Town board member opts to run for supervisor on independent line

Huntington Town Board member Gene Cook says he’s running for town supervisor after all.

Cook, 59, said Thursday he will be running in November’s election on the Stop LIPA line.

"Now people will have a choice, this is real democracy," Cook said. "I will put my track record up against anyone who is out there."

He said a grassroots coalition of residents from all party affiliations approached him about running and he agreed. On May 26 a petition with 1,400 signatures, more than what is needed to appear on the ballot for an independent line, was submitted to the Suffolk County Board of Elections, Cook said.

After announcing in a February Facebook Live fundraising event from Oheka Castle that he would be running for town supervisor, Cook dropped out of the race just days later when the Huntington Republican committee announced Town Board Member Edmund Smyth would be their candidate.

At the time of the Smyth announcement, Cook said he supported Smyth and stood by the party’s decision. On Thursday he said he had wanted to be the Republican nominee all along.

"But the Republican leader decided he wanted somebody else instead," Cook said. "But now I have this opportunity."

Huntington Republican Committee Chair Tom McNally declined to comment when reached by phone Thursday.

Cook is a Greenlawn resident who is in his third four-year term on the town board. After years of being an Independence party member he changed his party affiliation to Republican in late 2020.

Running on the Democratic line for Supervisor is Huntington Station resident Rebecca Sanin.