Election 2019

Betsy Bambrick, a Conservative and Libertarian candidate for East Hampton Town Board in the forthcoming election, has an active complaint with the New York State Commission on Human Rights alleging mistreatment, age discrimination, and a hostile work environment during her final years as head of the town’s Ordinance Enforcement Division.

Linda Kabot, a Republican and former Southampton Town supervisor, is hoping to make a political comeback by unseating Democratic Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming, who has represented residents of the Second Legislative District, from Montauk to Moriches plus Shelter Island, for four years.

There are nine trustees, each elected every two years to a two-year term. Seven of the nine incumbents are seeking re-election this year. Including those seven, there are 16 candidates on the ballot.

The East Hampton Town Republican Committee is hosting a Countdown to Election Day fund-raiser tonight from 6 to 9 at the Bel Mare restaurant at 28 Maidstone Park Road in Springs.

Though his name does not appear anywhere on the EH Fusion Party ballot line, David Gruber, a former Democratic Committee chairman running for East Hampton Town supervisor, is by far the splinter group’s largest supporter.

The candidates for East Hampton Town supervisor and seats on the town board squared off at the East Hampton Library on Oct. 16 in their final debate before the Nov. 5 election, this one sponsored by the League of Women Voters of the Hamptons.

Voters in Southampton Town have a three-way race for supervisor ahead, with Greg Robins, a Republican, and Alex Gregor, the town highway superintendent, who is running on the Independence and Libertarian lines, vying for Jay Schneiderman's job.

David Talmage, a candidate for East Hampton Town trustee, has invited the public to meet him and his fellow candidates of the EH Fusion Party on Sunday from 2 to 6 p.m. at the Talmage homestead, 869 Springs-Fireplace Road in Springs. “Clams, chowder, chili, chatter, and cheer” will be served, according to a campaign flier.

“What you see is what you get,” is how Bonnie Brady, a longtime Montauk resident and EH Fusion Party candidate for East Hampton Town Board, described herself in an interview with Star staff this week. “I’d like to think of myself as a fair, honest person, someone who would work their butt off” for constituents.

Politics makes strange bedfellows, and in East Hampton, this year there may be no stranger political couple than East Hampton Town Justice Lisa R. Rana, a lifelong Republican, and David Gruber, a Democrat who is running for town supervisor but not on the Democratic line.

New York likes to think it is first in almost everything, but in adopting an early voting procedure, it ranks 38th among the states. Better late than never, as the cliché goes; however, early voting will be allowed this year for the first time.

If she is elected to the East Hampton Town Board, Elizabeth Bambrick said last week, it will be “because people want me to change things.”