GOP, Democratic conventions all set for next week

The Riverhead Republican Committee’s nominating convention — at which the GOP will pick who it wants to run for local public offices — is now scheduled for Thursday, May 19, committee leaders said.

The convention will be held at 7 p.m. at the Elk’s Club on West Main Street in Rivehread, said committee chairman John Galla.

“It was a scheduling conflict, that was basically it,” Mr. Galla had told the News-Review on why the party’s original meeting, which was set for this week, was postponed.

The Republican convention should make for a dramatic night in local politics, in that a sitting Republican councilman, James Wooten, is hoping to win the nomination over incumbent Supervisor Sean Walter to run for the town’s highest office.

And the final results will have much to do with the nominating order. If the committee chooses the supervisor nominee last, and Mr. Wooten had not been previously nominated for a council seat, he could find himself off the GOP slate entirely.

Mr. Galla said the nominating order has yet to be determined.

“That’s what everybody wants to know,” he said.

The Riverhead Democratic Committee convention is scheduled for next Monday, May 16, at The Pizza Pie restaurant in Wading River. Former supervisor Phil Cardinale has said he is screening for supervisor, but has not committed to running for the position.