The Southold Republican Committee has raised more than its Democratic counterpart leading into this year’s town elections in November, keeping in line with recent fundraising trends in the town.
Tag: peter mcgreevy
County officials plan to count about 450 remaining absentee ballots Friday to determine the outcomes of two Southold Town races that remain up in the air. READ
Town Trustee Jim King, left, and Judge Rudolph Bruer, right, will not seek re-election this year after serving nearly 20 years apiece. (Credit: Suffolk Times file photos)
A pair of longtime elected Southold Town officials plans to retire at the end of the year.
Town Justice Rudolph Bruer and Town Trustee Jim King have both informed Republican leadership that they will not seek re-election to the posts they’ve each held for about two decades, GOP chairman Peter McGreevy confirmed Tuesday. (more…)
Scott Russell responds to questions following his State of the Town address earlier this month. (Credit: Grant Parpan, file)
Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell said Tuesday he is seeking a fourth term in office, stating that he would bring “purpose, vision and vitality” to the Town Board if elected in November. (more…)
Charles Sanders
The Southold GOP has replaced a Town Trustee candidate who was told by his employer that he had to chose between his job and seeking public office.
David Zuhoski of Cutchogue, a fisheries technician for Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Marine Program, withdrew from the race last week, said town Republican leader Peter McGreevy. In his place, the party selected Greenport real estate agent Charles Sanders, a lieutenant in the Army National Guard who has never before sought public office.
In May, the Republicans selected 26-year-old Mr. Zuhoski over incumbent Republican Trustee Dave Bergen of Cutchogue. At that time, Mr. McGreevy said that although the incumbent had “a very successful eight years in office,” the committee decided “it was time to go in a different direction.”
Mr. Bergen and Mr. Sanders were the only two contenders to replace Mr. Zuhoski, the leader said.
“It’s very difficult to find a candidate to run for a Trustee position because they have to take a full day off work every other week,” Mr. McGreevy said. “That narrows the pool of candidates.”
Mr. Sanders, who has served two tours of duty in Afghanistan, “best represents what the committee wanted in a candidate,” Mr. McGreevy added. On Mr. Bergen’s status with the party, he said, “Dave Bergen is a good Republican. We know he’ll continue to be a party supporter and we hope to consider him for future available positions.”
Mr. Sanders said he hopes to be an effective advocate for property rights while protecting the environment.
“A balance is my main focus,” he said.
A Midwest native, Mr. Sanders said he first came to the North Fork to visit a friend who spent his summers here.
“He invited me out and I absolutely fell in love with it,” he said.
After moving to Greenport in 1999, Mr. Sanders entered the real estate field and is currently an associate broker for Town & Country in Southold.
He returned from his second tour in Afghanistan in January.
“My experience in Afghanistan made me love America a hell of a lot more than I did before, I can tell you that,” he said.
Mr. Sanders will join GOP incumbents John Bredemeyer and Mike Domino. The Democrats selected candidates Geoffery Wells, Joe Finora Jr. and Bill Funke.
BETH YOUNG FILE PHOTO | Longtime Republlican Southold Town Justice William Price may receive the nomination to run as a Democrat this year.
To the editor:
William (Bill) Price, after having served for 32 years as town justice, has been kicked to the curb by the Southold Republican committee. The committee selected Bill Goggins as the Republican nominee for town justice.
GOP chair Peter McGreevy stated, “While no one doubts that (Judge Price) has served this town well, the committee thought it was time for a change and acted upon it.”
Bill Goggins is quoted as saying Judge Price “has been there too long, has lost touch with the committee and the voting public and it was just time.”
Those kinds of comments reek of political favoritism.
Justice Price has served this community well, not only as a judge but as a citizen. He quietly has supported and volunteered for many local causes, because he believes it is the right thing to do.
Mr. McGreevy is quoted as saying, “I don’t think you can flip from a Republican judge to a Democratic judge and keep a straight face.”
I’ve always believed that justice was supposed to be apolitical. People are supposed to be judged impartially, regardless of political affiliation.
It’s clearly apparent that Bill Goggins believes that keeping in touch with the Republican committee is a crucial requirement to sit on the bench in Southold Town. I don’t think the voting public would agree.
Bob Feger, Mattituck
To read more letters to the editor, pick up a copy of this week’s Suffolk Times or click on the E-Paper.
TIM KELLY FILE PHOTO | Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter conceding the special county legislative election to Al Krupski (left) in January.
If the Republican Party puts up a challenger to County Legislator Al Krupski in November, chances are that person won’t live on the North Fork.
With the county GOP’s nominating convention only days away, the party’s Riverhead and Southold town leaders say they know of no one willing to stand against the popular Democrat, who in January handily beat Riverhead Town Supervisor Sean Walter to fill the seat left vacant when Ed Romaine was elected Brookhaven town supervisor.
Mr. Krupski’s victory, 6,561 votes to 3,182, a margin of 67 percent to Mr. Walter’s 33 percent, prompted the supervisor in conceding to say, “You stomped me bad.” Prior to the vote, GOP leaders said they needed a candidate with significant name recognition, such as an elected official, to run a competitive campaign against Mr. Krupski, who had served in town government for 28 years.
In advance of the party’s May 14 county nominating convention, Republican leaders were scheduled to meet Wednesday to consider potential candidates for the legislative contests and the State Assembly seat left vacant when Dan Losquadro won a special election in March for the Brookhaven highway superintendent’s post.
Regarding the upcoming Krupski race, Brookhaven GOP leader Jesse Garcia deferred to Suffolk GOP Chairman John Jay LaValle, who said his party does not want to forgo the challenge.
“We do have a couple of people looking at it and we’re in discussions with them right now,” Mr. LaValle said on Monday. “We have to run a candidate. I feel pretty strong about that.”
Southold GOP leader Peter McGreevy said no thought was given to cross-endorsing Mr. Krupski, who ran with Republican support in one of his Town Trustee elections.
Suffolk Democrats will hold their convention on Monday, May 20.
Both parties have interviewed numerous potential candidates for the 2nd Assembly District seat, left vacant by Mr. Losquadro. The district covers Riverhead, Southold and a large section of northeastern Brookhaven.
Democrats under consideration include Jim Waters of Waters Crest Winery in Cutchogue and Jennifer Maertz of Rocky Point, who ran unsuccessfully against State Senator Ken LaValle in 2010.
The list of potential GOP candidates includes Southold Councilman Chris Talbot and former Romaine aide Bill Faulk of Manorville.
In 1998 Mike Forbes was the area’s congressman, Jean Cochran was town supervisor and Doris and Ron McGreevy, who live in a house overlooking the Sound in Mattituck, began pressing the federal government to do something it rarely does: take responsibility for a problem it created and take steps to rectify it.
The East End has been represented by two other House members and Southold has had two more supervisors since then, but the McGreevys are still in Mattituck and and have never given up their quest for the Army Corps of Engineers to admit that the huge stone jetties on either side of Mattituck Inlet have caused and continue to cause significant erosion on the downdrift side to the east.
The McGreevys’ persistence paid off this week with Congressman Tim Bishop’s announcement that the Army Corps has accepted responsibility and will dredge the inlet, eliminating a navigational hazard as well, and pump the sand east to rebuild the damaged beach. The $3.4 million project is to start in the fall.
If there’s one immutable truth about how things are accomplished in Washington, it’s that the squeaky wheel may not always get the grease, but the quiet wheel gets nothing. A dredging project isn’t the most exciting of issues, especially in D.C., and in a time of diminishing federal resources it would be easy for lawmakers and the administration to follow another tried and true government policy and shelve the idea.
But the McGreevys didn’t give up, nor did town officials or Mr. Bishop, who not all that long ago took considerable heat locally after the Mattituck dredging was stripped from the Army Corps’ budget. But he pressed for and succeeded in gaining an emergency allocation to dredge Montauk Harbor. Thanks to the perseverance of all involved, the Army Corps admitted what had been clear for decades: The jetties trap sand on one side and cause significant erosion on the other. Congratulations to all involved.
Now that this issue’s settled, perhaps it’s time to take another look farther east, along the Sound in Peconic, where there’s a significant buildup of sand on one side of Goldsmith Inlet and continuing erosion on the other. The problem is clear — and so is the solution.
TIM KELLY PHOTO | New Southold GOP chairman Peter McGreevy (left) is congratulated on his appointment by Riverhead GOP leader John Galla following Monday’s county Legislature debate at Martha Clara Vineyards.
He started off the new year with a special election for a county legislative seat, which could lead to a special Town Board election.
And in just a matter of weeks, he could also face a special state Assembly election and, on top of that, shoulder the responsibility for his party’s regular town elections in November.
Few political leaders have faced so much in their first days on the job as has Peter McGreevy of Mattituck, who in December succeeded Denis Noncarrow as chairman of the Southold Republican Committee.
The GOP knew it would have its hands full in challenging popular Democratic Councilman Al Krupski, whose four-year term is up this year. But Mr. McGreevy couldn’t have imagined having to gear up the party in an effort to defeat the councilman, who is running against Riverhead Republican Supervisor Sean Walter in the Jan. 15 special election.
The seat became open when veteran GOP legislator Ed Romaine was elected Brookhaven Town supervisor in November.
“My number one goal is to go all-out for Sean,” said Mr. McGreevy, a partner in a Riverhead law firm. “Then, on Jan. 16, I’ll start thinking about the town elections.”
Despite the bipartisan nature of the current Town Board and how many in his party admire and respect Mr. Krupski, one of only two elected Democrats in town government, Mr. McGreevy said he feels no reluctance in supporting Mr. Walter.
“Al is popular,” he said, “but he’s on the other side. It’s the job of the Southold GOP to make sure Sean Walter gets as many votes as possible. It’s nothing personal, it’s just the reality of the system.”
After watching the Walter-Krupski debate at Martha Clara Vineyards Monday night, Mr. McGreevy said he’s convinced Mr. Walter has a better understanding of the rough and tumble politics of county-level government.
“I was surprised Al chose to run,” he said. “He’s for Southold and I figured he’d stay here.”
Before attending Auburn University Law School in Alabama, Mr, McGreevy earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in political science from that school.
“I’ve always enjoyed the political process,” he said. “The people, how it’s done and the results you can get are interesting to me. They say all politics is local and Southold is about as local as you can get.”
He said he comes from a politically active family. His mother, Doris, is a former chairperson of the Mattituck Parks District board and he is former chairman of Southold Town’s ethics committee. He’s been a GOP committeeman for the past five years.
“It may sound corny, but I believe in quality of life issues and think this is the best place for me to contribute,” he said.
Should Mr, Krupski lose next week, the GOP might still face the daunting task of trying to end his 28 years in elected office in Southold. Should he win, however, Mr. McGreevy believes the Town Board should appoint a replacement rather than leaving the seat vacant until the November elections.
“It’s too long a time to leave the seat open,” he said.
There’s a special election in March for Brookhaven highway superintendent and those results could further alter the local political landscape. Republican Assemblyman Dan Losquadro is seeking to make the jump to town office and if he succeeds there could be special election to fill his Assembly seat.
Then there are the upcoming town elections, which should be less of a challenge for Mr. McGreevy in that Mr. Krupski is the only non-Republican incumbent facing re-election.
“Based on recent election results, the people of Southold like what we’re offering,” he said. “Not only do I want to continue that, I want to expand upon it.”
Mr. McGreevy jokingly said his neighborhood has become the epicenter of local political power.
“I live just around the corner from [town Democratic Chairman] Art Tillman,” he said. “We’ll have no problem communicating.”
He spoke highly of his Democratic counterpart, saying he admires Mr. Tillman’s passion for his party and its principles.
“It’s good to have believers,” he said. “It makes it more interesting that way.”