LaValle eyes return to elected office

Suffolk Republican chairman John Jay LaValle said he's thinking about running for Brookhaven highway superintendent next year after the incumbent, John Rouse, becomes a county court judge.

"It's an intriguing idea," said LaValle, the town's former supervisor, noting that a number of Republicans have approached him about returning to elected office. "It's something I'm potentially interested in."

LaValle said he's taking the idea seriously in part because Suffolk Democratic chairman Richard Schaffer returned as Babylon supervisor after a decade on the sidelines. "I'm going by the Schaffer plan," LaValle said.

But Brookhaven, unlike Babylon, has an ethics-code provision barring high-level party officers from serving simultaneously as elected officials. Some question the provision's constitutionality.

-- Rick Brand