Here’s what’s on the ballot for Tuesday’s election
The Nov. 8 ballot won’t just be about Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
There are also races for Congress, State Senate and Assembly, a proposition to extend the Community Preservation Fund, and more.
Here is a roundup of our recent coverage for each space on the ballot. Click on the link to skip ahead to a specific race or ballot issue. Click on the sample ballot above to enlarge image.
• 1st Congressional District: Zeldin vs. Throne-Holst
• Extend Riverhead supervisor terms
• State Senate: LaValle vs. Fischer
• State Assembly: Palumbo vs. Conroy
• County judges mostly unopposed
1st Congressional District: Zeldin vs. Throne-Holst
Immigration, Obamacare, travel restrictions to Cuba, and, of course, Donald Trump were some of the issues discussed by incumbent Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin and his Democratic opponent, former Southampton Town Supervisor Anna Throne Holst, at a candidate forum sponsored by the North Fork, Riverhead and Mattituck chambers of commerce.
The Oct. 27 forum at Pace’s Dockside Restaurant in Mattituck gave each candidate about a half hour to speak and answer questions, but they did not interact with each other.
• Mr. Zeldin, 36, a first-term Congressman from Shirley, said in his introductory statement that since he took office in 2014, he’s gotten bills passed that restored funding for bridges, and allowed states to opt-out of Common Core without facing penalties from the U.S. Department of Education.
He is also proposing a bill still pending in Congress that would block the federal government from selling Plum Island to the highest bidder, and demand it have a research function along with an open space and public access component.
Likewise, Mr. Zeldin touted a bill he has sponsored to study and eventually construct a $17.7 million beach nourishment project at Hashamomuck Cove in Southold, which is designed to protect the homes and businesses there, as well as Route 48.
He also cited his efforts to help kill federal proposals to redirect truck traffic from Connecticut to the North Fork via Cross Sound Ferry.
Prior to becoming a congressman, he served four years active duty in the U.S. Army and still serves as a major in the Army Reserves. An attorney, Mr. Zeldin also was elected to two two-year terms to the New York State Senate beginning in 2010, where he says he helped to repeal the bulk of the MTA payroll tax and to repeal a state Saltwater Fishing License. He also helped create a statewide program to help returning veterans cop with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and traumatic brain injuries, he said.
• Ms. Throne-Holst, 56, who is from Sag Harbor, served for six years as Southampton Town Supervisor and two as a Southampton councilwoman before deciding not to seek reelection in order to run for Congress, where she had to win a primary over Dave Calone for the Democratic nod.
Prior to that, she co-founded the Hayground School in Bridgehampton and was director of the Bridgehampton Child Care and Recreation Center.
Ms. Throne-Holst said she was not registered with a political party when she was elected to town office on the Democratic line.
The town’s finances were in disarray when she first took office, she said.
“It was very clear to me having run private organizations, that all was not well,” she said. “The budgets in Southampton were systemically unbalanced and had been for years. There was a deficit in almost every major fund … so I set about putting my financial background to work.”
Ms. Throne-Holst said that despite being in a minority, politically, she was able to bring consensus to the board. She then was elected supervisor by a 60-40 margin.
As supervisor, she said, she was able to cut spending by $11 million in two years, and to not raise the general tax rate for entire term in office.
As to why she’s running for Congress, Ms. Throne-Holst cited polls indicating that 89 percent of Americans are dissatisfied with Congress because its mired in gridlock and partisanship,
‘Obamacare’
The Affordable Care Act, often called “Obamacare,” was one of the issues the two candidates disagreed on.
Mr. Zeldin said the Health Republic insurance co-op was not set up or run by people with expertise in that field and was spending more than it took in before eventually going out of business in 2015, leaving 200,000 people in New York State without insurance, and leaving hospitals on the hook for millions of dollars.
He feels President Obama considers it a “legacy item” and as such, is very defensive when others suggest changes.
He feels that whoever the next president is will be less reluctant to changes.
But Mr. Zeldin said he feels “Obamacare is going to collapse in 2017.”
Ms. Throne-Holst blames the collapse of “Obamacare” on the fact that Congress didn’t properly fund it. She feels Congress has to fix the Affordable Care Act and can’t just repeal it without having a replacement.
Immigration reform
Both candidates cited the need for immigration reform and the need for seasonal employees at area farms and businesses.
“More than 50 percent of agricultural workers right here on the East End of Long Island are undocumented immigrants today,” Ms. Throne-Holst said. “I don’t know of any farmers who get up in the morning and say ‘Yay! I can’t wait to break the law today. But if I don’t, I won’t be able to bring in my crops and my business will fold.’ ”
Mr. Zeldin said the problem has been that most of the recent attempts to solve the problem try to combine everything into one bill, which then fails to gain acceptance because controversial elements are left in the bill with acceptable ones.
There are employees who hire the same immigrant employees every summer, who now have to wait weeks to get those employees back because of paperwork.
“We should be first getting off the table all of the solutions with bipartisan agreement,” Mr. Zeldin said. “Now, we hold that hostage over a debate over most controversial elements of this fight.”
Support for Trump
An audience member asked Mr. Zeldin “Why can’t you say I will not support him?”
“I do support Trump over Hillary,” said Mr. Zeldin, to loud applause from some audience members.
“I have reasons for it related to a lot of important substantive issues that I care deeply about,” Mr. Zeldin said. “I respect your ability to vote the other way. That’s what makes America great.”
Ms. Throne-Holst, who spoke after Mr. Zeldin, did not bring up Mr. Trump.
However, on Friday morning, her campaign issued a press release entitled “Lee Zeldin Continues to Embrace and Imitate Trump’s Hate-Filled Campaign,” and added that “Donald Trump has spent his entire campaign driving our country’s political discourse into the gutter.”
Travel restrictions to Cuba?
Both candidates were asked their opinion on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s recent proposal to end travel restrictions and embargoes on Cuba.
Ms. Throne-Holst supported it.
“For 50 years, it hasn’t worked. It has done nothing for us and plunged the Cuban people into poverty,” Ms. Throne-Holst said. Mr. Zeldin said he opposes it until Cuba corrects human rights violations, stops harboring fugitives from the U.S. and stops holding property belonging to U.S. citizens.
Other issues
Mr. Zeldin voiced opposition to raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. He said if a small business only has $30,000 available to hire two minimum wage employees, raising the minimum wage won’t increase the amount they have available, and it may result in one of the employees being laid off.
Ms. Throne-Holst, who did not address that issue, criticized Mr. Zeldin’s handling of the helicopter noise issue.
She said the federal government extended the so-called North Shore Route, which locals have criticized, without his knowledge and said that would not have happened if she were in office. She raised that issue after Mr. Zeldin’s turn to speak.
CPF Extension
Proposition One in all five East End towns asks voters if they want to extend the life of the voter-approved two-percent real estate transfer tax from its current 2030 expiration date to 2050. The money raised through this tax now goes into the Community Preservation Fund and can be used to purchase open space or farmland development rights. The same proposition includes a provision that, if the CPF extension is approved, towns will be able to use up to 20 percent of the money raised to fund water quality improvement projects immediately..
The CPF proposition will be located on the back of the paper ballot.
The towns vote independently on the CPF proposition. If, for example, one town out of the five votes it down, the tax will expire in 2030 in that town, and the town won’t be able to use any of the CPF money to fund water quality improvement projects. In towns that vote to extend the tax, it will expire in 2050, and until then, up to 20 percent of the funds will be available for water quality projects.
Voters first approved the CPF in all five East End towns in 1998, at which time the tax was slated to run until 2020.
In 2006, voters in all five East End towns voted to extend the CPF expiration date to 2030.
In the towns of Southampton, East Hampton and Shelter Island, when land is transferred, the first $250,000 of the sales price is exempt from the CPF tax. In the towns of Riverhead and Southold, the first $150,000 of the sales price is exempt.
To date, more than $1.1 billion has been raised by the CPF and more than 20,000 acres of land have been preserved by it.
The towns of Southampton and East Hampton have raised far more money from the tax than have the other East End towns. Riverhead has raised just over $53 million since 1998, Southold about $76 million and Shelter Island about $25 million. In contrast, Southampton Town has generated more than $700 million and East Hampton more than $334 million through August of this year, according to officials.
Four-year supervisor term
Proposition Two in Riverhead Town, which also will be on the back of the paper voting ballot, asks if voters want to increase the term of the Riverhead supervisor from two years to four.
This proposition has been voted on at least twice previously — in 2005 and 2007 — and was rejected by voters both times.
Supervisor Sean Walter has supported the proposal, saying people in his position spends too much time campaigning under a two-year term.
Opponents say a four-year term for the supervisor would eliminate the public’s ability to change a majority of the board every two years, since council seats are four-year terms.
In the towns of East Hampton, Southampton, Brookhaven, and Shelter Island, the supervisor’s term is currently two-year terms. In the towns of Southold, Islip, Smithtown, Huntington and Babylon, the term is now four years.
State Senate: Lavalle vs. Fischer
The first district New York State Senate race pits incumbent Ken LaValle (R-Port Jefferson) — who is seeking his 20th two-year term — against Greg Fischer (D-Calverton), who has run for numerous elected offices in recent years, including Riverhead School Board earlier this year and in 2015, and Riverhead Town Assessor in 2015.
Mr. LaValle, 77, an attorney, represents the entire East End, along with parts of Brookhaven Town, in the state senate. He currently chairs the senate higher education committee and is tied with Hugh Farley of Schenectady County, as the longest serving member of the state senate. He will become the longest-serving member if he wins, because Mr. Farley, 83, is not seeking reelection this year.
Mr. Fischer, 59, who is on the ballot as Gregory-John Fischer, says he is an accounting, marketing and software consultant to businesses, nonprofits and governments, is also a volunteer mentor for Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE).
“I’ve found that being a representative is all about people,” Mr. LaValle said at a recent debate in Mattituck. “Working with people and listening to people, you’re able to develop a program that serves people’s needs.”
He listed a number of local accomplishments he’s most proud of, including building an alliance between Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport and Stony Brook University Medical Center.
“Hopefully, if everything works the way it should, it should take an area that is medically underserved and bring the kind of specialty care that people need,” he said.
Mr. LaValle also spoke proudly of his role in the creation of the Community Preservation Fund.
Among his accomplishments, the senator also cited the county’s farmland preservation program and the state’s Pine Barrens protection program, both of which Mr. LaValle has helped create, along with the state’s “STAR” program, which aims to lessen property tax increases.
“What I’m concerned about the most is what everybody in this room is concerned about,” Mr. Fischer said at the same forum. “The economy.”
He said he has three business degrees and 35 years of consulting experience.
Mr. Fischer said Mr. LaValle’s campaign mailings talk about a lot of issues but not the economy.
“No one is bragging about the economy,” he said. “But why are people moving off Long Island? The economy.
“The state legislature is filled with attorneys and you don’t have anybody with knowledge in business,” he said.
Mr. Fischer said he has reviewed school district budgets and found malfeasance, over-charging and no-bid contracts that go unchecked. He feels taxes are “going down a hole to lawyers.”
He also said he’d support a cross-sound tunnel in Long Island Sound and a double-decker road on parts of the Long Island Expressway.
Mr. Fischer is running on the Democratic line, while Mr. LaValle is running on the Republican, Conservative, Independence and Reform lines.
State Assembly: Palumbo vs. Conroy
Incumbent Republican Assemblyman Anthony Palumbo (R-New Suffolk) is running against Michael Conroy (D-Manorville), who has not been actively campaigning.
Mr. Palumbo, 46, is an attorney elected to the assembly in 2014 to fill a seat that had been vacant.
He is an attorney in private practice, and before that, an assistant district attorney.
Since taking office, he says he has opposed raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour, saying it would be a problem for small businesses, and he helped pass the first-time home buyer exemption to the two-percent land transfer tax.
He feels opioid abuse and heroin use are major problems and supports bills to extend the maximum observation time for people who overdose from 48 hours to 72 hours.
Michael Conroy, 60, thus far has not actively campaigned or appeared at candidate forums. According to the Suffolk County Democrats website, Mr. Conroy is a construction worker and a 37-year member of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, where he was an executive board member for 14 years.
Two years ago, he ran on the Democratic line opposing Mr. LaValle for state senate, but Mr. Conroy did not actively campaign then either.
The second Assembly district covers all of Southold and Riverhead towns along with a fairly large section of Brookhaven Town, stretching as far south as Center Moriches and as far west as a portion of Port Jefferson.
The state assembly and senate positions each have an annual salary of $79,500 per year.
County judges mostly unopposed
There are two seats up for reelection for state Supreme Court.
Joseph Lorinz and Edmund Dane have both been nominated by the Republican and Democratic parties for those seats.
The Conservative party nominated Deborah Poulos and Janine Barbera-Dalli, and the Independence party nominated David Calone and David Morris.
For County Court judge, Anthony Senft Jr. is backed by the Democratic, Republican, Conservative, Independence and Reform lines for the one available seat.
The same is true for the three candidates running for the three open seats on the Family Court, Martha Luft, Kathy Bergmann and Frank Tatone. Each has the Democratic, Republican, Conservative, Independence and Reform lines. Ms. Luft also has the Working Families line.
Riverhead Town Justice
Longtime Riverhead Town Judge Allen Smith is running unopposed for another four-year term. He has the backing of the Democratic, Republican, Conservative, Independence and Reform parties.
Mr. Smith, 73, has been a town justice since 2000 when he was appointed and later elected to the fill the vacancy left by the late Henry Saxtein.
Mr. Smith is a designated Drug Court Judge and serves in the East End Regional Intervention Court.
Before becoming a judge, Mr. Smith was an assistant district attorney in the five East End towns, an attorney in private practice and a Riverhead Town Attorney, and he was elected Riverhead Town Supervisor in 1975, serving until 1980.
He is also a longtime member of the Riverhead Fire Department.