Following the re-election of State Senator Anthony Palumbo and the election of Tommy John Schiavoni to the Assembly, the South Fork will continue to be represented in Albany by both a Democrat and a Republican.
Mr. Palumbo, the incumbent Republican state senator, held off a challenge by Sarah Anker, a Democrat and term-limited former Suffolk County legislator seeking state office. He got more than 53 percent of the vote, according to the unofficial tally. An attorney who lives in New Suffolk, he served a term in the Assembly, representing the North Fork, before being elected to the State Senate in 2020.
“Thank you to voters of the First Senatorial District for your continued support,” Mr. Palumbo said on Facebook yesterday morning. “Whether you walked with me, put up a sign, made phone calls, or gave me your vote — this was a team effort and I am so grateful for everyone’s encouragement and hard work.”
He pledged to continue “reaching across the aisle to get results for my constituents.”
“At the end of the day,” Mr. Palumbo wrote, “we are one country, one state, and one Long Island. I am humbled by your support and will continue my work to build a better world for this generation and the next.”
But in the open race for the First District Assembly seat, in which the longtime state legislator Fred W. Thiele Jr. did not seek re-election, the heat was on in the race between Stephen Kiely, a Republican and Conservative candidate who lives on the North Fork and serves as the Shelter Island Town attorney, and Tommy John Schiavoni, a Democrat from North Haven who is a sitting Southampton Town councilman.
Mr. Schiavoni, who also had the Working Families Party line, earned nearly 56 percent of the vote, according to Tuesday’s unofficial results.
“I ran for this seat for the environment. For water quality. For sustainability. For community housing out here on the East End,” Mr. Schiavoni said in his victory speech at Page at 63 Main restaurant in Sag Harbor. Later, he told The Star that he feels “truly honored by the support of the electorate. I want to get to work. I know the issues and I’m looking forward to building connections.”
Yesterday morning, Mr. Thiele issued a statement congratulating Mr. Schiavoni, whom he had endorsed as his successor. “He ran an outstanding race and will do an excellent job representing us in Albany,” Mr. Thiele said. “He will continue the policies that are needed on the East End on important issues like the environment, housing, and transportation. I look forward to a smooth transition and will do all I can to guarantee his success as our Assembly member.”
Mr. Schiavoni lauded Mr. Thiele’s accomplishments. “Hats off to the current assemblyman, Fred Thiele Jr. . . . You are affected by his work in this district every single day.”
Mr. Kiely conceded to Mr. Schiavoni while pledging to stay involved in local and state politics on the East End. “I’m very proud of my campaign and I really, really appreciate all the supporters,” he said by phone yesterday morning. “I went into this with a herculean effort to win . . . but I don’t think we had enough time. If we had more time, I think the result would have been different.”
He described Mr. Schiavoni’s win not as “support for Tommy John the man or for his policies,” but rather as “the consequences of blind Democratic loyalty on their side.”
“I’m not abandoning my supporters. I’m not going anywhere, and I’ll be back in some capacity in some way,” Mr. Kiely said. “People feel they are unheard and that they don’t have a say in their communities.”
Some voters in Sag Harbor — a specific number unavailable by press time this week — chose not to vote for either Mr. Kiely or Mr. Schiavoni, but opted instead to write in the name “Tommy John Marsden,” in an apparent expression of their continued displeasure over the councilman’s stance when the Sag Harbor School District’s attempt to buy land on Marsden Street for a soccer field failed to gain enough support last year.
There will be a special election in March of 2025 to choose a council member to serve out the remaining year of Mr. Schiavoni’s term on the Southampton Town Board. About 15 years ago, Mr. Schiavoni explained, Southampton voters decided by referendum that town board vacancies should be filled in that way.
In his victory speech, Mr. Schiavoni acknowledged that Election Day results in other campaigns, like the race for the presidency and the First Congressional District, did not go the Democratic Party’s way. But, he reminded his supporters at Page, “We have a strong country, a strong Republic. I believe that our Constitution is resilient. We have come through some very challenging parts of our history, and we are going to survive whatever happens here tonight nationally and statewide.”
