Schiavoni Will Run for Thiele's Assembly Seat

Southampton Town Councilman Tommy John Schiavoni will run for the State Assembly seat being vacated by Fred W. Thiele Jr., the longtime incumbent who announced last week that he would not seek another term this year.

Schiavoni, whose Town Board term ends in 2025, confirmed in an interview on Friday, February 16, that he would seek to replace Thiele, who will have held the 1st District seat for nearly 30 years when he steps down at the end of the year.

He acknowledged he had big shoes to fill.

“Fred’s service is unmatched,” said Schiavoni, a resident of North Haven. “The changes he was able to effect in government to preserve what’s best about the East End of Long Island is truly remarkable. The body of work he is leaving is going to affect us for generations to come.”

Rich Schaffer, the chairman of the Suffolk County Democratic Committee, said that the party would be interviewing candidates for the opening this week, and that Schiavoni was “the leading candidate” for the Democratic nomination.

Last week, Suffolk County Republican Jesse Garcia said the GOP would nominate a candidate at its convention on Wednesday, February 21.

In stating his case for the seat, Schiavoni said, “Public service has really been my calling my whole adult life.”

A longtime teacher in the Center Moriches School District, Schiavoni has held appointed and elected office since serving a five-year term on the North Haven Village Zoning Board of Appeals from 2008 to 2013. He followed that by serving as a North Haven Village trustee from 2013 to 2016. He also served on the Sag Harbor School Board from 2014 to 2017 and the Southampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals from 2015 to 2017.

He was first elected to the Southampton Town Board in 2017 and was reelected to his second four-year term in 2021.

Schiavoni said his experience at the village, school and town level would serve him well in Albany.

“I have been serving in government for many years, and I understand government on various levels,” he said, “and one of the jobs of a state legislator is to work with local governments.” He said he looked forward to working with representatives of the 1st District’s five towns, 10 villages, and numerous school districts and fire districts.

Schiavoni said there were a number of issues confronting the East End that he looked forward to tackling, including affordable housing.

“We need to make housing a priority so those who live and work here can raise their kids here and their kids can stay here,” he said, noting that essential services such as fire departments and ambulance companies depend on a local base of volunteers.

Schiavoni said that with the Community Housing Fund now generating income, he was proud Southampton Town had been able to purchase a 3.7-acre parcel in Water Mill, which will be developed with workforce housing.

He said if elected he would focus on many of the same issues that Thiele has, including education, protecting the environment, encouraging agriculture, improving both public transportation and the region’s network of roads, and working to encourage the construction of a new hospital on the Stony Brook Southampton campus as well as “turn the college into a real college.”

“As a member of the Assembly, I would do what is right for the community and to try to make things better as needed,” he stressed.

Schiavoni grew up in North Haven and graduated from Pierson High School. Growing up and as a young adult, he worked in the family plumbing business.

He attended the State University of New York at Cortland, where he received a degree in secondary social studies education in 1986 and obtained a master’s degree in liberal studies and government from Stony Brook University in 1993.

Schiavoni taught middle school and high school social studies, government and economics from 1988 until 2018 when he retired after being elected to the Town Board.

He is married to Andrea Harum Schiavoni, who is a state family court judge and former town justice, and they have two children.