The most hotly contested races on the East End this November will be for the New York State Legislature, with the retirement of longtime First District Assemblyman Fred Thiele and a challenge to State Senator Anthony Palumbo from Sarah Anker, a former Suffolk County Legislator who fought hard to maintain an edge in the legislature as a Democrat in an Republican-leaning district.

State Senate

This year’s race for the New York State Senate’s First Senatorial District pits incumbent State Senator Anthony Palumbo, a Republican from New Suffolk on the North Fork, against Democrat Sarah Anker, a former Suffolk County Legislator from Mount Sinai. The district comprises all five East End towns and the North Shore portion of Brookhaven.

Read Our Candidate Profiles:

Sarah Anker

For Sarah Anker, who was elected as a Democrat seven times in a predominantly Republican Sixth Suffolk County Legislative District, affordability, public safety, drug addiction treatment and clean water are top priorities. Read More.

Anthony Palumbo

As a member since 2021 of the minority party in a chamber now dominated by a supermajority of Democrats, Mr. Palumbo sees his role in the State Senate as providing a check on the most extreme policies of the Democrats. Read More

State Assembly

First Assembly District

With the retirement at the end of this year of State Assemblyman Fred Thiele, the race to represent Southold, Shelter Island, East Hampton and much of Southampton in the State Assembly is between two politicians with deep local ties — Democratic Southampton Town Councilman Tommy John Schiavoni and Republican Stephen Kiely, who currently serves as the Shelter Island Town Attorney.

Read Our Candidate Profiles:

Stephen Kiely

Stephen Kiely, who lives in Mattituck, has worked in the town attorney’s office in Southampton, Southold and Brookhaven towns before taking on his current position on Shelter Island. Mr. Kiely, who ran as a Republican for Southold Town Board on a platform of “Keep it Rural” in 2023, is continuing that message in his State Assembly campaign. Read More.

Tommy John Schiavoni

Now in his second term as a Democratic Southampton Town Councilman, Tommy John Schiavoni is a retired history and government teacher in the Center Moriches School District. He lives in Sag Harbor, where he worked in his family’s plumbing business as a teenager and during his early career. He also served as a member of the Sag Harbor Volunteer Fire Department and the Sag Harbor School Board before taking town office. Read More.

Second Assembly District

Jodi Giglio & Tricia Chiaramonte

Incumbent Republican State Assemblywoman Jodi Giglio has represented the Second Assembly District since 2020, an area that currently comprises Riverhead Town and parts of Brookhaven, but no longer includes Flanders and Riverside this cycle.

Prior to her election to the State Assembly, Ms. Giglio was a Riverhead Councilwoman for 10 years.

Taking office in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, Ms. Giglo focused early in her time in office on reopening schools and businesses,  and on getting to the bottom of nursing home deaths early in the pandemic. 

She has also been an advocate for repeal of the state Democratic majority’s bail reform laws, and often speaks about her support for law enforcement and the Second Amendment.

She has been an advocate locally for farmland preservation and protecting the waterways surrounding the East End, and worked to create the state Mobile and Manufactured Home Task Force to  advocate for people living in mobile home communities. 

Ms. Giglio, a builder by trade, is a member of Local 138 of the International Union of Operating Engineers.

Her Democratic opponent,Tricia Chiaramonte of Manorville, has no campaign finance disclosures on file with the state and “is not running an active campaign,” according to Suffolk County Democrats. Ms. Chiaramonte is the Deputy Director of Human Resources at the Suffolk County Regional Off-Track Betting Corporation.

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