At least two freshman town supervisors on Long Island were unseated in Tuesday’s elections and a third might join their ranks.
Republican challenger Yvette Aguiar unseated first-term Democratic Riverhead Town Supervisor Laura Jens-Smith by a margin of 54 to 45 percent, according to unofficial returns from the Suffolk County Board of Elections. And Democratic challenger Gerard Stiller unseated first-term Republican Shelter Island Town Supervisor Gary Gerth, the tallies show. But Democratic Hempstead Town Supervisor Laura Gillen refused to concede Tuesday’s election after Republican challenger Don Clavin declared victory as Nassau County Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs asked Gillen to wait for more than 5,000 absentee ballots to be counted.
Gillen, a first-term supervisor who two years ago became the first Democrat to win the town’s top job in more than a century, trailed Clavin, the town tax receiver, by more than 1,500 votes, according to unofficial returns from the Nassau County Board of Elections.
Incumbent town supervisors re-elected Tuesday on LI were North Hempstead Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth, who won more than double the votes of GOP challenger David Redmond, and Republican Oyster Bay Town Supervisor Joe Saladino, who had a 10,000 vote lead over challenger James Altadonna, the town clerk who switched parties from Republican to Democrat in his attempt to unseat Saladino.
On the other side of the county line, Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine trounced Democratic challenger William Ferraro 61 to 37 percent, Democratic East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc drubbed Libertarian challenger David Gruber, Republican Islip Town Supervisor Angie Carpenter beat Democratic challenger Thomas Murray 56 to 43 percent, Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman won 55 percent of the vote over Republican challenger Gregory Robins’ 29 percent, and Republican Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell won 51 to 48 percent over Democratic challenger Gregory Doroski.
