In tight and controversial balloting, Riverhead Republicans reject embattled incumbent supervisor

(Updated: May 27, 7:30 a.m.) Riverhead Republicans turned their backs on the two incumbents seeking re-election to the Town Board at a drama-filled party convention Tuesday night: both Supervisor Sean Walter and Councilman James Wooten failed to gain their party’s nomination.

Councilwoman Jodi Giglio won the committee’s endorsement for supervisor by half a vote. The committee also threw its support behind retired Riverhead police officers Tim Hubbard and Bob Peeker.

Committee member Tracy Stark-James abstained from the vote for supervisor, setting up the dramatic half-point squeaker win for Giglio.

Tension mounted in the Polish Hall  banquet room as committee tellers Joseph Baier and Brian Mills tallied the vote for supervisor, double- and triple-checking their totals.  As they worked, the hall began to buzz about the vote’s dead heat and Stark-James’ abstention when committee members who’d done their own tallies realized how close the outcome would be.

“We knew it was going to be close, but we didn’t know how close it would be in the end,” said GOP chairman Mason Haas, who won the party’s endorsement in his re-election bid for tax assessor. “This is really something.” Haas, who has been at odds with the supervisor for most of his tenure as party leader, cast his votes for Giglio.

Party committee designations are determined by a complex weighted vote, apportioned according to district by district turnout in the last election for governor. The weight of each committee member’s vote is determined by the number of votes cast on the party’s line in that district in the last gubernatorial. Each district is represented by two committee people, who each cast one-half of the district’s total gubernatorial votes. There is wide disparity in the weight of district votes under this system — from as few as 22 votes in one district to as many as 337 in another on the town Republican committee— effectively making some committee members more powerful than others.

‘I didn’t want to vote’: Tracy Stark-James, who abstained
When convention chairman Victor Prusinowski announced that the committee’s attorney needed to consult with  the Suffolk County Republican Committee parliamentarian to determine whether the vote could be certified, all eyes were on Stark-James, whose 96.5 gubernatorial votes — which had not been cast — decided the outcome.

One committee member raised a point of order, asking whether a member was allowed to abstain. Another suggested perhaps Stark-James had actually meant to pass, saving her chance to vote till the end. But an abstention is a vote and could not be changed, said longtime committee member and convention teller Baier.

Asked about her abstention, Stark-James said, “No comment.” But then she added: “I didn’t want to vote.”

Committee member Stan Carey, who placed Walter’s name in nomination asked Prusinowski what would happen if, due to the abstention, “neither candidate gets the 1,736 votes that’s required,” the majority of the committee’s total gubernatorial votes.

Prusinowski said the county parliamentarian would rule, based on the county committee’s bylaws, by which the town organization is bound.

While committee officials consulted with the county parliamentarian, Walter seated himself next to Stark-James for a private conversation  — as Giglio, seated right behind them, looked on. The supervisor was clearly unhappy with her abstention, but declined comment on it last night. Walter’s wife Cathleen, clearly angered by the outcome answered the question posed to her husband.

“She’s a coward,” she said. “And you can quote me on that.”

Prusinowski announced that the county parliamentarian ruled the outcome is determined by the majority of committee members present, either in person or by proxy — not the majority of the total number of all votes that may be cast.

“Based on that, Sean Walter received 1687 votes, Jodi Giglio received 1687.5 votes,” Prusinowski announced. “Jodi Giglio is the official nominee of the Riverhead Republican Committee.”

Walter declined to address the committee after the result was announced. He simply thanked his supporters and said he would be saving his comments for a press conference later in the week. Accompanied by his wife, his secretary Carol Sclafani and her husband Charles, Walter then made a swift exit from the hall, walking out as Giglio began to speak.

“I’m honored to be your candidate at the top of the ticket,” Giglio said. “I promise you I will work hard and I will do my best and I will listen,” she said. “I will listen to every taxpayer and I will listen to all of you. I don’t know everything. I’m only as good as the people I’m surrounded with and I’m fortunate to be surrounded by all of you.”

Stopped on the steps of Polish Hall as he was leaving, Walter said he definitely intends to mount a primary challenge to wrest the nomination from Giglio.

“I’m putting together a slate of candidates and will be making an announcement later in the week at a press conference,” he said, “and I invite Councilman Wooten to attend that press conference.”

Wooten, who was also standing outside Polish Hall at the time, said he has not decided whether he will run a primary.  “I had 5,000 people vote for me last time,” he said. “I have to think about this.”  He seemed stunned by the committee’s action. In brief remarks to the committee earlier, as the supervisor vote tally was being sorted out, Wooten expressed incredulity and dismay at being turned down in his bid for a third term.

“Maybe you think they’re better,” Wooten said, referring to Hubbard and Peeker. “Maybe it’s fresh meat. Maybe they have agendas. I don’t know…I don’t know. All I know is, I did the best I could and obviously it wasn’t good enough. I congratulate the slate and I’ll see you all in November.”

Hubbard and Peeker both thanked the committee and pledged to work hard to win election in November. Hubbard led the balloting with 3,155.5 votes, followed by Peeker with 1,939, Wooten with 1,511 and latecomer Matt Bjelobrk, who received 336.5.

Town attorney Bob Kozakiewicz won the GOP designation for town justice, coming out ahead of the other two candidates whose names were placed in nomination, Mary Hartill and Lori Hulse. Hulse, who also sought the Democratic nomination for justice, hustled out of Polish Hall to go down the block to Polish Town Civic Association where the Democrats were convened, as soon as her Republican loss became clear.

Republicans also nominated — without challenge — incumbent assessors Paul Leszczynski and Mason Haas, as well as incumber tax receiver Laurie Zaneski.

“I believe Riverhead needs a change and I believe Riverhead needs a business person in the supervisor’s post,” Giglio said in an interview after the convention.

“We always knew one way or another there would be a primary,” she said. “Let the people decide. That’s how it should be,” she said.

“I feel completely liberated from being under the thumb of Mason Haas and the Republican executive committee,” Walter said in a text message late Tuesday night.

Walter, formerly a registered Conservative who once chaired the Riverhead Conservative Committee, has been at odds with Republican party leadership since he first ran for supervisor on the Republican line in 2009. He got the party nod then after a floor fight with Giglio at the party convention that ended in a brokered ticket with Walter at the top and Giglio running for council, alongside George Gabrielsen.

Walter and Giglio have been at odds almost constantly over the course of their five years together on the town board. In 2013, Walter supported his longtime ally and political consultant, Anthony Coates in a Republican party primary for council. Coates, who had switched his party registration from Democrat to Republican, went on the attack against Giglio during a three-way race for two council positions, but polled last in the Republican primary, behind Giglio and fellow incumbent John Dunleavy.

During the course of the 2013 primary campaign, Coates’ criticism of Giglio broadened and he evolved into an outspoken critic of the administration led by supervisor whose candidacies he helped shaped. He changed his party enrollment back to Democrat and by the end of 2014 was a regular vocal critic of Walter.  Coates has been tapped as the Democratic nominee for supervisor. See separate story.