Most winners in Suffolk County Democratic Committee races back party boss challenger
Kathryn Casey Quigley, the Southold Town Democratic committee chair, seeks to replace Rich Schaffer as the Suffolk County Democratic leader. Credit: Tom Lambui
Voters in Tuesday’s primary overwhelmingly supported Suffolk County Democratic Committee members who backed the challenger seeking to unseat longtime party leader Rich Schaffer, a decision that could change the party's direction.
Nearly 90% of the 81 committee member candidates who support challenger Kathryn Casey Quigley, chair of the Southold Town Democratic Committee, won their primary races, according to unofficial results from the Suffolk County Board of Elections.
The results are the latest indication of a political contest testing the power of insurgents over establishment candidates. Casey Quigley said Wednesday morning she views the results as a rebuke of the current party leadership.
"This is a message that our candidates, our committee members can turn out the vote, which is the whole goal of the Democratic Party," she said. "People in the party are hungry for change."
Both sides in recent months have worked to expand their ranks of committee members and recruited supporters to run for the volunteer positions that form the backbone of the party operation. Those committee members organize canvassing efforts, help grow the party's membership rolls and circulate petitions for their preferred candidates.
A total of 81 Democratic committee primary races were contested in election districts across the county, a figure that far exceeds a typical primary. The primaries were held in election districts where more than two candidates received the required signatures to join the committee.
In a statement Wednesday, Schaffer said Suffolk Democrats "are enthused to congratulate" the winners in the congressional primaries, the East Hampton Town supervisor race as well as "all the new Suffolk County Democratic Committee members."
"I’m thrilled with the many primary victories for county committee and I look forward to earning the committee’s support once again," he added. "Now it’s time to continue our focus on the bigger mission at hand: electing Democrats in November."
Tuesday's winners represent a small fraction of the overall number of committee members, but Casey Quigley said the results are "very significant in terms of our ability to win."
The committee members will vote for the party chair in September.
"I really want to emphasize that no matter what, we’ve accomplished great things for the Democratic Party," Casey Quigley said. "So it’s not just about my race. It’s also about the strength of each individual committee in the town."
She said the party previously had about 750 committee members and now will have upward of 1,200.
Schaffer said in an interview last week that he believed he already had enough support to retain the leadership post he’s held since 2000 regardless of the primary outcome.
The outcome of several committee races could still be determined by mail-in and absentee ballots.
In Babylon Town, where Schaffer is the town supervisor and longtime leader of the town Democratic committee, there were nine election districts up for grabs. Six committee members who support Casey Quigley were elected, which she viewed as a sign of her countywide support.
The highest number of committee member races were centered in Huntington Town where the reverberations of last November's town supervisor race and the alleged hijacking of a minority party continue to be felt.
Casey Quigley's team had 54 primary candidates and all but three appeared to win, pending final results from the BOE.
Emily Kaufman of Huntington, an activist and organizer on Long Island, said the results show voters support Casey Quigley’s message "to reform and rebuild the party."
She said the new committee members are building relationships in their elections districts that will help the party in the run-up to November’s general election.
"The get-out-the-vote effort will be so much stronger because we have grassroots connections with our neighbors and that is a result of more people being on the committee, which has been Kathryn’s theory of change from the beginning on why this is so important," she said.
Joe Werkmeister joined Newsday in 2022 and covers Suffolk County government and politics. He is a graduate of St. Bonaventure University and previously worked as the editor of two North Fork community newspapers.
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