Sitting at the headquarters of the Democratic Get Out the Vote operation this week in Amagansett, Michael Koegler, the newly minted chairman of the East Hampton Town Democratic Committee, had a lot on his mind.
He spoke of the committee’s work, his ideas to improve it, early voting totals, the shakeup that occurred when more than a quarter of its 38 members were ousted in a primary this spring, and whether Councilman Tom Flight, who is up for re-election in 2027, could be endorsed again by the committee after he backed Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez’s challenger in the June primary, East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen.
Mr. Koegler was elected chairman after being nominated by the outgoing chairwoman, Anna Skrenta, who held the post for four years, at the committee’s Oct. 19 organizational meeting. “I think Anna was a great chair, and I learned a lot from her,” he said. “I have tremendous respect for her.”
He’s been on the committee for five years. Before that, he served on the Southampton Town Democratic Committee after becoming involved in politics when Donald Trump became president in 2016.
“I have three daughters, and I don’t want them to grow up in a world where, if you look at some of the extreme ideology on the right, Pete Hegseth is a congregant of Pastor Doug Wilson’s church, he’s a Christian nationalist,” he said. “He believes women shouldn’t have the right to vote. That’s sick and twisted, in my mind. That’s not America. That’s something else, okay?”
He believes that early voting turnout, “the highest turnout so far we’ve had in a midterm election after only three days of voting,” is an indication that he’s not the only person tired of the mayhem of the second Trump administration. “People are energized,” he said.
Early voting began on Saturday, and by Tuesday morning he reported that over 2,000 town residents had voted: 72 percent were registered Democrats, 10 percent were registered Republicans, and 15 percent were unaffiliated, or “blanks.”
Mr. Koegler spoke about the strength of the committee’s Get Out the Vote operation and highlighted the importance of the MiniVAN app, which assigns canvassers territories within the town and includes information on the voters and a way to characterize their enthusiasm. “Then we can really target our efforts,” he said.
“My hope is that all committee members, including the new members, are all going to come together as one committee. We’re not here to serve any single candidate, our mission is broader than that,” he said. “Every single committee member was chosen by constituents in their election district. They all have a right to be here.”
He mentioned one new member from Mayor Larsen’s slate, Vicki Littman, and how she had offered to drive people to polls, if needed. “I think Vicki is great. However we got here, we got here. But we’re all Democrats and we’re all on the committee, trying to row the boat in the same direction. We may not always agree, but that’s okay. Good ideas can come from anywhere.”
That philosophy may lead to one change on the committee, which is the formation of a policy group that would track and understand the issues faced by the town and communicate them back to the broader committee.
“Things like the senior center, the airport, the battery storage facility, affordable housing. We see the town’s press releases, we read about these issues in the paper, but I think it would be helpful for all the committee members to have a better working understanding of the issues the town is facing.”
Still, that’s extra. The main work of the committee is to recruit, screen, endorse, and campaign for candidates it believes will do well and uphold the party’s values and principles. “That’s the most important thing,” he said.
Screening for two town board seats (Councilman David Lys and Councilman Flight will be up for re-election a year from now) will occur in the first quarter of 2027, and then the committee will hold a convention where members will nominate and vote on potential candidates. On whether Councilman Flight would be endorsed, Mr. Koegler was noncommittal.
“It’s not up to me, it’s up to the full committee. I know Tom Flight and I’m friends with him. I haven’t spoken to him since we had our organizational meeting. I certainly will. We’ll see what his plans are and take it from there. I’m the chair trying to provide leadership here, but I’m only one vote out of 38.”
Also elected at the organizational meeting were Andy Harris as vice chairman, Deborah Choron as secretary, and Annemarie McCoy as treasurer.
