Huntington's deputy supervisor wins town's top job; Guadron widens lead for historic Islip council seat

As Election Day slipped into Wednesday morning, Democrat Jorge Guadron was poised to become the first Hispanic councilman in Islip Town history after he consolidated a wide lead against Republican Manuel Troche.

In one of the county’s most closely watched races, a three-way contest for Huntington Town supervisor, Deputy Supervisor Edmund Smyth, a Republican, won by significant margins over Democrat Rebecca Sanin, a former assistant deputy county executive. Eugene Cook, a town board member running as an independent, trailed them both.

A handful of other town supervisor races pitted veteran incumbents against sometimes longshot challengers. The incumbents won, in some cases by large margins. In Smithtown, Supervisor Edward Wehrheim, with decades of experience in government as a staffer and elected official, defeated Democrat Maria Scheuring, a lawyer who has criticized Wehrheim’s openness to apartments in the Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge and other areas of the town.

In Babylon Town, longtime Supervisor Rich Schaffer, the county Democratic chairman, beat Republican Dan Martin, an accountant who proposed eliminating the town’s communications department and changing Babylon’s at-large council to district-based.

East Hampton Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc, a Democrat who has served 21 years in town government, defeated Republican Kenneth Walles and Councilman Jeffrey Bragman, a Democrat running on the Independence Party line.

Longtime Babylon Councilman and Deputy Supervisor Antonio Martinez’s political career hung in the balance of a three-way race for two town council seats. Votes were still being tallied, with Martinez and Republican Kevin Sabella Jr. in a tight battle for second place and Anthony Manetta, an unaffiliated incumbent, apparently assured of first.

The Huntington race opened in February after Supervisor Chad Lupinacci said he would not seek reelection.

"I know the departments, I know the strengths and weaknesses in the various departments," Smyth said at the time, kicking off his campaign just hours after Lupinacci’s announcement.

Smyth could not be reached Tuesday.

In Islip Town, where settlement of a federal voting rights lawsuit last year led to the creation of council districts, two council seats will be filled and represent Brentwood, North Bay Shore and part of Central Islip.

Troche, senior production manager for a road-marking materials manufacturer, said that if elected he would be a "bridge" between those communities, where most of the town’s 113,000 Hispanics live, and institutions like fire and police departments, churches and government.

"For the first time, we’re actually going to have the first Latino that cares about this community," Troche said. Whatever the result, though, "I want to thank everyone on my team for what they’ve done, and for being part of history."

A spokeswoman for Guadron could not be reached Tuesday.

Islip’s other council race, for District 2, pitted Democrat Darrin Green against Republican Councilman James P. O’Connor.