Democrats maintain supermajority on East Hampton board with councilman's victory

East Hampton Town Democratic Councilman David Lys easily defeated Republican challenger Manny Vilar in a special election for a town board seat, keeping a 5-0 Democratic supermajority in the increasingly blue town.

Lys, 42, of Springs, received 6,177 votes — a record for an East Hampton Town Board candidate — out of 8,909 ballots cast, earning him 69.33 percent of the vote to Vilar’s 30.62 percent, according to unofficial results from the Suffolk County Board of Elections. Lys also appeared on the Working Families line and Vilar on the Conservative line.

He was appointed in January to the seat held by Peter Van Scoyoc, who was elected town supervisor last November. A special election was required to fill the remainder of the four-year term, which expires on Dec. 31, 2019.

“The population understands I’m a good candidate and I am amply qualified,” Lys said Wednesday in a phone interview. “They want to see me keep working for the issues, to keep protecting our unique values, interests and preserve our quality of life.”

Lys fought off a primary challenge in September from David Gruber, the leader of a splinter faction of the local Democratic party known as the East Hampton Reform Democrats, receiving more than 61 percent of the vote in that race. Gruber had criticized Lys, a former Republican, for changing his party affiliation.

“I think the message the voters sent in the primary and in this election is that they have faith in the Democratic agenda and faith in the people we have in office,” said East Hampton Town Democratic Committee chair Cate Rogers.

Registered Democrats in the town have grown to more than 7,600 of its 17,456 registered voters as of October and now outnumber Republicans by a 2-1 margin, according to the Suffolk BOE.

Vilar, 58, of Springs, a senior sergeant with the State Park Police and founding president and current vice president of the Police Benevolent Association of New York State, congratulated Lys on his win and thanked him for a civil campaign. Calling himself a “progressive Teddy Roosevelt Republican,” Vilar said there is little philosophical difference between him and his opponent and that East Hampton voters were likely voting along party lines in a year featuring a congressional race.

Democratic congressional candidate Perry Gershon, of East Hampton, bested incumbent Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley) in all of East Hampton’s 19 election districts, though Zeldin won the seat, which represents a large swath of Suffolk County, with 52.47 percent of the vote to Gershon’s 46.41 percent.

Women’s Equality candidate Kate Browning, who did not actively campaign, received 1.1 percent of the vote, and .01 percent of the remaining ballots were write-ins.

“Unfortunately, when you vote by party affiliation, you’re not giving the candidates their due diligence,” Vilar said.

By Vera Chinese

vera.chinese@newsday.com@VeraChinese

Vera Chinese covers Suffolk County government and politics. She joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.