Kiely targets bail reform, immigration in Assembly rematch

Republican Stephen Kiely is taking another crack at the state’s 1st Assembly District seat after a failed run in 2024, hoping to defeat Democratic incumbent Tommy John Schiavoni in a rematch on Nov. 3. 

Mr. Kiely — who currently works as assistant to the director of the Suffolk County Real Property Tax Service Agency in Riverhead and as a special prosecutor for West Hampton Dunes — said his campaign is focused on three main issues: home rule, immigration enforcement and bail reform.

“Something has to be done, and I feel I’m a good messenger for that,” Mr. Kiely told the Times Review Editorial Board during a sit-down. “Win, lose, or draw, I’m going to be putting a message out. Hopefully it cracks through and people understand.”

Mr. Kiely formerly worked as Shelter Island Town attorney and previously served as an assistant town attorney for Southampton, Southold and Brookhaven. In 2016, he left the Southold position to focus on his private practice. He spent three years as a deputy county clerk for Suffolk County. 

This is Mr. Kiely’s fifth run for elected office. In 2018, he lost a bid for Suffolk County Supreme Court justice. The following year, he mounted a campaign against former Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell, but withdrew from the race prior to the election. In 2023, he ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Southold Town Board. 

He then challenged Mr. Schiavoni for the Assembly seat — which encompasses Southold, Shelter Island, Southampton and East Hampton towns and a portion of Brookhaven Town — in 2024.

Mr. Kiely said his legal and municipal experience shapes his opposition to New York’s bail reform laws, which he argues have made communities less safe and should be substantially revised or repealed.

“These policies have real-world effects, and I saw it in my capacity as a 20-year municipal attorney,” he said, “where you have politicians who don’t have real-world experience in certain areas pass laws because they don’t understand the ramifications.”

On housing and development, Mr. Kiely believes the middle ground between land preservation and development is to reuse existing commercial stock. He believes vacant commercial buildings and underused properties are the best places for affordable housing units.

He also believes the North Fork needs to be protected from the “imminent danger of high density.”

Mr. Kiely said he views the region’s problem as an affordability crisis rather than a shortage of housing.

“We’re a tourism-based economy at this point, and we don’t need the urban-suburban sprawl to come out here and ruin that,” Mr. Kiely said. “Rentals, rentals, rentals. Make it cheap; make it $1,200 a month, and then they’re going to be able to bank money for a down payment and let them grow that way.”

Mr. Kiely said he “wholeheartedly disagrees” with Southold Town’s first-time homebuyer’s contribution, in which officials are proposing a $999,999 purchase-price cap for the program, which would provide eligible residents with down-payment assistance of up to 18% of a home’s price.

He said immigration and cracking down on short-term rentals also affect the housing market. 

“If we have better enforcement, like getting the criminals out, I think you put a dent in the housing market,” he said. “If they were not there to live there, there’d be more for the young people coming in.”

Immigration enforcement is another central issue in Mr. Kiely’s campaign. In his 2024 run, he also called for New York to reverse policies he described as giving the state sanctuary status.

OLA of Eastern Long Island has proposed a public safety policy governing how Southold police interact with federal immigration authorities when there’s activity across North Fork hamlets. Mr. Kiely thinks “their proposal is crazy.”

“The best way to have transparency is to have your police department… work directly with ICE,” he said. “That’s the way you do it. You don’t ostracize the agency — who’s going to come do it anyway — and also try to interfere with operations. I thought it was crazy.”

Despite the differences between him and the Democratic majority in Albany, Mr. Kiely said he does not believe working across the aisle would be a problem.

“I’ve been known as someone who checks my politics at the door when I go to work,” he said.