New Smithtown Democratic leader has daunting challenge in GOP-dominated town

Smithtown Democrats have named Patty Stoddard, a retired math teacher and teachers union leader from Nesconset, as town chairwoman. 

Stoddard, 69, replaced longtime leader Ed Maher and has a job description as daunting as her predecessor’s: get Democrats elected in a town where they have failed to win higher office for more than a decade. 

“We do have some great candidates,” Stoddard said in an interview last week. But “it’s hard to get Democrats to run in Smithtown — people are discouraged.” 

Town Republicans outnumber Democrats 35,845 to 24,076, according to the Suffolk County Board of Elections. Town clerk Vincent Puleo — a Republican — said the last Democrat to win townwide office was councilwoman Patricia Biancanello, who served from 2005 to 2009.

Earlier Democrats to hold office included highway superintendent James Dowling, who served from 1960 to 1998, and Town Supervisor Patrick Vecchio, who was elected as a Democrat from 1977 but became a Republican in 1990. 

In 2017, 2019 and 2021 races for town board and town supervisor, Democrats lost to Republicans by margins ranging from roughly 30 to more than 50 points. Some of their candidates had barely campaigned.

Stoddard mounted a bona fide campaign but lost a bid for town council in 2017, trailing her nearest Republican opponent, Thomas McCarthy, by about 3,000 votes. 

In 2022, state campaign finance records show the Smithtown Town Democratic Committee has raised $5,183.04 in contributions and spent $2,566.94; the Smithtown Republican Victory Fund has raised $22,501 and spent $17,876.56. 

Against those odds, Stoddard said town Democrats will devote some of their efforts to helping candidates elsewhere on Long Island, rather than long shot races at home.

“Instead of promoting candidates we put out just for the sake of getting people to run, we decided to put effort into neighboring towns,” she said, citing races in Islip and Jackie Gordon’s 2nd Congressional District race. “Hopefully, if we can get more Democrats elected in neighboring areas, it will give more confidence to Democrats in Smithtown to get out there and make a change.” 

Lawrence Levy, executive dean of Hofstra University’s National Center for Suburban Studies, said Stoddard’s path would be difficult: “I can’t imagine a tougher job in local politics. The suburbs, on Long Island and around the country, have been trending Democratic for a generation, at least in terms of party enrollment and national and state elections. But Smithtown is more like my mother and father‘s suburbs of the '50s and '60s, still a very strong bastion of Republican support.”

Stoddard, of Nesconset, said the town had not been served well by one-party rule, citing rapid-fire adoption of resolutions with little or no discussion at town board meetings and the award this fall of a town catering contract to a deli owner with ties to Rep. Lee Zeldin, the GOP nominee for governor.

Republican Town Supervisor Edward Wehrheim said his administration worked “for the taxpaying residents of the town, regardless of their political affiliation,” and that he would happily work with any Democrats elected to office. The catering contract was awarded after a committee of town officials reviewed proposals from potential contractors, he said.

By Nicholas Spangler

nicholas.spangler@newsday.comspanglernewsday

Nicholas Spangler is a general assignment reporter and has worked at Newsday since 2010.