Cardinale Nominated to Lead Dems; Williams and Van Glad for Council

The Riverhead Democratic Committee nominated former Supervisor Phil Cardinale on Monday night to lead the ticket for the party in the fall.

But in a surprise turn of events at the Pizza Pie in Wading River, the Democrats saw a three-way race for two town council seats. While Ron Hariri had been chosen by the party's screening committee for the nomination, Matthew Van Glad challenged and beat Hariri in a three-way race, as party favorite Marlando Williams took the most weighted votes out of the three.

Van Glad was originally nominated for supervisor from the floor earlier in the night, though he said in a speech he would not seek the seat if Cardinale was "more sensitive to the needs of those who are struggling in town." Feeling Cardinale heard the message from him, he withdrew his name for supervisor. 

Of 22 Democratic election districts in Riverhead, not all have equal weight in the voting process when nominating a candidate. According to a representative of the Suffolk County Board of Elections, each district is weighted with the number of voters — of any party —  who voted for Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the last election.

Williams finished with 4,341.5 weighted votes. Van Glad received 3,419.5. Hariri received 912.5.

Butch Langhorne, former chairman of the Riverhead Democrats, spoke to the crowd of roughly 40 committee members and said he was prepared to support Hariri for supervisor, despite having supported Cardinale through three elections in the past during his tenure as party chair. 

When asked if he could explain why he hadn't supported Cardinale, Langhorne said, "I had several reasons, but I don't want to go into them. It's over."

Cardinale told the committee that in his run against sitting Supervisor Sean Walter — who defeated Cardinale by 249 votes in 2009 — he won't have to be "nasty." 

"All his fellow board members have already said that for me," he said. 

Cardinale may face off in a primary if Calverton resident Greg Fischer stays true to his word. In an email early Monday morning, Fischer said, "I am getting ready for a primary ... I do not think they will pick me and I will have to do my usual fight (or maybe a little more since I am more experienced now)."

Fischer ran a primary campaign in 2007 for town council, losing to Amy Csorny and George Bartunek.

Incumbent Town Clerk Diane Wilhelm was nominated to defend her seat and Evan Philcox was nominated for town assessor. 

The Democrats left open one assessor seat and the town judge seat. Party Chairman Vinny Villella said he would give Hariri the opportunity to seek the judge seat. If he chooses to pass, the justice nomination would go to Robert Svoboda; should Hariri run for judge, Svoboda would receive the nod for the other assessor seat.