its candidate for the town board, is the Reform Democrats’ candidate. He will face Councilman David Lys, who was appointed to the board in January, in the primary election. 

The Democratic Committee as currently constituted has seized on an Aug. 24 State Supreme Court ruling that nominating petitions for Mr. Gruber’s appearance on the Independence Party ballot were invalid due to fraudulent signatures, including that of a deceased person, to discredit his candidacy. 

“This level of deceit is astounding and unprecedented in our town and David Gruber has to take responsibility for it,” Cate Rogers, who was elected to succeed Ms. Frankl, said in a statement issued last weekend. “His campaign’s use of the ‘moral compass’ symbolism for his hostile takeover attempt of the East Hampton Democratic Party is clearly a farce.” 

In their own messaging on social media and in mailings, the Reform Demo­crats hit back, telling voters that they “are committed to breaking the monopoly of a small group of Democratic Party insiders on party nominations” with open screening of prospective candidates and party conventions. “That way, elected officials will no longer be beholden to party insiders who now exercise unhealthy influence over appointments and decisions by boards, such as planning and zoning, that are supposed to be fair and independent, serving the public.

 

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