Southampton, NY and its crazy, crazy local elections

xavier110

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Wednesday August 19, 2009 · 4:20 PM PDT

2009/08/19 · 16:20

Southampton, NY always is involved in fascinating political races.

In 2002, Southampton resident Tim Bishop (NY-01) fought what has been called one of the ten most vicious political campaigns in American history to dethrone the Republican incumbent, former Congressman Felix Grucci.

In 2007, a diary here reported of one of the craziest local elections in recent history--one that involved lots of backstabbing and ended in total confusion--the race for Town Supervisor. Alex Gregor, the Independent, took votes that likely would have gone to the Democrat, Jim Henry. The Conservative candidate and incumbent, "Skip" Heaney, who had, and still has, something of a stranglehold on the Southampton Republican Party, split the vote with Republican moderate Linda Kabot after a bruising and close primary. The party establishment desperately wanted Heaney to win. In the end, it looked like a dead-heat between Kabot and Henry; absentee ballots would decide the winner. The final results were: Kabot (R) 32.8% Henry (D) 32.42% Heaney (C) 29.18% Gregor (I) 5.6%

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