Election 2019

For East Hampton voters who have not followed the bumpy and bruising run up to the November town election, the lack of choices will be surprising. Notably, there will be no Republican candidates for supervisor or town board because the county party would not sign off on the local party’s choice of nominees, a requirement since none of them are registered Republicans.

Decrying “this headache called politics,” Dell Cullum, an East Hampton Town Trustee who was elected in 2017 on the Democratic Party line but was not chosen by the party to be on its slate this year, said this week that he would not run for re-election.

Members of the EH Fusion Party, a group of Republican, Independence Party, and Democratic candidates seeking to appear on a unified ticket on the Nov. 5 ballot, experienced another setback last week when a United States District judge for the Eastern District of New York dismissed the lawsuit it had brought against the Suffolk County Board of Elections and its Democratic and Republican commissioners.

Democratic voters pushed back against East Hampton Reform Demo­crats’ efforts to upend the East Hampton Town Democratic Committee’s picks for town justice and town trustee in Tuesday’s primary.

Democratic voters pushed back against East Hampton Reform Democrats' efforts to upend the Democratic Committee's picks for town justice and town trustee in Tuesday's primary, with Andrew Strong winning the justice nomination and Reform Democrats' choices trailing in the trustee race.

In a rare political occurrence, a sitting Republican justice is seeking the Democratic nomination to remain on the East Hampton Town bench.

Lisa R. Rana, who has Republican, Independence, and new EH Fusion Party support, will face Andrew Strong in a Democratic Primary on Tuesday. Whatever the outcome in the primary, Ms. Rana’s place on the ballot for the November general election is secure.

In an interview last week, she said that she decided to try to force the primary to give Democrats a choice for town justice.

Tuesday’s Democratic primary for East Hampton Town justice is a strange one, and a Republican incumbent might walk away the winner. 

Tuesday’s East Hampton Democratic primary comes at an important time for the town trustees, who have moved away from being mostly reactive, as they were in the past, to looking ahead and leaning in on a new role as environmental advocates. While the town board may have to cope with all kinds of problems, the trustees’ mandate as stewards of critical waterways and ancient lands gives them moral authority that goes well beyond the harbors, bays, and woodland roads. 

Twelve candidates, one of them a Republican, will square off for the nine positions on the Democratic ticket in the primary election on June 25 to choose the Democratic slate for East Hampton Town Trustee.

Missed deadline knocks candidates off ballot.

Former Southampton Town Supervisor Linda Kabot has lost a bid to force an Independence Party primary election against County Legislator Bridget Fleming ahead of the Nov. 5 election in Suffolk’s Second Legislative District.