Dems Select Trustees To Run in November 2013

The Democratic ticket for the 2013 election was filled out on Wednesday night at the convention with the nomination of nine trustees, including several who have previously run for the position. 

The candidates who will appear on the ballot include two incumbents, Deborah Klughers and Stephen Lester, both of whom won election two years ago. Lester, a commercial fisherman, had previously served a trustee, and rejoined the board in 2012. Klughers, an environemntalist and activist, is finishing her first term on the board. 

The Democrats endorsed seven others — Bill Taylor, Loretta Sears, Samuel E. Kramer, Afton DiSunno, Edwin Gues, Ira Barocas, and Kate Rogers.  

Kramer, Taylor, and Sears have sought election before. 

Taylor, a former Democratic Commitee chair and vice chairman, ran unsuccessfully for trustee in 2009. He resigned the lead commitee post to Jeanne Frankl, who remains the chairwoman, in May 2010. He works as the town waterways supervisor in the Natural Resources department. 

Sears ran for trustee in 2011. Raised in Amagansett, she is an avid angler. She literally lives on the water, ina houseboat on Three Mile Harbor. She works as a dockmaster at the Montauk Lake Club.

Kramer, a lifelong Demorat and Wainscott resident for 19 years, works as an attorney. He also ran for trustee in 2011. 

Geus, a California native who grew up on a large cattle range, moved to East Hampton, his wife Averille Geus' hometown, over 40 years ago. He has worked as a real estate agent since 1969, and is currently with Brown Harris Stevens. He said he was delighted to be nominated. 

Betty Mazur, the chairwoman of the Democratic screening committee, said Rogers is a former zoning board member. Barocos, she said, is a large boat captain and activitst. 

The Republican Commitee nominated incumbents Diane McNally, Timothy Bock, Stephanie Forsberg, Sean McCaffrey, and Nat Miller, and newcomers Mike Bottini, Tom Cooper, Denis Curles, and Brian Pardini. 

Meanwhile, the Independence party endorsed six incumbent trustees — the five Republicans and Lester, the only Democrat.

The party also endorsed Pardini and Curles, as well as Brian Byrnes, an Independence party member who ran as a Democrat in the past and screened with the Democrats this year.