Establishment Candidates Hold On In Democratic Primaries Tuesday

The candidates favored by the Democratic Party committees in East Hampton and Southampton towns held off challenges from within on Tuesday in a party primary election marked by hard campaigning and low voter turnout.

East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc earned the right to the party’s nomination by defeating Councilman Jeff Bragman for the nomination and he will be joined by Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez and Cate Rogers who bested challenger John Whelan.

“I am humbled and gratified by the decisive outcome of last night’s primary results and proud to lead our entire Democratic team into the November election,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said on Wednesday morning. “Water quality, renewable energy, a new senior center and hospital emergency room, housing affordability, preserving the public’s beach access rights and re-envisioning the airport are all on our agenda.”

In the 10-way race for the nominations to nine East Hampton Town Trustees, third-term incumbent Trustee Rick Drew failed to wrest back a slot on the Democratic ticket from David Cateletto, a political newcomer who the town party committee endorsed this year instead of veteran Mr. Drew.

Mr. Van Scoyoc, who is seeking a third term as supervisor, won the nomination with 999 votes, or about 56 percent, to Mr. Bragman’s 791 votes and 44 percent, following a bitter primary campaign between the two men, both longtime Democrats, who have frequently been at odds over their four years together on the board.

Ms. Burke-Gonzalez was again the top vote-getter — as she has been in her three previous elections, including the 2017 Democratic primary — with 1,371 votes or about 42 percent, while Ms. Rogers got 1,106 votes, or 34 percent, and Mr. Whelan got 801, or about 24 percent.

“I want to thank the Democratic voters of East Hampton for their support and trust for Peter, Kathee, our entire trustee slate and me,” said Ms. Rogers, who is also the chairwoman of the East Hampton Town Democratic Party. “I thank the East Hampton Democratic Committee and our volunteers for their diligent work on our behalf and for all they do for our community. We will continue to work for good government for East Hampton. We will not let you down.”

Turnout for this year’s primary in East Hampton appears to have been on par with 2017, when there was only the two town council nominations to be decided, but well below the off-year primary in 2018 that coincided with a gubernatorial election and an unprecedented Democratic Party committee election that had more than 50 candidates on the ballot. Ms. Burke-Gonzalez and Mr. Bragman won the 2017 vote with 1,370 and 957 votes, respectively, while Councilman David Lys defeated David Gruber in the 2018 primary 1,757 votes to 1,117.

The East Hampton vote Tuesday was mostly a matter of winning backing and fundraising support from the party, since all of the candidates will still be on the November ballot by virtue of endorsements by minor parties.

Mr. Whelan, Mr. Bragman and Mr. Drew will be one the East Hampton Independence Party line and Mr. Van Scoyoc, Ms. Burke-Gonzalez and Ms. Rogers would still have been on the Working Families Party line if they had lost the Democratic nomination. They will be joined by the Republican Party nominees for Town Board: Ken Walles, George Aman and Joe Karpinski and a full slate of nine Town Trustees candidates.

In Southampton Town, Democratic Town Board candidates Tommy John Schiavoni and Robin Long, who had been cross-endorsed by the Working Families Party, have apparently held off a primary challenge waged by Sean McArdle, a former Conservative Party member, and his wife Miranda Schultz, a former Republican, for a place on that minor party’s ballot line.

Meanwhile, Republican Southampton Town and Village Justice Barbara Wilson appeared to have captured both the Working Families and Conservative parties’ nominations for town justice, but fallen short in her bid to win the Democratic nod as well.

In unofficial tallies obtained from the Suffolk County Board of Elections website that do not include absentee ballots, Ms. Schiavoni, an incumbent Democratic Town Board member, received 14 votes or 42.4 percent of the total, while Ms. Long, a member of the Planning Board and of the town Democratic Committee, received 13 votes or 39.4 percent. Mr. McArdle received 4 votes or about 12 percent, and Ms. Schultz received 2 votes or 6 percent.

Democratic nominees Adam Grossman, who received 965 votes, 40.9 percent of the total, and Shari Oster, who received 956 votes or 40.5 percent, held off a challenge from Justice Wilson, who received 437 votes or 18.5 percent, for the two spots on the Democratic line for town justice.

But Justice Wilson won a place on the Working Families ballot, receiving 16 votes or 45.7 percent, while Mr. Grossman received 10 votes or 28.6 percent, and Ms. Oster trailed with 8 votes or 22.9 percent. Bryan Browns did not receive any votes.

Justice Wilson also prevailed in the Conservative primary, where she received 44 votes or 54.3 percent, while Patrick Gunne received 28 votes or 34.6 percent, and Mr. Browns received 9 votes, or 11.1 percent.

Democrat Thomas Neely was the apparent winner for the Working Families nomination for town highway superintendent, having bested Marc Braeger, a former Republican and Conservative Party member, by a 10-4 vote margin. Mr. Neely received 58.8 percent, to Mr. Braeger’s 23.5 percent. Three write-in votes were also cast, but the names of the candidates named on them were not reported.