Election 2021

The Suffolk County Board of Elections issued the official results of the Nov. 3 election on Monday, adding the count of absentee ballots to the certified totals. The nearly six-week delay between the elections and their certification was due to a hand count of ballots in Southampton, Southold, and Shelter Island Towns, officials said last week.

"I was guardedly optimistic," East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said Wednesday after an apparent landslide victory for the Democratic Party. He pointed to a record of sound financial management, guiding the town through the Covid-19 pandemic while maintaining a functioning government, and forward movement on renewable energy and said, "I think the public responded resoundingly." 

Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming, an incumbent candidate, was one of only a few Democrats re-elected to their posts on Tuesday as Republicans earned victories in key races in county government.

Voters across Suffolk County flunked three of the five statewide propositions on Tuesday's ballot. The only successful measure that will impact the East End was an amendment to the state constitution to establish the "right to clean air, clean water, and a healthful environment for all."

The polls had been closed for more than two hours when word was conveyed that there would be no further update to the Suffolk County Board of Elections' vote tally of East Hampton Town's 19 election districts, but the early vote totals indicated a clean sweep for Democrats. At nearly 1 a.m., when the board of elections website finally populated with all of East Hampton Town's unofficial numbers, those results held: The Democrats' candidates had won every contested town race from supervisor to town trustee.

There will be one new face among the East Hampton Town Trustees, who manage many of the town's beaches, waterways, and bottomlands on behalf of the public, when the nine-member body is sworn in in January. All nine candidates running on the Democratic ticket were elected.

With less than two weeks before the 2021 election was to be settled, the East Hampton Town Democrats had outspent their opponents by almost double and still had plenty left for a final push.

The Republican and Conservative Party candidates for East Hampton Town supervisor and two council member posts held a forum for voters on Sunday at the American Legion Hall in Amagansett, where they made a case for their candidacies and leveled a broad critique of the present administration.

Errol Toulon Jr., a Democrat who was elected to his first term as Suffolk County sheriff in 2017 cross-endorsed by the Conservative Party, says he is seeking re-election this year because he has some “unfinished business” to take care of.

There is little daylight between the three candidates for East Hampton Town Board who participated in last Thursday's debate hosted by the League of Women Voters of the Hamptons, Shelter Island, and the North Fork.

The race for the office of Suffolk district attorney pits the incumbent, Tim Sini, against Ray Tierney, a veteran prosecutor who is making his first run for elected office.

Bridget Fleming, a Democratic incumbent Suffolk legislator and former Southampton Town councilwoman, is seeking a fourth term, challenged this year by Robert J. Carpenter, a Republican making his first bid for public office.

Two of the three candidates for East Hampton Town supervisor sparred anew at last Thursday's virtual debate hosted by the League of Women Voters of the Hamptons, Shelter Island, and North Fork. The incumbent, Peter Van Scoyoc, and his opponent, Jeff Bragman, have sharply criticized each other throughout much of the latter's single, four-year term as a member of the town board.

In addition to the candidates for East Hampton Town supervisor, the town board, and the town trustees, there are four incumbents seeking re-election on the Nov. 2 ballot this year. All are running unopposed.

Five candidates, only one of them an incumbent, are competing for two seats on the East Hampton Town Board. Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, running on the Democratic and Working Families ticket with Cate Rogers, hopes to win a third term on the board. Also running are John Whelan on the Independence line, and Joe Karpinski and George Aman on the Republican and Conservative tickets.

The Nov. 2 election for East Hampton Town supervisor pits onetime allies, the incumbent, Peter Van Scoyoc, and Councilman Jeff Bragman, against each other, with the Republican and Conservative candidate Ken Walles also vying for the top job in town government.

Registered voters who want to cast their ballots before Nov. 2 can do so starting Saturday, when early voting begins.

The nine-member East Hampton Town Trustees manage many of the town's beaches, waterways, and bottomlands on behalf of the public.

Supervisor, Elect 1

Peter K. Van Scoyoc (D, W.F.)

Kenneth I. Walles (R, C)

Jeffrey Bragman (I)

Town Clerk

Carole A. Brennan (D, R, C)

Superintendent of Highways

Stephen K. Lynch (D, I)

Town Justice

Steven Tekulsky (D, R, C, W.F.)

The League of Women Voters of the Hamptons, Shelter Island, and the North Fork will host a debate between the candidates for East Hampton Town supervisor and, separately, one among candidates for town board on Oct. 21 at 7 p.m. via Zoom.

Twice on LTV this week, East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc and Councilman Jeff Bragman, his opponent in the Nov. 2 vote, sharply criticized each other on several topics as both described a town in a near-existential crisis.

The League of Women Voters of the Hamptons, Shelter Island, and the North Fork has confirmed three candidates debates next month, all via Zoom.

A town board discussion about amending the town code governing ethics turned into a furious argument among members on Tuesday, largely over a May 7 event that honored pandemic frontline workers and food pantry staff but drew criticism from the town's board of ethics.

Bridget Fleming for Congress is looking for motivated interns with a positive attitude to join its operation.

The Suffolk Board of Elections certified the results of East Hampton Town's June 22 Democratic primary on Tuesday, with little change to the outcome.

After absentee ballots had been counted on Tuesday, Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc, who is seeking a third term, had held off a challenge by Councilman Jeff Bragman, winning the primary by 1,102 to 864 votes, or 56 percent to 44 percent.

Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc is the apparent winner in Tuesday’s Democratic Party primary election, holding off a challenge from Councilman Jeff Bragman, and his running mates, Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez and Cate Rogers, chairwoman of the East Hampton Democratic Committee, also prevailed in the three-way race for the Democratic nomination for town board.

East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc and Councilman Jeff Bragman, who is challenging him in a Democratic Party primary on June 22, argued at length about the since-vacated 2019 settlement with the owner of Duryea's in Montauk during a debate on Saturday sponsored by the East Hampton Group for Good Government, Mr. Bragman charging the supervisor with "at best misjudgment, at worst improper conduct" in the matter. 

Unlike the Democratic candidates for East Hampton Town supervisor, the three Democratic candidates vying for two seats on the East Hampton Town Board offered nary a contrary word during two debates last week. Rather, they professed a raft of similar goals and philosophies and offered only positive messages in their respective pitches to Democratic voters. 

Three weeks before a Democratic Party primary in which East Hampton Town Councilman Jeff Bragman will challenge Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc, a furious argument broke out among the town board, with Mr. Bragman seizing on a letter from the town's board of ethics that criticized town board members for having taken guests to a May 7 event at the Clubhouse in Wainscott honoring pandemic frontline workers and food pantry staff and featuring a performance by the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Jon Bon Jovi.

The East Hampton Town Board unanimously passed a resolution in support of a home rule request concerning companion bills in the New York State Legislature that would stagger the terms of office for the nine-member town trustees and increase the trustees' terms from two to four years.