G.O.P. Greets Supporters

Republican candidates for office gathered at East Hampton Point restaurant last Thursday, promising if elected to deliver the effective leadership they said is now in short supply.

With Ed Cox, the party’s state chairman, in attendance, candidates met with supporters and spoke about policy changes they would like to make. “Leadership is certainly the biggest issue,” Tom Knobel, the Republican candidate for East Hampton Town supervisor, said. Mr. Knobel, the Repubican Committee’s chairman and a former member of the town board and town trustees, said, “This town board, even on its favorite issues, is not able to pull the trigger and obtain results.”

Mentioning the Army Corps of Engineers plan to rebuild the beach in downtown Montauk, Mr. Knobel said, “Not a molecule of sand has been moved.” He also pointed to this summer’s crescendo of complaints from the hamlet’s residents about out-of-control crowds. The present town board, he said, favors additions to the town code. “Instead of writing new laws,” he said, “enforce the ones that you have. What is the purpose of creating new laws that you don’t enforce?”

Democrats on the town board, Mr. Knobel said, “look at things from only one angle, and every single piece of legislation has collateral damage that they only discover at the public hearing. . . .  They chose to bring forth a rental-registry proposal that got everybody very concerned and angry, and then did absolutely nothing with it. They did the same thing with light trucks.” Mr. Knobel also complained about the inability to create affordable housing. “Issue after issue they have brought up,” he said, “and basically flubbed.”

Margaret Turner, a candidate for the town board, said she had gotten into the race “because I’m not happy with the pace that our current board is operating at. I think we are at a turning point in our town with some very serious issues, and I don’t feel there is a sense of urgency on the sitting town board.”

Ms. Turner, who was selected last month to replace Nancy Keeshan, who cited prior commitments in withdrawing her candidacy, is the executive director of the East Hampton Business Alliance. She is neither a politician nor does she intend to become one, she said. “I’m in this for the four years to get a lot of things accomplished.”

She is nothing if not confident. “Not only am I running,” she told a member of the gathering, “but I’m going to win.”

Lisa Mulhern-Larsen, the party’s other candidate for town board, spoke of quality-of-life issues, particularly in Montauk and Springs. “There needs to be more support for the police,” she said with regard to Montauk and its summer crowds, citing public safety. “With that will come a change, and quickly.” Overcrowded housing in Springs, she said, is another problem that demands action. “I look forward to being elected,” she said.

Greg Mansley, the Republican Committee’s media director, said the lively campaign event was evidence of “a new, re-energized Republican Party in East Hampton, one that is eager to correct the problems that have been allowed to develop over the past couple of years.”

“I see candidates,” Mr. Mansley said, “that are working for solutions, and have the foresight to see potential issues and deal with them.”