Few surprises in LI's town races as incumbents win

In a quiet year for town elections, there were no surprises as early returns showed that appointed incumbents were winning an Oyster Bay Town Board seat and the North Hempstead receiver of taxes post.

And in a Shelter Island justice race with no incumbent running, Democrat Faith Healey beat Republican Thomas A. Carr for a four-year term with two of four election districts reporting.

In the lone town board race on Long Island this year, Oyster Bay Town Councilwoman Rebecca Alesia, a Republican, claimed victory over Democrat Donna Lee for a four-year term in a town with a heavy GOP enrollment edge and an all-Republican town board.

"I think the people of Oyster Bay have spoken loudly that they want to continue the trend that Supervisor John Venditto has set forth of good Republican government," Alesia said.

Alesia, 33, of Plainview, was appointed in February to fill a vacancy on the Oyster Bay board after an unsuccessful run for the Nassau County Legislature last fall. A former Nassau County assistant district attorney and Oyster Bay assistant town attorney, she now maintains a private practice. Lee, 51, of Bayville, is a mortgage broker and past president of the Rotary Club of Oyster Bay.

In heavily Democratic North Hempstead, Democrat Charles Berman, who was appointed to fill a vacancy for receiver of taxes, defeated Republican Jeffrey Bass. The contest was for a one-year term to fill the vacancy left last year by the resignation of tax receiver Rocco Iannarelli.

Berman, 55, of North Hills, who was appointed in January, was appointed receiver in 2003 and served for about a year. Bass, 61, of Great Neck, a strategic adviser to business owners, has been a Great Neck village trustee since 2007.

On Shelter Island, Healey, 57, practices law there and is also the executive operations manager for Brookhaven National Laboratory. Carr, 60, is an attorney. He was on the Shelter Island Planning Board from 1997 to 2001.