Edward Romaine gets Brookhaven supervisor nod

Shrugging off earlier equivocation about his re-election prospects, Brookhaven Supervisor Edward P. Romaine accepted the town Republican party's nomination Monday night.

"I look forward to not only running, but winning and serving with this ticket, and making sure the taxpayers of Brookhaven Town are protected," Romaine said to scores of attendees at GOP party headquarters in Medford.

"Never have we had a slate of more qualified, dedicated, committed elected officials and future elected officials in the Town of Brookhaven," said Brookhaven Republican chairman Jesse Garcia as the convention kicked off. After the convention, Garcia predicted a "full Republican sweep."

Since Romaine was elected to serve the remainder of former supervisor Mark Lesko's term, he has cracked down on illegal student housing and focused on green energy initiatives.

The first five months of Romaine's term were also marked by criticism of his absence during a February blizzard that dumped up to 3 feet of snow around town. While blaming the town highway department for poor snow cleanup, Romaine apologized afterward for not cutting short his vacation in Jamaica during the blizzard's aftermath, musing, at the time, about whether he would run again.

Despite the public criticism of his candidate over the blizzard response, Garcia said Monday that Romaine has "outstanding popularity among the electorate."

Brookhaven Democrats nominated former Suffolk lawmaker Vivian Viloria-Fisher to run against Romaine, her former colleague in the legislature.

Freshly minted town highway superintendent Dan Losquadro was also renominated by the Republicans. Losquadro defeated town trustee Kathleen Walsh in a bitter race for the highway leadership seat in March.

Losquadro hailed the nomination as a "tremendous opportunity for me" and the ticket, saying, "I could not be more proud of a group of people with private-sector and public-sector, real-world experience to get the job done."

Other Republican nominees include former Port Jefferson village trustee Leslea Snyder, who will run for the vacated First District seat against civil rights attorney Valerie M. Cartright of Port Jefferson Station. Current Democrat trustee Steve Fiore-Rosenfeld has announced he would not seek re-election.

Kevin LaValle, brother of Suffolk GOP chairman John Jay LaValle, is running for Walsh's seat. Michael Loguercio of the Longwood school board is running for Connie Kepert's seat.

Rounding out the GOP slate are incumbent Councilwoman Jane Bonner, Tim Mazzei and Dan Panico.