Republicans Ready To Assist Supervisor

Richard Haeg and Steven Gaines have different backgrounds and stories of how they ended up in East Hampton, but both Republican candidates for East Hampton Town Board are united in that they want to help Supervisor Bill Wilkinson continue to right the town's finances and tackle important community issues.

CANDIDATES' BACKGROUND

Before throwing his hat into the political ring this year, Gaines made a name for himself as an author and journalist over the last four decades. He has 12 best-sellers, such as Philistines at the Hedgerow, Passion and Property in the Hamptons and The Love You Make: An Insiders Story of the Beatles.

After studying film under Martin Scorsese at New York University, he found himself working odd jobs. A chance encounter with the former child evangelist Marjoe Gortner, led Gaines to pen his first book, Gorter's biography.

Brooklyn-born, Gaines started coming out to the South Fork to write in the early 1970s and in the 1990s sold his townhouse in the city to live in Wainscott permanently. "I really did in a way fall in love," he said.

He's become immersed in the South Fork arts and literature scene. He was a co-founder of the and helped found , the extremely successful fundraiser for the . He's been a host on PlumTV and had a radio show on the former WLIU Southampton station. 

A lifelong Democrat, Gaines said the decision to make the switch to the Republican Party this year happened when the Republicans were the only ones who screened and nominated him. But, he's felt a backlash. "People who were my friends turned into absolute monsters that I was running on the Republican ticket," he said.

Realizing there were some Democrats who would never vote for him as a Republican, Gaines started the Opportunity Party, of which his name will appear on the ballot on Tuesday.

While this is Gaines' first election, Haeg has run in an East Hampton before when he tried to unseat Justice Catherine A. Cahill in 2005.

His interest in becoming a judge grew out of his 18 year-career in law enforcement. He decided to take the police test while in the Marine Corps, teaching officer's candidates in Quantico, VA.

A native of Mattituck, he joined the Suffolk County Police Department, working for two years in uniform out of the sixth precinct in Coram and then undercover in the narcotics bureau. He then went to work in the Suffolk County District Attorney's office, investigating organized crime, before he rejoined the sixth precinct as a detective. He retired with 16 commendations.

Upon retirement in 1986, he went into private investigation. He worked on the "Long Island Lolita" case for Amy Fisher's defense attorney. Though he does mainly consulting work, he still holds a private investigator's license.

He first came to East Hampton in 1960 -- via a school bus to play sports when he was a student at Mattituck High School. It wasn't until 1999, when he retired from private practice, that he moved to East Hampton. The plan was to paint, he said, but he took up boating and got involved with local politics.

HOT TOPICS

Haeg and Gaines agree that it's in the interest of the town to have open access to the beaches. Gaines has a "whatever it takes" attitude to defending the beach access suits. "Driving on the beach is part of our heritage, it's not a negotiable right," he told .

Where they differ is on the question of settlement. Gaines, a member of the CfAR, who said he enjoys both and Wainscott beaches with his dog, said he would not be in favor of settling. But, Haeg thinks there needs to be a little bit more compromise on all big issues in town. "The airport is about comprise. The Napeague Stretch is about compromise - It should have been compromised a long time ago," he said.

It's not that he's not in favor of beach access, he said, but he is afraid losing the suit will do even more harm in setting a precedent for other beachfront homeowners. "If the Supreme Court rules against us here, what have we gained? Nothing," he said.

One of the areas Haeg feels he can be particularly helpful is to code enforcement and tackling overcrowding and other housing related issues. He has spoken to a friend who has been in charge of overcrowding investigations in Brookhaven and Riverhead towns. By looking at what those townships have done, Haeg thinks rental permit legislation is a possible next step.