Four years ago, about this time, I met Dominick Stanzione while reporting on the East Hampton Town elections for a local free weekly. Mr. Stanzione was the most receptive to answering questions as opposed to fellow running rates Bill Wilkinson and Theresa Quigley.
After the landslide election trusted all three of them into Town power the scene at town hall wasn't pretty. The Democrats who had ran town hall were sent running as if being fired at by a scatter gun by the new Republican majority. As they ran from power, or perhaps more accurately as they had town power seized from them, the remaining Democratic Board members watched. What happened next is still the most amazing local political story I have witnessed. That is, how a Town Board can rescue a town, its finances, and lose the people of the town. The only one of the three Republicans still even attempting to be re-elected is Councilman Stanzione.
No question these last 4 years he has been a "swing" vote. Or as he has said, "A voice of reason." But with a Democratic majority coming with the Cantwell Coronation, will his voice of reason be needed, with no swing vote needed. On election night will he be blamed by Republicans for their loss of the whole of town government? Or rewarded by the whole town for being a voice of reason, a swing vote.
When I met Mr. Stanzione 4 years ago he was a humble man. Losing elections is a humbling experience. After Bob Dole lost the Presidential election in a humbling way he said, "Well they still love me in my home town, Lawrence, Kansas, I carried it easily!" He lives mostly in Washington D.C. now.
By the way, my favorite political line was from the late Ed Koch after losing a primary to David Dinkins, when he said, "The people have spoken, and now the people must be punished."
Hopefully with the coming political sea change the residents and voters of East Hampton Town will be rewarded and not punished. Mr. Stanzione no doubt must feel the same way for the town and for himself.
