East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc is the apparent winner in Tuesday’s Democratic Party primary election, holding off a challenge from Councilman Jeff Bragman. Mr. Van Scoyoc’s running mates, Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez and Cate Rogers, chairwoman of the East Hampton Democratic Committee, are also the winners in the three-way race for the Democratic Party nomination for town board on the Nov. 2 general election ballot.
As of 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday, the Suffolk County Board of Elections’ unofficial results had Mr. Van Scoyoc leading Mr. Bragman with 999 votes to 791 votes, or 55.78 percent to 44.17 percent. In the race for two seats on the town board, Ms. Burke-Gonzalez had 1,371 votes, Ms. Rogers had 1,106, and John Whelan, chairman of the town’s zoning board of appeals, was in third place with 801 votes, according to the board of elections’ unofficial results.
In the 10-way race for the nine positions on the trustee ballot, Rick Drew, a three-term incumbent who was rebuffed by the Democratic committee at its nominating convention in February, is apparently the odd man out. David Cataletto, a teacher at the East Hampton Middle School who won the committee’s endorsement in his place, finished seventh among the 10 candidates in the Democratic primary, according to the unofficial results, with 1,262 votes. Mr. Drew finished in 10th place, with 962 votes.
The other eight incumbents on the trustee board will also appear on the Democratic Party line on the Nov. 2 ballot. They are Francis Bock, the trustees’ clerk; Bill Taylor and Jim Grimes, deputy clerks; Susan McGraw Keber, John Aldred, Mike Martinsen, Tim Garneau, and Ben Dollinger. All but Mr. Grimes are Democrats. Mr. Grimes, a Republican, was cross-endorsed by the Democratic Committee.
Ms. McGraw Keber won the most votes among the 10 trustee candidates, with 1,451.
Gratified that Democratic voters had endorsed the committee's choices in the primary, Ms. Rogers thanked them for their "support and trust," and said, "we will not let them down." She also praised the Democratic Committee members "for the hard work they do supporting us and all our volunteers. Teamwork is how we get good things done."
Tuesday’s primary election was the climactic moment in events set in motion in February, when the Democratic committee rejected the incumbents Mr. Bragman and Mr. Drew. Both had taken a skeptical view of the developers of the proposed South Fork Wind farm, urging a cautious approach to the town and trustees’ eventual agreement to allow the wind farm’s export cable to make landfall in Wainscott.
Mr. Bragman cast the lone "no" vote on an easement agreement and abstained from voting to approve a host community agreement with the developers, insisting that the town was moving too quickly and would be better able to influence the project by waiting until state and federal reviews were complete. Mr. Drew ultimately voted with his colleagues to grant a lease to the developers, but only after a tenacious and prolonged effort to obtain significant financial and other commitments.
Betty Mazur, then the committee’s vice chairwoman, said after its Feb. 17 nominating convention that Mr. Bragman and Mr. Drew’s stance on the wind farm and the Democratic Committee’s refusal to endorse them for re-election was a coincidence. Ms. Mazur died on June 16.
Mr. Bragman, Mr. Drew, and Mr. Whelan, who screened for a seat on the town board but finished far behind Ms. Burke-Gonzalez and Ms. Rogers, circulated petitions for their nomination, securing enough signatures to force the Democratic Party primary.
Mr. Van Scoyoc’s public service began in 1995, when he was appointed to the town’s zoning board of appeals, serving as chairman in his final year. He was appointed to the planning board in 2006, was elected to the town board in 2011, and won re-election four years later, vacating that seat upon his swearing in as supervisor.
Ms. Burke-Gonzalez was elected to the board in 2013 and re-elected in 2017.
Mr. Bragman’s seat on the board is also up for re-election this year. The Democratic Committee endorsed Ms. Rogers instead, and Mr. Bragman subsequently chose to challenge Mr. Van Scoyoc.
The zoning board's chairman since 2014, Mr. Whelan was considered for an appointment to the town board to complete Mr. Van Scoyoc's term after his 2017 election to supervisor.
Mr. Drew, a three-term trustee, said in March that he was "blown away by the support that we got" for a primary election. "It was nice to see support, that there were people that wanted to see a primary happen and have the constituency decide the slate."
Regardless of whether the unofficial tally stands, the candidates will face one another again, in the general election. Mr. Van Scoyoc, Ms. Burke-Gonzalez, Ms. Rogers, Ms. McGraw Keber, Mr. Garneau, Mr. Cataletto, and Mr. Taylor will appear on the Working Families Party line. Mr. Bragman, Mr. Drew, and Mr. Whelan will appear on the Independence Party line.
Mr. Whelan on Tuesday night said thanked those who supported his campaign and said he looks "forward to meeting more citizens of East Hampton between now and Election Day in November. I look forward to even more trust and support from voters in the general election on Nov. 2. from Democrats, Independence, and Republican Party voters."
The East Hampton Town Republican Committee has endorsed Kenneth Walles for supervisor, and George Aman and Joseph Karpinski for town board.
