Town Clerk Is The Latest To Switch Sides - Fred Overton turns his back on Republicans

"Can someone tell me how you spell unanimous?" Bob Schaeffer, the co-chairman of the East Hampton Democratic Committee, joked last Thursday night after his party nominated Councilwoman Pat Mansir, a Republican, to run for town board.

Ms. Mansir's nomination and those of Supervisor Bill McGintee and Brad Loewen, a bayman who chairs the town planning board, were applauded by the committee members. But an announcement by the town clerk, Fred Overton, drew a standing ovation. He told the group that he is leaving the Republican Party and joining the Democratic ticket.

"I am overwhelmed and almost speechless," Mr. Overton told the group gathered in the basement of Amagansett's Scoville Hall. "Before the next [presidential] election, I will be registered as a Democrat."

Mr. Overton, a strong supporter of Ms. Mansir, who the Republicans did not back for a third run, said he felt he could no longer work with the G.O.P. "The leadership and I have gone in different directions," he said. "There are some good people in the Republican Party and some good people on the Republican Committee. They are not the majority and do not have the ear of the leadership."

Although Ms. Mansir and Mr. Overton are new to the Democratic ticket, neither of them are strangers to the local Democratic Party. Mr. Overton was a registered Democrat from the early 1970s until 1987 and worked on Democrat Judith Hope's first campaign for town supervisor.

Ms. Mansir ran for town trustee as a Democrat and was first appointed to the town planning board by Tony Bullock, a Democratic town supervisor. She said last Thursday that she will register as a Democrat before November. "The Democrats accepted me as I am. The Republicans couldn't handle me as I was," she said on Friday.

Democratic committee members were thrilled with her return. Calling her "the perennial champion vote getter," Larry Smith, a committeeman from Montauk, said "we welcome Pat as another jewel in the crown of the Democratic Party."

"She is a woman we feel deeply is coming home to the people who value her," said Dick Wolf, the committee's secretary. "I nominate and welcome Pat Mansir home," he said.

Mr. Loewen, a Democrat all along and a member of the planning board for 16 years, is following a well-worn path into local politics. Over the years, many planning board members have gone on to run for and win a seat on the town board. All of the current town board members were planning board members with him at one point, so to some committee members it was a matter of when, not if, he would make a run for town board.

"Brad, I've been waiting for this moment for over 10 years," Betty Mazur, a committeewoman from Amagansett, told Mr. Loewen last Thursday night. She described him to the committee as "a reasoned and reasonable man."

"He is a man of few words and when he does say something, it's meaningful," Ms. Mazur said. "He is sober, sensible, and solid, and he is the salt of the earth."

"He's also a Lester," Cathy Lester shouted from the edge of the room. Ms. Lester, a committeewoman and former town supervisor, is Mr. Loewen's aunt by marriage.

"You kind of grow into this," he said Monday. "You kind of get into a habit of public service. . . . There wasn't any big epiphany; the time just seemed to be right." In addition to his work on the planning board, Mr. Loewen is the president of the East Hampton Town Baymen's Association.

Bill McGintee faced opposition from one committeeman, Stephen Grossman. Although he considers the supervisor a friend, Mr. Grossman said he could not support the nomination.

"Two years ago . . . he wanted to run with the Democrats. I hoped within my heart that he would become a Democrat. I am a Democrat and I believe in my heart we must run people who are Democrats," he said.

Despite his objection, Mr. McGintee was the unanimous choice of the Democrats' 17-member selection committee, which is drawn from the party's general committee. Fred Overton's nomination caused Andy Malone, another committee member, to wonder what might happen in the event of a primary. "My concern is, if there is a primary, we may end up with egg on our face." Two committee members abstained from the vote on Mr. Overton's nomination, but Mr. Malone supported him.

The committee was unanimous in backing Christopher Russo for another term as highway superintendent, and also chose the incumbents Eugene DePasquale for town assessor and Catherine A. Cahill for town justice. Mr. Grossman, who was considered for the town justice slot, said he heard that "someone went to the committee and told them not to support me in the interest of party unity." Mr. Grossman eventually withdrew his name from consideration.

While Republican hopefuls are interviewed by the entire committee, the Democrats have a confidential screening process and do not announce the names of those under consideration. "If we're going to have screening and we're going to be confidential, we should keep it that way," Mr. Grossman said. "This is the second time this happened." He and Jeanne Frankl abstained from the vote.

For town trustee, the Democrats will run Stephen Lester, an incumbent, Brian Byrnes, Bill Taylor, Joe Peele, Jacques Franey, Bob Tulp, Tom Miller, and Arthur French.

"I think this is the year we could have a first-time majority on the trustees," Mr. McGintee said last Thursday night. "This is the community party now. This is the party of East Hampton, the party reaching out, getting the feel for what the people want, and taking time to solve their problems." Mr. McGintee thanked the committee for allowing him "the freedom to do what I felt, and the board felt, were the best things for the community. Never once in my time in office has anybody on this committee interfered with government."

"This is a great, great team," he said of the Democratic ticket.

"I never, I never, ever thought that I would be standing here," Mr. Loewen said. "It's all her fault," he added, pointing to Ms. Lester. "She kind of dragged me along in her wake. I love you, Cathy." He called Ms. Mazur his champion and thanked her for her patience. "I know that we're all going to win. I'm going to do my best and I will do you proud."

After losing the Republicans' support, Ms. Mansir said she had been reluctant even to walk into Scoville Hall, where the G.O.P. also meets. "You have no idea how good this feels," she told the committee. "In the palm of our hands we have the future and I think the future is good for this town."

Ironically, Ms. Mansir became a Republican largely because of differences with Debra Foster, a Democratic councilwoman who served with her on the planning board in the late 1980s. When Amagansett Square came before the board, the two were on opposing sides: Ms. Mansir supported the project and Ms. Foster fought it. Perry (Chip) Duryea, then the Republican leader, invited her to join the party, and she did. "It really centered around [Ms. Foster's] stance at that time, and now we get along very well. She is now willing to listen and work for business."

Mr. Overton's initial switch to the Republican Party came in the late 1980s, when the G.O.P. asked him to run for trustee. Party leaders told him, he said, that if another slot were to open he would be considered for it if he became a Republican. He did so and soon afterward an incumbent assessor retired, leaving an open spot on the ticket. Mr. Overton was elected and served for 10 years in the assessors office before accepting the Republicans' nomination for town clerk.

"The assessors office is not political and that's the way I treated my job here in the clerk's office," he said Friday. "To be honest, I couldn't tell you the party affiliation of anyone in my office. We keep politics out of the office."

On Friday, he told Thomas E. Knobel, the Republican leader, that he was declining the Republicans' nomination. "It's a decision that I didn't take lightly, in particular because of Roger Walker," he said Friday. Mr. Walker, the Republican candidate for supervisor, is a "longtime family friend." Although Mr. Overton will withdraw from the Republican Party, he will wait until after the election to change his party affiliation to Democratic. "It's a big step and I'm taking it in small steps."

Mr. Knobel was surprised by the decision. "We have nobody in the wings," he said Tuesday. "He screened with us, he asked for our nomination, he said he was going to run with us, he came to the campaign kickoff party." While the Democrats gloat, the Republican Committee will probably discuss a replacement for Mr. Overton at its meeting tonight.

"Everybody talks about let's run on the issues, and this is going to be a special year because we really mean it," Mr. Knobel said. "If you support useless expenditures, inefficiency, waste, and so forth, then you're for the Democrats." The Republican ticket includes Mr. Walker, Larry Penny, the town's natural resources director, and Bill Gardiner, a farmer with a law degree. "It's not a question of personalities. This is a question of what is good for this town," Mr. Knobel said.

The Democrats will hold a campaign kickoff cocktail party next Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Palm in East Hampton. The Republicans' next fund-raiser is planned for June 24 at Gurney's Inn. They expect to release their platform by the end of the month.