Rothwell mulling supervisor run in ’26

Council Member Ken Rothwell, who won re-election last month, is considering a run for town supervisor. 

He’s not jumping the gun, even though the dust has barely settled in the 2025 town election. Incredible as it seems, the new year brings a new local election cycle. 

That’s because a state law enacted in 2024 cut the two-year supervisor’s term to one-year in 2025 only, requiring voters to elect a town supervisor again in 2026. That law, known as the Even-Year Election Law, forces the realignment of local elections so that they take place in even-numbered years, to coincide with state and federal elections.

Supervisor-elect Jerry Halpin, who won an upset victory over incumbent Supervisor Tim Hubbard by a mere 37 votes this year, will need to start campaigning for re-election almost immediately upon taking office. The state a few years ago moved the party primary election from September to June. That pushed all the political calendar deadlines up, so that candidates must start circulating nominating petitions in February. 

Rothwell said in an interview today he is considering screening for the supervisor slot when the Riverhead Republican Committee screens prospective candidates. 

“I’m considering my options,” he said. But, he said, he wouldn’t jump in unless he has the committee’s support. “I will honor the committee’s decision,” he said.  In other words, don’t expect him to run a primary to challenge the committee’s pick if it chooses another candidate. “The committee has great people on it and they’re going to look at all the options.”

Rothwell, who placed second in a field of four candidates for two open council seats, said he is mindful of his small margin of victory over the third-place finisher, Mark Woolley. He bested Woolley by only 58 votes, according to final election results published by the Suffolk County Board of Elections.

Hubbard did not respond to a request for comment this afternoon.

Council Member Bob Kern, who was the top vote-getter in the council race but just 78 votes ahead of Rothwell, said he hasn’t given the 2026 election any thought. “I’m just very happy to be continuing the projects I’m working on right now,” Kern said in a phone call today. “That’s where my head is right now.”

Both Kern and Rothwell won three-year terms in November, instead of the usual four-year term, pursuant to the Even Year Election Law. Their terms expire Dec. 31, 2028. The term of office will revert back to four years for the election of 2028.

The seats held by council members Waski and Merrifield will be up for election in 2027. The term of whoever is elected to fill those seats will also be reduced by one year to a three-year term, to align those terms with even-year elections in 2030.

Meanwhile, a federal lawsuit brought in the Eastern District of New York in late October could potentially freeze the implementation of the Even-Year Election Law. The lawsuit, brought by the New York State Republican Committee and several counties and towns, including Riverhead, asks the court to declare the Even-Year Election Law unconstitutional in violation of the First Amendment as well as violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by suppressing local political speech, increasing racial polarization, and undermining the independence of self-government. 

The N.Y. State Attorney General’s office has requested a conference in advance of a planned motion to dismiss. In a letter filed with the court on Monday, the AG spells out four grounds for the dismissal, including: lack of standing, the decision of New York State’s highest court rendered in October, a bar to the First Amendment claim by the 11th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and the complaint’s failure to state a claim. 

The next day, the case was transferred from the assigned magistrate judge to District Judge Joan Azrack.