Two for Board’s Empty Seat
(01/21/2010) The Southampton Town Democratic and Republican Parties named their candidates this week for a town board seat vacated by
Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst when she took office on Jan. 1.
Drawing from a list of four candidates who had been screened for the designation, Republican Committee members chose William Hughes of Hampton Bays. Mr. Hughes is a lieutenant and commanding officer of the Southampton Town Police Department’s patrol division. He has been with the department for 30 years, but since his nomination has submitted papers of resignation. Mr. Hughes has lived in the town for 35 years.
A veteran of the Vietnam War, he is a former pararescueman in the Air Force and the Air National Guard who helped start the pararescue unit at Gabreski Airport in Westhampton Beach. In his spare time he has been involved with the Boy Scouts, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, and St. Rosalie’s Catholic Church. He has also coached Little League baseball in Hampton Bays.
The other screened candidates were Tod Granger of Noyac, who is a dentist, Scott Horowitz, an East Quogue insurance broker, and Rebecca Molinaro of Remsenburg, who works in Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr.’s office. The prospective Republican candidates endorsed Mr. Hughes after the committee’s vote.
As it had previously announced it would, the Democratic Committee named as its candidate Bridget Fleming, an attorney who lives in Noyac. The Independence Party endorsed her on Monday. Before she started a private law practice in Sag Harbor, Ms. Fleming was an assistant district attorney in New York City and ran the office’s welfare fraud unit. She moved to Noyac 10 years ago and has served on the citizens advisory committee there.
Ms. Fleming ran for town board during the general election and received the fewest votes in a close race with former Councilwoman Sally Pope, a Democrat, and the winner, Councilman Jim Malone, a Republican. Mr. Malone, who was endorsed by the Independence Party, received 542 votes on that line. Ms. Fleming trailed him by 478 votes.
The Working Families Party endorsed Ms. Fleming in the November election, but Ms. Pope, who is now her campaign manager, said she hadn’t heard if the party would endorse a candidate in this election.
By settling on Ms. Fleming as a candidate early, the Democrats had some extra time to get her headquarters on Job’s Lane in Southampton Village up and running and to hold a kickoff event prior to the official nomination. The committee has already planned rallies and door-to-door campaigning.
In accepting the nomination, Ms. Fleming said it was necessary to have some balance on the town board, which now has three Republicans on it. The board has met only a few times in the new year but has already generated some controversy by naming a planning board member without holding a new round of interviews and by not reappointing the town’s comptroller.
The election will be held on March 9.