A week after Dan Losquadro won the highway superintendent post in Brookhaven, leaving an open First Assembly District seat, a handful of Republicans have reportedly come forward to fill Losquadro's shoes.
According to County GOP Chair John Jay LaValle, the party will likely start screening candidates next week, with the following names throwing their hats in the ring so far: Southold Councilman Chris Talbot; Bill Faulk, former legislative aide to Ed Romaine; Bob Ghoshio, Southold Town Trustee; and Stephen Kiely and Tony Palumbo, both lawyers on the North Fork.
The special election will be the North Fork's second already in 2013, following a race for County Legislature which saw Democrat Al Krupski gain two-thirds of the vote over Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter.
LaValle said he sees another landslide victory unlikely to happen again.
"I think that was a lot less to do with what we had done positively or negatively as it did to do with the fact that he's a really well-liked guy, and he'd been in office for 20 years. We had Republicans voting for Al because they liked him," LaValle said. "I don't think they have another candidate like that."
Though a date remains uncertain for the next election, Riverhead News-Review reported on Tuesday that May 21 – the day of school budget voting – could be one possibility.
County Democratic Committee Chair Rich Schaffer did not return requests for comment. Newsday did report on Sunday, however, that former Assemblyman Marc Alessi – who lost to Losquadro in 2010 – plans on resigning from his post as Brookhaven Democratic Committee Chair.
