Dan's Papers - May 22, 2009 - THE DRAMA BUILDS IN HAMPTONS POLITICS

The intrigue surrounding both Southampton and East Hampton town elections for Supervisor this coming fall seems to intensify hourly. In the recent past, both towns wrestled with growing budget shortages due to over spending, falling revenues and perhaps some bad accounting methods. Now the blame game has hit full tilt. In Southampton, Republican Party maverick Linda Kabot, who came into the Supervisor's office two years ago after defeating the incumbent Republican Supervisor, Patrick Heaney in a bitter election cycle that included challenges in a primary and again in the general election, finds herself in the vulnerable position of being at odds with her own party's leadership once again. With Southampton Republican Party Chairman, Marcus Stinchi - a man not used to surrendering power - sensing the footsteps of a local Democratic Party getting closer by the moment, nothing is certain. The effectiveness of Anna Throne-Holst, the likely Democratic contender for the Supervisor seat, has the Republicans sputtering. She seems to be shining a light on the present Town Board, lasering in on the budget problems. Added to the mix is Jim Malone, an attractive candidate with Wall Street experience. The current Suffolk County Deputy Executive, Malone is seeking the Republican Party nomination from Kabot while already securing his place in the general election on the Conservative Party line. Kabot has made noises of annoyance with her party leadership, vowing to take her cause and re-election to the people, no matter what. This seems like heavy political turbulence until you look east.

In the Town of East Hampton, you have a scenario where, due to apparent incompetence, the local Democratic Party is in disarray. In an almost unreal move, the local East Hampton Democratic Party has not re-nominated any of its incumbent board members, including Supervisor William McGintee. Only days ago it was inconceivable that Pat Mansir and Brad Loewen would not be invited by the Party to run for re-election to their incumbent board seats. But when the East Hampton Democrats nominated Deputy Suffolk County Executive Ben Zwirn to run for Town Supervisor, he demanded a new slate of democratic Board candidates to run with him. The local Democratic leadership caved in like a tent in a typhoon.

The Democrats' problems in East Hampton have arisen from the questionable handling of budget deficits. That activity spurred an investigation of the Town Board and Supervisor by the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office to determine whether any wrongdoing occurred. (See related story page 53.) All of this bad press is combined with a 20% rise in the town taxes and the levy of unpopular fees for beach stickers for local residents - a first in the history of the town. In light of these blunders, it's been reported unofficially that the declared Republican candidate William Wilkinson is already picking new carpet and wall paint for the Supervisor's office.

In the meantime, Zwirn has practically hand selected John Whelan and Patti Leber to run for the Town Board after demanding the exclusion of Mansir and Loewen. It seems Wilkinson won't be the only candidate running against the incumbent board's record, which has led to perhaps over $20 million of over-spending during the last three years, all while taxes have gone up.

It's not the wisdom of this move by the Democrats, but the desperateness of it that is alarming. While the Democratic party is on the rise in Southampton, to the point of perhaps capturing the Supervisor's Office for the first time since pre-Eisenhower era, the Democratic party in East Hampton is imploding or at least trying to change all of its faces in one election cycle. Zwirn will eventually be asked to communicate his position on the competency of present Supervisor McGintee, who seems to be on life support after being thrown under the bus. It is tragic to see the once popular McGintee portrayed as a man of poor judgment, or a potential defendant to wrongdoing in office, but thus is the reality of politics in a very bad economy.

If the economy had been robust these last two years perhaps McGintee wouldn't have needed to use Community Preservation Fund monies to pay Town bills. But he did - and now he pays a bigger price. And now, the weight of the bad economy has shifted its voodoo to Southampton Supervisor Kabot, who rode into office as a white knight and now looks tarnished with incompetence due to unforeseen budget shortfalls. But she is not going to lie down and surrender. County Legislator Jay Schneiderman always says, "Never underestimate Linda Kabot," but it now seems she has some heavy lifting to do to remain in office. She has to deal with dissention in her own party and a seeming tidal wave of growing Democratic momentum in Southampton.

In his famed work, The Prince, Machiavelli said political power is not given but seized. In the Hamptons, the newcomers are trying to do just that.