Southampton Upset: Manger Ousts Warren in Village Mayoral Race

Southampton Village Trustee Bill Manger unseated his former running mate, two-term Mayor Jesse Warren, in the most high profile of six East End village elections being held this month. Manger handily defeated Warren with 58% of the vote out of more than 1,400 ballots cast on June 16 in the village of nearly 4,600 residents. Warren’s running mates — two newcomers he recruited after parting ways with allies he has since sparred with on the village board — also lost to Manger’s slate of candidates.

“I am humbled by the strong support I received from Southampton Village voters in last week’s mayoral election,” Manger said. “I am totally committed to serving everyone in the village and doing my utmost to unite our community. I campaigned for mayor under the banner of ‘Better Together’ and I pledge to uphold that promise of togetherness once in the mayor’s office. The work that lies ahead requires collaboration among all residents, workers, and volunteers in the village. My first priority is to bring civility back to village government.”

The mayoral matchup was notable for being the only contest for a village’s top job among a half dozen elections being held in June across the South Fork.

“I’m very proud of the work that we’ve done for the village,” Warren said after the election. “When we got the results, we conceded graciously. There was no disappointment because we’ve accomplished a lot over the last four years. It never felt like second place. We’re leaving with heads held high.”

Warren noted that he is looking forward to his wedding next month and focusing on his business before he decides if he will opt to seek public office again.

Manger’s running mates on the Better Together party line, incumbent trustees Roy Stevenson and Robin Brown, beat Warren-aligned challengers Palmer Hudson and Greg Centeno.

OTHER VILLAGE RACES

The Southampton race was one of four village elections held the same day. Only one of the other three simultaneous village elections were contested.

In that contest, voters in the Village of Sagaponack re-elected trustees William Barbour and Carrie Thayer Crowley over challenger, community advocate and first-time candidate David McMillan, who lost by eight votes. McMillian founded the Residents Advisory Group for a Safe Sagaponack, which promotes traffic safety and aims to preserve the region’s natural resources.

In the other two village elections held June 16, incumbents did not face any challengers.

In the Village of Westhampton Beach, Rob Rubio and Brian Tymann were re-elected to the village board with 55 and 48 votes each, respectively. Village Justice Robert Kelly Jr., who also ran unopposed, was re-elected with 2 votes to the post he has held for 27 years, according to Village Clerk-Treasurer, Elizabeth Lindtvit. The runner-up was Kim Wolfersdorf, with six votes.

Also on June 16, Quogue Village Trustees Randy Cardo and Ted Necarsulmer ran unopposed for re-election.

On June 20, Village of Sag Harbor voters were casting ballots for the only other South Fork mayoral race, but it was uncontested. Village trustee and deputy mayor Tom Gardella is running for mayor after Jim Larocca, the incumbent mayor, announced that he would not seek a second two-year term. He was expected to sail to victory, but election results were not available as of press time.

Hilary Thayer Hamann, an alternate member of the Harbor Committee, filed an 11th-hour bid to run for village trustee along with incumbents Bob Plumb and Aidan Corish, who are seeking their third and fourth terms, respectively, on the Sag Harbor Village board.

Also on June 20, in the VIllage of North Haven, Terie Diat is running unopposed for a second full term on the village board. Peter Boody, who was appointed to complete the term of mayor Chris Fiore after Fiore’s election last year, is running unopposed for a full two-year term. Results of that race were also not available as of press time.

The South Fork village races come after three-fifths of the Village of Greenport board were unseated in March as Kevin Steussi unseated Mayor George Hubbard, and a pair of challengers, Patrick Brennan and Lily Dougherty-Johnson, ousted Deputy Mayor Jack Martilotta, and won an open seat vacated by Trustee Peter Clarke, who declined to seek re-election.

And in Dering Harbor on Shelter Island, Village Trustee Ari Benacerraf was re-elected and Patrick Parcells won a second vacant seat as a write-in candidate when no other candidates appeared on ballots in that race last month.

Neither the Village of West Hampton Dunes nor East Hampton Village have elections this year.

PRIMARIES NEXT

In addition to the village elections, nine candidates are facing off in four major and minor party primary election battles across East End towns and in a county legislative district seat race on the North Fork this month.

Registered Republicans will choose this month who will run on the GOP line in the general election in Suffolk County’s 1st Legislative District before North Fork residents elect a new county representative for the first time in about a decade. That’s because Suffolk Legislator Al Krupski (D-Peconic), who has represented the area since 2013, is vacating his seat to run for Southold town supervisor this fall. The Republican primary is between Krupski’s chief of staff Caterine Stark and businessman Greg Williams. The winner of this primary will face Democrat Catherine Kent, a former member of the Riverhead town board’s Democratic minority, on Election Day.

The Town of Shelter Island has two Democratic primaries. In one, Community Preservation Fund Advisory Board Chair Arnott Gordon Gooding is challenging incumbent Shelter Island Town Supervisor Gerard F. Siller, who is seeking a third term. In the other, three Democrats — former Shelter Island Town Councilman Albert K. Dickson, Sylvester Manor Board of Trustee Benjamin Dyett and businessman Robert Waife — are running for two Democratic lines that will appear on ballots in the Town of Shelter Island Council race on Election Day as they seek to reverse Republican gains on the town board in recent years.

The fourth primary is in the Town of Southampton in which two candidates are vying for the Working Families Party line in the race for town justice — one of four seats that preside over all criminal, civil, traffic, and parking cases within the town. Incumbent Southampton Town Justice Gary J. Weber, who won his seat on the Republican line, is seeking re-election on the minor-party line while John A. Ortiz, an attorney and former prosecutor, is challenging Weber.

The 10-day early voting period started June 17 and runs through June 25 ahead of the primary elections on June 27.

-With Jack Harrison Chinsky and Marc Horowitz