Sitting inside Tutto Caffe in East Hampton Village at 11 a.m. last week, sipping at a cappuccino, maybe his fourth coffee of the day (“It doesn’t affect me”), Mayor Jerry Larsen was under no illusions about his chances as a write-in candidate for town supervisor this Nov. 3.
He knows it’s a long shot and he hasn’t been actively campaigning, but still, “If it was successful, it would be wonderful,” he said.
In 2017, when he ran on the Republican ticket, he lost a race for town board to Kathee Burke-Gonzalez (who was a councilwoman back then). In June, he lost to her in a Democratic primary for town supervisor (he’s been a registered Democrat since 2019) by nearly two to one.
Despite the loss, his primary campaign shook up the East Hampton Town Democratic Committee, with 10 of its 38 seats flipping. It’s clear when speaking to the 62-year-old mayor that he’s not planning to exit the local political scene anytime soon.
“That’s huge in 2028,” he said of the Democratic Committee victories, looking ahead. “We have to hold those seats and get 10 more. Once we control the committee, then it changes the face of local politics.”
He still stings from the Town Democratic Committee’s endorsement of the sitting supervisor.
“The committee shouldn’t be involved in endorsing candidates at a primary level,” Mr. Larsen said. “If two candidates are going to face off, they should do it on their own, and then the committee, at the end, supports whoever wins against the Republican challenger.”
The current practice, he said, is uncommon. He claimed the Town Democratic Committee was one of only three town political committees on Long Island (the other two are Southold and Shelter Island) that endorse at the primary level. There are 13 towns in Nassau and Suffolk.
No, he’s not going anywhere, even if he hasn’t been active in the Write-In Jerry Larsen campaign, which was founded by Jacki Esposito in July.
Ms. Esposito is the advocacy director for the Waterkeeper Alliance and has been recently critical of the town’s plan for a parking lot at the Springs Library.
“After listening to residents, our mission is straightforward,” she wrote in the press release announcing the write-in effort. “Give the more than 20,000 voters of East Hampton a meaningful choice in November. We believe this effort is both warranted and winnable.”
In the last couple of weeks, Larsen campaign signs have popped up throughout the town.
“I went out and raised a ton of money for the primary,” said the mayor. “People trusted me. People relied on me. They thought we had a chance, and then we got smoked. I cannot in my heart go back to those people and ask them for more money.”
Between September 2025 and June 2026, county financial disclosure records show his campaign spent $120,748.83.
After his primary loss, the mayor vowed to stay off the November ballot, which could be one reason he has, at least publicly, steered clear of the write-in campaign.
A recent campaign email faulted Ms. Burke-Gonzalez’s handling of recent issues, among them drinking water contamination from the Cove Hollow Road battery storage facility; the town budget, which will pierce the tax cap for the third consecutive year in 2027; persistent delays in the Building Department, where two employees recently pleaded guilty to bribery charges and where Richard Normoyle, hired to run the department a year ago, was found to have an inactive state certification.
“Number one priority is fixing the Building Department,” said Mr. Larsen, sounding a familiar theme of the last year.
Meanwhile, he continues to criticize the town’s efforts to build affordable homes at Cantwell Court in East Hampton. “We have 16 lots sitting around for almost five years now,” he said. “That’s 16 families that might have moved away. Four of my kids have had to move away because it’s unaffordable.”
He also wonders aloud about the status of the senior citizens center, once slated for land off Abraham’s Path in Amagansett that was cleared to make way for it and now sits empty.
Patrick Derenze, the town’s public information officer, recently told The Star he had no update on that $30 million project.
The mayor applauded the potential purchase of the Wainscott sand pit, but said putting too much housing there could impact the school district, which is tiny. Instead, he said a long-term plan to relocate families with school-age children to the Windmill Villages, where they’d be in the East Hampton School District, should be contemplated.
“East Hampton enrollment is projected to drop,” he said, explaining his logic. “Meanwhile, putting senior housing in Wainscott would protect the school district.” It would also place seniors closer to the highway and medical care to the west, he noted.
Village tax rates have gone up about 1 percent during the mayor’s tenure, though it’s certainly not an apples-to-apples comparison, the village and town. For one, the town is responsible for the Sanitation Department, and costs are quickly rising there. “I don’t know where you cut, but that’s their job,” Mr. Larsen said. “Blaming the 5-percent salary increases they negotiated doesn’t feel authentic. What happened to the money they bragged about saving for taking over [emergency] dispatch? They said they were going to save $3 million over 10 years. Where’s that?”
Still, despite his criticisms and residents engaged enough to mount a write-in campaign, he is skeptical of his chances.
“You’re asking too many people to do it, and people don’t pay attention. If they were paying attention, we would have won the primary,” he said. “I believe I could do a better job than what’s being done now. I wouldn’t have run initially if I thought I couldn’t do a better job.”
He acknowledged, though, that “I underestimated the power of the Democratic Committee to influence voters,” calling it a lesson learned. “I thought with two Democrats running that the voters would listen to them both and make an informed decision. They didn’t, in my opinion. They listened to the Democratic Committee.”
Early voting begins on Oct. 24 and runs through Nov. 1, at 219 Accabonac Road in East Hampton. Election Day is Nov. 3.
