The political ‘silly season’ just got sillier

This was a first in at least three-plus decades of Riverhead history. 

One party’s entire slate of Town Board candidates boycotted the Greater Jamesport Civic Association’s candidates night, bellyaching that the civic association’s president also chairs the opposing political party’s committee. That would make the forum “inherently biased” against them. It was unfair. It was unethical. It was so offensive they had to sit it out. Besides, according to the town supervisor, their time is better spent tending to the people’s business, as they were elected to do.

And so, the first candidates forum of Riverhead’s 2025 “silly season” took place with three empty chairs where the derrières of the Republican incumbent Town Board members would have been parked in more ordinary times.

Their Democratic opponents in the upcoming election attended the forum, which was, as usual,  a pretty low-key affair, save some tough talk by an animated, energetic council candidate who’s spent most of his career in Republican state and federal politics. 

The challengers, if you will, answered several questions over the course of about an hour, each responding to the same query in their allotted time. Questions were read by the civic association’s vice president Steve Green; they were submitted to the association by its members in advance of the forum. 

The president of the civic, Laura Jens-Smith, who also chairs the town Democratic Committee and served one term as town supervisor (2018-2019) — the person whose role in the civic made the forum “inherently biased” — was in the audience, seated in the very last row. She didn’t address the meeting or make her presence known in any obvious way. You’d have a hard time convincing me she’s a “svengali” who dominates, manipulates and controls the civic and its candidates forum. In fact, you’d have a hard time convincing me she dominates, manipulates or controls the town’s Democratic committee. She’s the most “hands-off” political leader I’ve ever encountered. 

Besides, the civic’s membership is anything but a bunch of lefties. Their community — like most of this town — is an overwhelmingly Republican place. Enrollment in the three election districts that comprise “Greater Jamesport” is roughly 2-1 Republican to Democrat. 

But I digress. I guess I’m still trying to figure out why — what’s the point of this boycott? Because I don’t really believe the reasons stated. A civic president’s community involvement outside the civic has never been a problem in the past. Jens-Smith was president of the civic and Democratic Committee chairperson in 2023. The candidates forum in 2023 was also low-key, as usual. And there were no complaints about bias in how it was conducted.

I think there’s more to it. Something along the lines of punishment for the civic associations taking very strong stands against certain land-use initiatives advanced by the Town Board. In some people’s minds, if you complain too much, or even ask too many questions, you become “the enemy.” 

Or maybe the incumbents just can’t be bothered because they’re confident they’ve got this one in the bag — just like most other local elections in Riverhead Town throughout the town’s history.

And if that’s what they’re thinking, they’re probably right. Two of their three Democratic opponents are politically inexperienced. One, Kevin Shea, is endorsed by the Long Island Democratic Socialists, which is pretty much the kiss of death for a candidate in a town like Riverhead. The other, Jerry Halpin, who is the Democrats’ supervisor candidate, is the pastor of a church. Both Halpin and Shea are soft-spoken and personable. Their grasp of the issues seems light. It’s not clear what their platforms are — and I use the plural here because Halpin is clear that he does not share Shea’s political leanings in any way. 

Their one experienced candidate, Mark Woolley — who also happens to be brother of the incumbent supervisor’s wife — has spent decades working for Republican elected officials in state and federal governments, including as a key aide to congressmen Rick Lazio, Mike Forbes (before he switched his enrollment to Democrat and got himself un-elected), Lee Zeldin and the infamous George Santos. 

Woolley dismisses criticism working for the notorious fraudster Santos. He did it out of his passion for public service, he says.  

“I went out there to work for George Santos because nobody else would,” he said last night. “And he had people out there yelling and screaming about getting no services from this congressional district.” 

Woolley said he was getting ready to retire. (Zeldin had decided to run for governor instead of for re-election in NY-1.) “It’s kind of a God thing,” Woolley said. “He’s actually calling me to go,” he said he realized. He’d never met Santos before taking the job as his district manager. “I told him flat out: ‘I really don’t want to know what’s going on with you, but I know one thing, you need to have someone run this office and provide services. And that’s what I do. I provide services.’”

Woolley is tough-talking and full of bluster, clearly the spark plug on the ticket and a sharp contrast to his laid-back running mates — if they can even be called running mates. They make no pretense of running as a team.

It was obvious that last night’s forum would have been more interesting and meaningful had the Republican incumbents shown up. 

Despite the well-advertised Republican no-show, about 75 people showed up at the Jamesport Meeting House to hear what the candidates for office had to say. In addition, the event was covered by three different local news organizations, so last night’s discussion will reach many more people than those civic members who attended. 

I’m still struggling to understand their motivation. Did they want to avoid questions? Do they simply think these forums are a waste of their valuable time? Whatever it was, they capitulated and agreed to attend the joint Calverton/Wading River forum on Oct. 16. That’s good. But whatever motivated this stunt, it just comes across as arrogant — especially when you consider that it took certified letters to elicit any responses at all from the three incumbents asking for our votes this November.  

Whatever their motivation, it’s a disservice to the taxpaying voters and a disservice to the political process itself.

A complete audio recording of the forum will be uploaded to this website shortly.