This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Politics & Government

Incumbent Trustees Sail to Victory

Havemeyer, Shultz, Pell, Warner and Semlear earn new two-year terms.

The five incumbent Southampton Town Trustees have secured re-election after a contentious campaign during which the Republicans left two of their own out in the cold.

Secretary/Treasurer of the trustees and President were the two top vote-getters, which came as no surprise as they were the only two candidates whose names appeared on both the Democratic and Republican ballot lines. But when the two Republican trustees accepted the Democratic nomination, the Southampton Town Republican Committee .

The GOP left Shultz and Havemeyer out of all of the party's campaign literature, only encouraging voters to elect incumbent Republicans and and newcomer . While Warner and Semlear secured victory Tuesday, Horowitz came in sixth place. Behind Horowitz were Democrats and Edmund Pavlak. Pavlak did not campaign after receiving the Democratic nomination.

Find out what's happening in Southamptonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Former GOP Chairman Ernest Wruck told Patch in October that Shultz and Havemeyer never told anyone of their plans to accept the cross-endorsement and he asked both candidates to step down from the Democratic line. They refused, and they also refused to endorse the whole GOP line for the five trustee seats, he said.

By accepting a cross-endorsement, Wruck said that essentially Havemeyer and Shultz’s seats would be guaranteed while jeopardizing the chances of other Republican candidates who are only endorsed by one major party.

Find out what's happening in Southamptonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

For their first time ever, Shultz and Havemeyer spent election night with the Southampton Town Democratic Committee. They even got up on stage with as candidates delivered victory speeches. Shultz thanked the party for embracing him and Havemeyer, and said the Democrats took politics out of the trustee board.

Shultz said the board is a one-issue board. Havemeyer agree: "The environment, the environment, the environment."

Havemeyer and Shultz told Patch on Tuesday that they have not had any conversations with the GOP leadership about being welcomed back into the Republican fold now that this election is over.

Also at the Democrats' election night headquarters at in Southampton Village was Trustee , an Independence Party member who was elected to the trustee board two years ago with the Democratic endorsement and won another two years by finishing in third Tuesday.

Trustees election results, with no absentee ballots included:

  • - 8,806
  • - 7,874
  • - 6,750
  • - 6,406
  • - 6,233
  • - 5,721
  • - 3,709
  • Ed Pavlak - 3,228
We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?