Keeshan Out, Turner In
A week after the East Hampton Republican Committee announced that Len Czajka had dropped out of the East Hampton Town Board race, the party’s other candidate for town board, Nancy Keeshan, announced her withdrawal from the race, as well.
Margaret Turner, the executive director of the East Hampton Business Alliance, was selected to replace Ms. Keeshan at a meeting of the Republican Committee on June 10.
“I have withdrawn, really for personal reasons,” Ms. Keeshan, who has been a town planning board member for five years, said on Friday. Ms. Keeshan is a real estate agent and partner at Keeshan Real Estate in Montauk, a firm founded by her father, John Keeshan, in 1977. “The market is heating up out here, and I’m not going to be able to put in the time. It’s a family business,” she said of Keeshan Real Estate. “It requires a lot of time.” Mr. Czajka had likewise cited prior commitments in his decision to withdraw from the race.
Ms. Turner, who also owns a pet-care company, did not return calls for comment. She joins Lisa Mulhern-Larsen, a Montauk native who is a real estate agent and runs a family security and property management business in East Hampton. Her husband is Gerard Larsen, East Hampton Village’s chief of police.
Tom Knobel, the party’s chairman and a former member of the town board and town trustees, remains the G.O.P.’s candidate for supervisor. He will run against Supervisor Larry Cantwell, a Democrat who has received the endorsement of the East Hampton Independence Party. Ms. Turner and Ms. Mulhern-Larsen will be running against the Democratic incumbents Sylvia Overby and Peter Van Scoyoc.