Walter ally Coates: Election debacle ‘a complete rejection’ of town board’s governance

Embattled Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter, who has been at odds — often quite publicly — with members of the town board and the Riverhead Republican party leadership for most of his three years in office, has now sustained a shot to the bow by his closest ally, a man he considers a good personal friend, and paid political consultant.

Anthony Coates sent out a press release early Wednesday morning calling Walter’s miserable performance in Tuesday’s special legislative election a referendum on the leadership of the supervisor, the entire town board and the Riverhead Republican party.

“I love Sean personally, he has done great things for Riverhead, but this is a complete rejection of the governance of this town board and the pettiness of Riverhead politics. Things have to change,” Coates wrote in a press release sent out by email at 6:25 Wednesday morning.

Walter hadn’t seen the release before it was distributed. Informed of it by RiverheadLOCAL when a reporter called for a comment, he blurted out, “Are you freaking kidding me?”

The supervisor said he was shocked that Coates would issue such a statement. He disagreed with his longtime political strategist’s “take on things.”

It’s certainly not the morning-after spin you’d expect a campaign strategist to put on the dismal election result.

“There is no way to shine this shoe,” Coates wrote in the press release.

But Coates recently moved from his behind-the-scenes role in Riverhead politics to the public stage. In November, the freshly minted Republican — he switched party enrollment from Democrat to Republican last summer —  announced his candidacy for Riverhead Town councilman in November. The terms of two incumbent Republicans — John Dunleavy and Jodi Giglio — are up this year. Coates has publicly criticized Giglio, who has been one of Walter’s chief antagonists on the board. Their disagreements, sometimes erupting into arguments, have led to several rather unusual events in and around town hall — including the supervisor reading from his Bible at town board meetings to apologize for his behavior toward Giglio and Giglio filing a harassment report about the supervisor with Riverhead Town Police.

Candidate Coates, Walter said, “is trying to distance himself from me.”

“Honestly I think he’s reading way more into this than there was,” Walter said yesterday. “But if that’s his take on things, Anthony Coates may be standing alone himself very shortly.”

Coates managed Walter’s two campaigns for supervisor and was “the brains and the chief strategist” in the special election campaign, Walter told RiverheadLOCAL in a pre-election interview last weekend. He has been Walter’s go-to guy for messaging throughout his time in office, helping him write speeches. He’s been at his side for important meetings with state lawmakers and others, traveling to Hauppauge and Albany with the supervisor.

Coates’ role in the Walter administration has angered board members, since he is not a town employee. Walter twice proposed Coates for two different town jobs. Once he brought to a vote of the board a resolution appointing Coates as a lobbyist for the Calverton enterprise park project; it failed. Coates has been on Walter’s political campaign payroll since his first supervisor campaign, receiving a stipend of $1,000 per month from the supervisor’s campaign committee.

Tuesday night, during his concession speech at Cody’s BBQ, where Republicans had set up camp to watch the poll returns come in, Walter singled out Coates and Charles Sclafani, of Wading River, as the two people who ran his campaign. He thanked them both for their efforts.

“Wow,” Walter said Wednesday morning. “I’m shocked. I’m just shocked.”

“But you can’t read into the results of a special election what might happen to me in the supervisor’s race in November,” said Walter, who yesterday reiterated his intention to run for a third term.

But Coates is not alone in his assessment of Walter’s electoral chances this November. Others, including members of Walter’s own party and members of the town board, echoed his remarks, though not all would speak for the record.

Councilman James Wooten, who briefly challenged Walter for the nomination in 2011, but backed down, and is open about his desire to run for supervisor this year, said Walter’s showing at the polls Tuesday on his failure to resonate with the electorate.

“The bottom line is Al Krupski resoundingly won because of his character, because of his bipartisanship, and because of his being a good guy,” Wooten said yesterday.

Wooten said he though Coates was just trying to deflect blame for the loss.

“Any problem he sees with the petty politics in Riverhead has every bit to do with him [Coates]. All he’s doing is pointing the finger at himself,” Wooten said.

Dunleavy bristled at Coates’ swipe at the town board. It’s wrong to say Walter’s loss Tuesday was a rejection of the town board, Dunleavy said in an interview last night.

“Tony wants to run and I think he’s just being negative to us on the board for his own purposes,” Dunleavy said.

“A lot of the difficulty on the town board originates from Sean,” Dunleavy said. “I like Sean and I think he’s trying to do the right thing for the taxpayers of this town,” he said.

Dunleavy said he helped Sean in the legislative campaign, putting up signs and arranging a meet-and-greet in the Foxwood community where Dunleavy lives. It’s located in one of three election districts in Riverhead the supervisor carried Tuesday night.

Walter’s campaign lacked support “on the ground” from the Riverhead Republican party, Dunleavy said. “He needed to have people out walking, handing out literature, standing in front of stores and post offices, working for the candidate,” Dunleavy said. “I don’t think that happened,” he said.

“The Republicans didn’t get the Republicans out to vote in Riverhead,” Dunleavy said.

Walter himself, during his concession speech, made a point of thanking party leaders and elected officials from Brookhaven, Smithtown and Huntington for their help making calls, knocking on doors and handing out literature. He didn’t mention Riverhead Republican leadership in the speech.

Riverhead Republican chairman John Galla could not be reached for comment.

Photo captions: 1. Coates, left, and Walter look at election results being reported on the Suffolk County Board of Elections website Tuesday night at Cody’s BBQ. 2. Coates chats with an unidentified man at Cody’s while Walter takes in results.

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