Rothwell likely to get GOP nod for supervisor, as Dems await word from Halpin on re-election bid

The next local election season is already underway, even though the last one is barely over. 

Council Member Ken Rothwell, who said in December he was considering a run for supervisor, is the likely Republican nominee for the job in the 2026 election.

Rothwell, who was elected to a second term as town council member, in November, was the only prospective supervisor candidate to be screened by the Riverhead Republican Committee last Saturday. 

Former Supervisor Tim Hubbard, who lost the 2025 election by just 37 votes and who previously left the door open to running again, said today he’s decided against it.

“I am comfortably enjoying retirement and have no current plans to run for any office,” Hubbard said in a text message this afternoon.

Newly elected Supervisor Jerry Halpin, who won an upset victory over Hubbard in November by a razor-thin margin, has said he will not decide whether to seek another term as supervisor until sometime in February.

That’s all the time he’s got to decide, because New York State in 2019 moved the party primary election from September to June. The move pushed all the political calendar deadlines up, so that candidates must start gathering signatures on their party designating petitions beginning Feb. 25 this year. 

Halpin was elected to a one-year term in November because a state law enacted in 2024 cut the two-year supervisor’s term to one-year in 2025, 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.

The Riverhead Republican Committee is scheduled to meet Wednesday evening for the purpose of selecting its 2026 supervisor candidate, committee vice chairperson Victor Prusinowski said. Committee members may nominate someone other than Rothwell, the screening committee’s choice, but committee members would most likely stand behind the screening committee’s recommendation. A “floor fight” for a party nomination is a rare event in town politics. 

The Riverhead Town Democratic Committee has not scheduled any interviews and has not picked a date for its meeting to vote on a candidate, committee chairperson Laura Jens-Smith said.

“We’re waiting on Jerry [Halpin] for confirmation on whether he will run again,” Jens-Smith said. “Hopefully we’ll know within the next week or so.”

Halpin did not respond to a message seeking comment about the upcoming election.

Rothwell said in a phone interview today he thought the screening last week went well. “I got a nice reception,” he said. “I still have to be nominated at the convention. I’m looking forward to having the support of the committee,” he said.

“I am excited about it. I intend to put my heart and soul into the race,” Rothwell said. “I’m proud of the work we’ve done and what we can do in the future.”

Rothwell, the owner and operator of several funeral homes in the area, said his business experience is very important. “You watch every dollar that comes in and you don’t spend more than you take in,” he said.  “The town has to operate as a business.”

The town “can’t afford to borrow money or raise taxes,” Rothwell said.

The supervisor and town board must look at each department individually, he said. 

Recreation programs that run at a deficit every year should be eliminated, for example, he said.  “The building department should be self-sustaining. It should bring in enough money to cover the costs,” he said. “Same with the sewer dept.”

Rothwell said he believes the town can raise revenues with “smart growth that will increase our tax base and alleviate the tax burdens on homeowners, without compromising our quality of life or our agricultural heritage.”

He believes EPCAL is the place for that kind of growth and that the town should be working now on what it will do with the vacant land it owns at the former Grumman site and not wait until the lawsuit brought by Triple Five affiliate Calverton Aviation and Technology is resolved. Rothwell said he thinks the town would be better off subdividing the land, a path pursued by the town over a decade ago, then abandoned with the decision to sell the balance of the town’s land to Luminati Aerospace. 

“I don’t think one entity will create a balanced development there,” he said.

In addition, Rothwell said, the town should look at how to allow more development opportunities within the subdivision at EPCAL developed by Jan Burman, to whom the town sold the site’s industrial core years ago. 

“The supervisor is chief financial officer of the town and is ultimately responsible for its management,” Rothwell said. “I think I’d be able to do this better than Jerry Halpin.”