Money is flowing into the coffers of at least one candidate in the primary campaign that will provide the Democratic Party with its nominee for East Hampton Town supervisor come November.
While Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez easily secured the nomination of the East Hampton Town Democratic Committee at its convention on Jan. 14, garnering 88 percent of committee members’ votes, East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen, who picked up the remaining 12 percent, is challenging the supervisor in the Democratic primary on June. 23.
Mr. Larsen has derided the process by which the committee overwhelmingly chose Ms. Burke-Gonzalez. However, there is no secret to committee members’ function, as their job is defined by New York State Election Law.
There are two-and-a-half registered Democrats for every one Republican in the town, and with a relatively absent town Republican Committee, whoever wins June’s primary is almost assured victory in November’s general election.
Mr. Larsen’s campaign touted $132,000 raised between Sept. 9 and Dec. 16 last year, calling it “the largest fund-raising total ever recorded” in a race for the seat.
A press release said the campaign had “rapidly secured support from many of the town’s leading Democratic donors, who consistently cite the dysfunctional state of the East Hampton Town Building Department as their top concern.”
Indeed, on his list of 107 donors, represented by 92 individuals and 15 corporations, many were familiar names in the building industry. The average donation was $1,234.
Christopher Minardi, deputy mayor in the village, and his wife, Sarah Minardi, both donated $1,225. Mr. Minardi would likely become mayor should Mr. Larsen win the November election.
The chairman of the village planning board, David Driscoll, and his wife, Suzanne Driscoll, both sent $1,225 Mr. Larsen’s way. The chairman of the village zoning board of appeals, John McGuirk (and his wife, Nancy) both contributed $500, and the vice chairman of the board, James MacMillan, sent $50.
Jim Grimes, an East Hampton Town trustee chipped in $1,000, as did Hal Zwick, the ubiquitous commercial real estate broker. Speaking of commercial real estate, Bob Ratteni, who owns a couple of buildings in East Hampton Village, and his wife, Gina, both contributed $1,225.
And some donors gave as much as $5,000, which the Suffolk County Democratic Committee alleged, in a letter sent to Mr. Larsen’s campaign and forwarded to The Star late yesterday afternoon, violated state election law.
SiSi Mediterranean Restaurant, where Mr. Larsen first made clear his intentions to primary the town supervisor, donated $5,000.
So did John Tintle of the Wainscott Commercial Center. He has been attempting to subdivide the spent sand mine, which is a short walk from the headwaters of Georgica Pond, for many years. He and his wife, Erin, each donated $1,225, the maximum amount for individuals. Other building materials businesses — the Bistrian Cement Corporation and Bistrian Materials — each donated $5,000.
Also contributing $5,000 were Bulgin and Associates, a builder; Ackerman, Pachman, Brown, Goldstein & Margolin, a real estate law firm; DCM USA, a chemical company, and J.C. Construction Management Corp., among others.
“For the 2025-2026 election cycle for town supervisor, the applicable limits are $1,000 for the primary election and $1,047.15 for the general election,” wrote Mr. Schaffer. “These election limits govern and control all contributions, including those from corporate entities. The $5,000 corporate aggregate limit does not supersede or override the per-candidate election limit.”
If the Larsen campaign does not “return all contributions received in excess of the applicable election limits and provide written confirmation to S.C.D.C. that such refunds have been issued and that corrected disclosure reports will be filed,” Mr. Schaffer wrote, then the committee would seek an order compelling “the return of all unlawful contributions,” as well as “an injunction prohibiting the Larsen Committee from using or expending any funds received in violation of law,” and “an order requiring the filing of amended disclosure reports.”
The letter puts a bit of a damper on Mr. Larsen’s earlier press release touting his fund-raising and poking Ms. Burke-Gonzalez for raising only $500 during the same period.
While that’s true (a single $500 donation came from Joyce McFadden, an author) the press release ignored the fact that the Democratic Committee pulled in nearly $29,000 during the filing period from 61 donors, making an average contribution of $472.
If Anna Skrenta, the chairwoman of the East Hampton Town Democratic Committee, was impressed with Mr. Larsen’s haul, she wasn’t saying so.
“In the past two weeks, Mayor Larsen has declared himself to have a ‘huge following’ and to be the biggest fund-raiser in East Hampton history. The overblown language feels a little bit Trumpy and ignores some important contextual information,” she wrote in a text.
“During the period of Sept. 9 to Dec. 16, when Mayor Larsen achieved the ‘highest fund-raising total ever recorded for an East Hampton supervisor campaign,’ the Democratic Committee was at the tail end of the campaign for the Nov. 5, 2025, local elections where we had 11 candidates on the ballot, including Kathee Burke-Gonzalez. So, while Mayor Larsen has been fund-raising for the past four months, we started fundraising for 2026 only after we had officially chosen Kathee as our candidate, at the Jan. 14 convention.”
She added that the committee, which ran the town supervisor’s campaign in 2025, raised $110,000 from 120 donors last year. (Donors are able to contribute more to the committee than to a single candidate, since the committee represents a slate of candidates.)
As with Larsen’s contributors, the Democratic committee had some familiar names.
Michael Bebon, an East Hampton Village resident and a critic of the mayor, donated $2,500 to the committee in October.
The law firm of Ackerman Pachman Brown Goldstein & Margolin was the lone entity that donated to both campaigns, although the $500 donated to the Democratic Committee so far was a 10th of what it donated to Mr. Larsen’s campaign.
Other lawyers stepped up, too. Joan Morgan McGivern, once a member of the town’s zoning board of appeals, donated $500, as did her co-worker at Twomey Latham, Christopher Kelley, who donated $2,500 (he is a member of the committee). Vincent Toomey, another lawyer, donated $500.
Councilwoman Cate Rogers added $1,030.26 to the committee’s coffers and Denise Savarese, recently named chairwoman of the town’s zoning board of appeals, donated $500.
The largest contribution to the Democratic Committee came from Lily Fan, who sent $5,000 on Sept. 10. Ms. Fan was nominated by Gov. Kathy Hochul to be chairwoman and commissioner of the New York State Liquor Authority and was confirmed in 2023. She is a parttime resident of Amagansett.
Ms. Burke-Gonzalez donated $1,000 to the Democratic Committee.
Ms. Burke-Gonzalez didn’t respond to a text request for comment on either her or Mr. Larsen’s fund-raising strategies.
The next filing date for campaign disclosure statements is May 22.
