Dems Support Screening Committee Town Board Recs – Barely

Gathering Wednesday night, every committee member at the 2013 East Hampton Town Democrat nominating convention seemed fully aware that this year's convention was not your average night to pick their party's candidates.

Rumors had circulated that the party's 2011 supervisor candidate, Zachary Cohen, and chairwoman of the Quiet Skies Coalition, Kathleen Cunningham, would be pulling nominations from the floor to get the party's nods for town board – and while the rumors turned out to be true, the candidates recommended by the party's screening committee still won support of the committee.

Though in one instance, just barely.

While attorney Steve Tekulsky handily won a challenge from Springs defense attorney Joseph Giannini for the town justice nod, and former Town Board Member Job Potter won by a sizable margin for the first of two town board nominations, Kathee Burke-Gonzalez won support for the second by what ended up being a single voter over Cohen.

With each committee member's vote weighted to reflect the population their district holds, Burke-Gonzalez earned 3,027.5 votes, over Cohen's 2,436.5. Potter led the way with 3,753.5, and Cunningham earned 466.5

While the 591-vote margin between Cohen and Burke-Gonzalez might seem far – some districts carry as few as 69 weighted votes – committee member Michael O'Neill, representing the eleventh district, ended up making the final votes, carrying two votes each weighed at 368. He first attempted to split his vote between three candidates – though against party rules, Screening Chair Betty Mazur came back to him later – and casting the final vote, he ended up offering 368 votes each to Cohen and Burke-Gonzalez after realizing Potter had far and away earned the vote.

Following the vote, nominees Burke-Gonzalez, Potter, and supervisor candidate Larry Cantwell turned the dialogue toward working together to move forward in the best interest of the party, and East Hampton Town.

"This is the first time in many, many decades a nomination like this has come to a floor vote," said Potter, a two-time town board member, in an interview following the convention. "But we get to work tomorrow to elect these candidates."

Cantwell, who also has the support of the Independence party, singled out the candidates who made a stab at earning support before getting into his acceptance speech, "for showing their dedication to the town we all love."

Cohen – who made his decision to seek the town board nomination last Friday night – said that his numbers showed he expected to earn the votes of a five more committee members, who ended up voting for other candidates. Burke-Gonzalez said she wasn't counting votes one-by-one during the roll call, though got a few "pleasant surprises" on Wednesday night.

"But that's what democracy is all about," Cohen said. "A lot of people said they were going to decide here."