Republicans may be in control now in Washington, D.C., but it’s a different story in East Hampton Town, where the chairman of the Republican Committee confirmed this week that his party will not be running a candidate for supervisor and that only one of its candidates for town board will be actively campaigning.
That candidate is James (J.P.) Foster, the chairman of the East Hampton School Board, who will seek one of two available seats on the town board in November, facing the Democratic incumbents Ian Calder-Piedmonte and Cate Rogers.
Mr. Foster is well known in town, having served on the school board for 12 years and as its president for 11. He was on the East Hampton Town Planning Board for two years, and has worked in the Emergency Operations Center for East Hampton Village for 35 years, where he is currently the department head. He is planning to retire in November, which frees him up for a role on the town board, he said.
While he’s running as a Republican, he has been registered as a Democrat since early 2024. (Since choosing to run with the G.O.P., he switched his registration.)
“I look at myself as an independent moderate,” Mr. Foster said. “Local politics should not be viewed through a national lens on any level. I wish we had the Beach Party and the Seashell Party, but the town is too big for that.”
“I am what I am. If people are only going to vote the party line, I can’t change their mind. I like the current town board members, and I want to be able to talk to them. You need an opposing view sometimes. You don’t need a yelling match, but sometimes you may need a lighthearted argument. At the end of the day, I want to do what’s best for East Hampton.”
He said he thought the recent change to the town’s zoning code, which reduced the maximum house size from 10 percent of its lot size plus 1,600 square feet, to 7 percent plus 1,500 square feet, was “an overreach that needs to be reviewed.” He also said he would support crafting legislation that would provide work-force housing to first responders, and perhaps even all municipal workers, “as opposed to having affordable housing projects that take county or state money and so are open to people from outside the town. I’m not saying we should keep people out of East Hampton, I’m saying we need to keep East Hampton people in East Hampton. We’re losing our history.”
Manny Vilar, the chairman of the East Hampton Town Republican Committee, confirmed Mr. Foster’s nomination this week and said via text that the other potential town board candidate, Scott Smith, who ran in 2023, declined the nomination late in the process, after petitions were submitted to the Suffolk County Board of Elections. His name will appear on the ballot in November, but “he will not be running an active campaign,” Mr. Vilar texted.
The G.O.P. has no candidate to challenge Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez. Jeff Miller, a former Springs fire chief who is set to retire soon from the East Hampton Village Department of Public Works, is the Republican candidate for town clerk.
“Running unopposed is a strong vote of confidence in the work we’ve done and the values we stand for,” Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said in a statement this week. “It’s a reflection of steady leadership, real progress, and a deep commitment to the people of East Hampton. I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished, and even more excited about what comes next.”
The East Hampton Town Democrats will run a slate of 11 candidates, 10 of whom are incumbents. Running on the ticket along with Ms. Burke-Gonzalez, Ms. Rogers, and Mr. Calder-Piedmonte will be John Aldred, David Cataletto, Tim Garneau, and Celia Josephson for town trustee, and Michael Hansen, a current member of the planning board, for town clerk. Steven Tekulsky is again the choice for town justice and Stephen Lynch again for highway superintendent. Eugene DePasquale is running to keep his seat as assessor.
Aside from officially announcing their slate of candidates, the town Democrats, in the same press release, touted the work they’ve been doing to mobilize “local opposition to the chaos and harm caused by the second Trump administration,” gathering hundreds at recent protests.
“It’s just not enough to get great local candidates elected,” said Anna Skrenta, the chairwoman of the East Hampton Town Democrats. “We are at a crossroads. The constitutional crisis is here. Corporations have bent the knee; law firms are submitting to Trump and Congress is ceding its authority. The courts are trying to stop Trump’s worst offenses, but he ignores their rulings. Our only weapon is sustained public pressure. No one is coming to save us. We the people are the answer.”
