Election 2011: Waddington, Reich, Shepherd lead; Jay Card Jr. looks like winner; more than 300 absentee ballots remain to be counted
Shelter Island Town Councilman Glenn Waddington virtually claimed victory in a thank you speech to his supporters at about 9:45 Tuesday night at the Chequit Inn with unofficial results showing him ahead by 61 votes in the three-way race for supervisor.
Jay Card Jr. appeared to have won a decisive victory to succeed the retiring Mark Ketcham as highway superintendent.
The results are unofficial and do not include 308 absentee ballots that had yet to be counted. They weren’t expected to be tabulated for perhaps a week or more. Supervisor Dougherty, in an email on Wednesday, said the voters who took part by absentee ballot deserve to be heard before winners are determined.
Wayne Bourne, a former town Republican Committee chairman who worked in support of Mr. Waddington, said at the Chequit that the supervisor would have to win about 200 of those absentee votes to turn the race his way. Mr. Bourne said that was possible but unlikely.
Mr. Waddington, an independent running with Conservative Party backing, garnered 549 machine votes Tuesday to incumbent Democrat Dougherty’s 488 and Republican Bob DeStefano’s 221, with all four Island election district reporting. Mr. Dougherty won 38.76 percent of the machine vote; Mr. Waddington had 43.6 percent and Mr. DeStefano 17.55 percent. There was one write-in vote.
Mr. Waddington trailed Mr. Dougherty only in Election District 1, which includes Ram Island and Hay Beach. He had 112 votes there to 120 for Mr. Dougherty and 52 for Mr. DeStefano.
The election appears to have had the highest turnout of any on the Island, with about 68 percent of its 2,318 registered voters participating.
Only two supervisors since Republican Evans Griffing in the 1960s has won more than two terms: Republican Jeff Simes in the 1980s and Democrat Hoot Sherman in the 1990s. He won his third term in 1995. Supervisors Gerry Siller and Art Williams tried for third terms but failed.
REICH, SHEPHERD LEAD
Two-term Councilman Peter Reich, a Republican running with Conservative support, was the leader in the five-way race for two seats on the Town Board with 575 machine votes. Independent Paul Shepherd, a regular observer at Town Hall meetings and unsuccessful candidate for supervisor in 2009, followed with 518 votes.
Jay Card Jr., a former town police sergeant, appeared the likely winner of the race for highway superintendent, taking 692 machine votes to 561 for Hap Bowditch Jr.
A proposition to reduce the terms of Town Board councilpersons from four to two years was defeated by a margin of about 3 to 2,666 “no” votes to 459 “yes” votes.
All re-elected with more than 1,000 votes each were tax receiver Nancy Kotula and assessor Al Hammond and part-time assessor BJ Ianfola, who ran without opposition and were cross-endorsed by multiple parties.
County Legislator Ed Romaine easily won re-election to another two-year term in the First District, which includes the North Fork and Shelter Island. The Republican incumbent had 15,076 votes or 78.47 percent compared to Democratic challenger, Tricia Chairamonte, who garnered 4,125.
Countywide, Democrat Steve Bellone, the supervisor of Babylon Town, easily won the county executive race, beating Republican County Treasurer Angie Carpenter, 130,607 votes to 100,119.
Voting on the Island in those races tracked the overall results: Steve Bellone had 665 votes here to 433 for for Angie Carpenter; Ed Romaine had 837 votes to 251 for Tricia Chairamonte.
NO LAWN SIGNS
“I love the fact that we did it without signs,” Mr. Waddington told his cheering supporters, referring to his refusal to use political lawn signs during his campaign as did Republican Councilman Peter Reich, who appeared to have won re-election. “I loved the fact that we were able to do it as independent candidates. We had the Conservative line; they gave us a spot on the ballot, for which I will always be thankful to them.
“But we went out and we created our own party, the Island Unity Party, and we picked that name for a reason. It wasn’t something that just popped into my head. We wanted to bring everybody together. Whether it be second-home owners, working families, senior retireds, we’re all in this together. This is the whole point of being on an island. I love the fact that we’re an island.”
“All right, Wayne. Tell them what these numbers mean … other than the fact that I won!” Mr. Waddington said to applause and laughter.
“Sixty-one votes is a substantial number, ” Mr. Bourne said of Mr. Waddington’s margin, adding he’d never seen absentee ballots change the direction of a race with a margin that large except the one lost by Supervisor Art Williams in a three-way race in 2005; Alfred Kilb won that election by 15 votes.
‘BLEW HIMSELF UP’
Mr. Bourne warned, however, that most of the absentee votes were cast and mailed “before Dougherty blew himself up, so that may help him a little but I don’t think enough. Glenn, I think this is your winner right here.”
After Mr. Reich and Mr. Shepherd, the council race had fireman and plumber Will Anderson, running on the Republican line, in third place with 453 machine votes; Democrats Dan Fokine had 417 votes and Ian Weslek followed with 366.
Mr. Reich, who had watched the vote come in at Republican Election Night headquarters at Sweet Tomato’s, paid a visit to the Chequit to congratulate Mr. Waddington, joking that the two “bobbleheads” — which a testy Supervisor Dougherty had branded them at a Town Board budget meeting last month — were the winners.
The mood was subdued at the American Legion early in the evening as the Democrats convened to await the election numbers. Jay Card was the party’s only winner in a contested race. After the numbers came in, Supervisor Dougherty declined several requests for comment. One of his close supporters at the Legion, Richard Smith, told a reporter for this newspaper that its coverage had been “unfair” and its editor was “biased.”
CANDIDATE COMMENTS
In an email Wednesday morning, Supervisor Dougherty wrote, “We had winners election night but the biggest winner once again was Shelter Island, which had a record turnout of registered voters, approaching 70 percent, perhaps the highest voter turnout of any town in New York State.
“And the absentee ballots are yet to be counted — a record 234 absentee ballots had been received as of yesterday, with more coming in. These absentee voters go to a substantial effort to participate in our elections and I feel strongly are entitled to be heard from before we confirm final results in close races.”
Paul Shepherd commented in a phone interview from home late Tuesday night that he had stopped by the Chequit earlier but had been “reticent of doing any happy dances” because of the number of absentee ballots to be counted. He said that because the “major parties” are responsible for putting out absentee ballots, that “could shift the numbers quite a bit.”
He said of his campaign, “I’m not a good self-promoter.” He said he was pleased at the vote. “You don’t know how much that means to me,” he said. The job of councilman, he added, would mean going along with things he might not personally agree with at times. “I’ll have to listen and listen sincerely. It’s going to be different for sure,” he said.
Highway Superintendent candidate Jay Card said about the race, “It’s a close race. I think Hap and I ran very honest campaigns … I’m proud of the job that he did and I did and when I see him at Fedi’s or IGA, we’ll carry on as the good friends we are.”
Town Board council candidate Ian Weslek said about the race, “It’s been a great six months” and it was a “very friendly campaign.”
“In my opinion, there are no losers … Whether it’s Peter Reich and someone new or two new people [on the board], I think it’s going to be wonderful,” he said.
While there was a mounting buzz at the Chequit and Sweet Tomato’s as the numbers came in Tuesday night from the voting machines at the school, the mood at the Legion Hall was fairly relaxed. When the results were posted at about 9:30, one woman standing behind Jim Dougherty said, “Are you serious? I’m moving off the Island.”
Jay Card said, “I feel like it’s too early to call.”
Mr. Weslek said on the way out the door, “I’m going to the Chequit to see Peter Reich.”
