Cardinale may face rematch with Walter

Riverhead's Democrats again picked Phil Cardinale, 62, to run for office, setting the stage for a rematch between the former town supervisor and Sean Walter, who defeated him two years ago.

Town Republicans still have to formally name Walter as the GOP candidate when they meet Thursday night. However, the only major threat to his selection vanished Saturday when Republican Town Councilman James Wooten pulled out of the contest.

Walter and Wooten each had vowed to run a primary if he were not chosen. Both also submitted their resumes to the Democratic Party, although they said they were not seriously considering changing parties.

Meantime, minutes after being chosen to run for his old job, Cardinale was quick to point out the heated rhetoric from the other side of the political aisle.

"Ill-tempered, immature, paranoid . . . I'm not saying that. The members of his own party are saying that" about Walter, Cardinale told several dozen Democratic committee members who gathered Monday night at a pizza parlor in Wading River. "You can't dismiss polo matches and dismiss an Indian casino and insult them if . . . there is any hope of you reducing your taxes."

Walter said Cardinale's charges were "an old chapter in his playbook . . . elections are about moving forward, about the future, not the past. If you look at the direction Cardinale took this town, it was not a good direction."

Wooten, in a statement, said he was happy to run again for town board. "At this time, it's important that we all stand together over the next few months and truly lead this town. The bomb-throwing and infighting must subside," he said.

Cardinale noted that a new hotel is opening on Main Street in downtown Riverhead, and there are several other signs of improvements in the local economy. He said the projects were planned and financed before Walter took office 17 months ago.

Riverhead's 2,900-acre Enterprise Park at Calverton is widely seen as the place where the rural town's economy will grow. However, in January, the current all-Republican town board threw out a dozen years of studies and zoning changes at the site, saying hundreds of acres of land zoned for recreational use would never be developed.

Since then, several development plans have been proposed for the town, including a casino, a massive polo complex and 400 units of housing.

The Democrats also selected newcomers Marlando Williams, 48, and Matthew Van Glad, 39, to run for town board. Van Glad was picked by the committee instead of Ron Hariri, the choice of the party's screening committee.

Some in the audience had complained that Hariri is still a registered Republican. Hariri said he had applied to change his party affiliation, but that it would not take effect until after the November election.