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Excerpts from: 'Race for Brookhaven Town Supervisor Heats Up' * Newsday.com

BY PATRICK WHITTLE
patrick.whittle@newsday.com

December 4, 2008

The race for supervisor of Brookhaven Town is shaping up as a battle between a veteran town councilman and an assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the high-profile Muttontown slavery case.

The councilman, Republican Timothy Mazzei of Blue Point, and the prosecutor, Democrat Mark Lesko of East Setauket, are the two most likely candidates to duel for the spot when Supervisor Brian X. Foley resigns early next year, sources from both parties said. Foley, a Democrat, is leaving to become a state senator.

Leaders of both parties said they intend to nominate their candidates at formal conventions in January. A special election is on tap for March or early April.

Brookhaven Republican Party chairman Jesse Garcia said the "emergence of Tim Mazzei's interest" in the post has "energized and united" the GOP in "a way that is dramatic."

Mazzei, 54, is a five-year councilman who has a private law practice in Blue Point. Mazzei grew in power last year when the GOP won a 4-3 majority on Brookhaven's fractious town board, on which he serves as the most senior Republican.

He said he would seek "to continue the economic conservatism that the town board has ushered in the last year."