Politics Wants You!

Politics can seem like someone else's game until some issue or other touches you as an individual. Such was the case this year when the Artists Alliance of East Hampton, formerly the Jimmy Ernst Artists Alliance, heard that a member of the Town Board had said, "Art in public places smacks of pork-barrel politics."

The group, interested in art in public places including the East Hampton Town Airport and in developing an artists center that would need financial assistance from the town, has been turning out for Town Board meetings and organizing its 300 members into a constituency to be reckoned with.

The candidates for Town Supervisor and Town Board, and even the two Councilmen who are not running for re-election this year, have been "invited" to a Meet the Candidates breakfast on Sunday morning and sent a list of topics on which they should be prepared to speak. The alliance has hosted such receptions in the past, with 75 or 80 members attending, but this year it is expecting a greater share than ever of its members to take part.

Another group, the Concerned Citizens of Montauk, which has been a powerful lobby for many years, found reason this year to include the Town Trustee candidates in its debates, which begin at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Montauk Firehouse. The Trustees haven't had jurisdiction in Montauk for nearly 150 years. But, since the Trustees had offered to take on the management of shellfish in Lake Montauk and are now proposing to take over some of the regulatory power of the Zoning Board of Appeals, the C.C.O.M. sees itself as having a stake in who is elected next month.

The League of Women Voters hosts candidates forums each year too, as does the American Association of University Women. All of these debates can be seen on cable's Channel 27.

Care who will decide whether you get that new dock? Want your tax dollars to support the arts? Interested in the improvement of the airport? Mad because you recycle and your neighbor doesn't? Sick of driving to Bridgehampton for groceries? Worried about whether the golf course next door is leaching chemicals into your well water?

Show up, tune in, see and hear for yourself.