1st C.D.: Throne-Holst faces heat, delivers pitch at club backing Calone

Southampton Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst walked into a political lion’s den last week by showing up at a meeting of the Three Village Democratic Club, which is strongly backing hometown candidate David Calone in the ongoing battle for the nomination to take on freshman Rep. Lee Zeldin next year.

While Throne-Holst showed up unannounced, she was given a chance to speak to the 35 who showed at the Neighborhood House in East Setauket, where she got polite applause after outlining her background as an educator and town official.

She then took three questions, all dealing with her changes in party registration, most recently from the Independence Party and back to Democratic Party earlier this year. As one club member asked, “Why do you change parties so often?”

In response, Throne-Holst said she has been a Democrat “pretty much my whole life,” but each time repeated virtually the same answer. She said, “I am a Democrat, I’m a registered Democrat. I have run and won on the Democratic line four times; my agenda is a solidly Democratic one. That is who I am and what I’ve represented.”

In one of the follow-up questions, she added, she was the only non-Republican when first elected in Southampton “and now we are a solid majority for a second time.”

Barry McCoy, who presided over the meeting, later described her response as “less than satisfactory” to party activists, those most likely to vote in a primary. A strong Calone supporter, McCoy added, “I could give her a better answer, but I’m not going to do that.”