John Leonard Drops Out of Southampton Town Council Race; Democratic Committee Will Have Opportunity to Appoint Replacement Candidate - 27 East
logo logo logo logo

Government / News / Southampton Press / 2349507

John Leonard Drops Out of Southampton Town Council Race; Democratic Committee Will Have Opportunity to Appoint Replacement Candidate

icon 2 Photos
John Leonard.

John Leonard.

Rick Martel, who won the March 18 special election, was sworn in to a seat on the Southampton Town Board on April 3. DANA SHAW

Rick Martel, who won the March 18 special election, was sworn in to a seat on the Southampton Town Board on April 3. DANA SHAW

authorMichael Wright on Apr 7, 2025
John Leonard, a Democratic candidate for one of two Town Council seats on the ballot in November, said on Monday that he is dropping out of the race and will... more

You May Also Like:

Hand-Wrestling With God

I never thought I would see this story, and as a nine-page article no less, in the current April issue of the esteemed and influential magazine Scientific American. “A Softer Corps” is the headline. The subhead: “The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has uncharacteristically been working with nature instead of bulldozing it into submission. Will this enlightened approach prevail?” So the piece would not be missed, it is flagged on the cover of Scientific American with: “Reinventing the Army Corps of Engineers.” When I began as a journalist based in Suffolk County in 1962, the Army Corps was promoting a ... by Karl Grossman

No Surprise

The Southampton Press recently reported that employee files were left unsecured at the Village Department of Public Works barn, a serious lapse that village employees say included private and HIPAA-protected health information and resident files [“Southampton Village Union Alleges Mishandling of Sensitive Employee Records,” 27east.com, April 2]. While disturbing, this news should not come as a surprise. During my tenure, I repeatedly sounded the alarm about incompetent and ineffectual management at the top of the Public Works Department. Today, the department is led by a superintendent hand-picked by Bill Manger, a person whose compensation package totals $227,463. With that level ... by Staff Writer

Stop the Torment

Last week’s article outlining the delays associated with the Shinnecock Nation gas station is disturbing [“Shinnecock Say Town Reviving Abandoned Deal to Derail Tribal Land Purchase,” 27east.com, April 6]. How much more can we do to these people? This is their land. Long before any of us got here. They have lost the land, had it stolen from them or manipulated from them for centuries. The government took their land and then named it the Shinnecock Canal, almost to torment them. The U.S. government has stated that the Shinnecock Nation is a free and independent nation, almost like another state ... by Staff Writer

Losing Connection

As a public librarian for more than 45 years, I have struggled with wringing sufficient funds from my municipality, along with a pitiful pro-rated stipend from my province, to keep my small-town library operational. Not once throughout my career did we ever get a penny of support from our federal government [“Institutions React to Federal Cuts to Institute of Museum and Library Services,” 27east.com, April 3]. After I retired, I do believe some of my staff, working in collaboration with librarians across Canada, may have been given stipends to further develop the groundbreaking and inexpensive software they created, enabling them ... by Staff Writer

Do Something

Something must come to fruition in Southampton Town Hall. At numerous meetings over months and months, and years, the same stuff is discussed over and over, but there is never a conclusion. Something should be finalized. The first time I heard about a sewage treatment plant coming to Flanders was in 1966. That’s 59 years ago. There’s still no plant. Bel-Aire Cove property: Thanks to the town for removing the motel, but now it’s a vacant piece of property with a fence around, making it look like a Superfund site. It was supposed to become a park. Why is the ... by Staff Writer

Road Woes

I’m Route 27 east-west from the end of Southampton Village all the way to Montauk. I was built about 100 years ago. I used to run through broad stretches of verdant farm fields all the way to Wainscott and eastward through quaint New England-style hamlets. The insatiable lust for land to develop has pretty much wiped that out over the past 40 to 50 years — and with that my tale of woe starts. When I was built back in the 1920s, I was state-of-the-art. The communities I served all the way to Montauk were sleepy little country villages. By ... by Staff Writer

Turned His Back

The March 20 Southampton Press front-page story, “Riverside Sewer Project Is Among Local Work Impacted by Federal Cuts,” is instructive. Reporter Michael Wright informs readers that it was “mostly Republican-led spending cuts.” The vote to pass the 2025 Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, which was the legislative vehicle to cut money from the Riverside and other important East End projects, was approved in the House of Representatives by a vote of 217-213. All but one of the Republicans voted to cut community project funding. All but one of the Democrats voted to keep and continue funding. Our congressman, Nick LaLota, ... by Staff Writer

Artificial Affiliations

On Saturday, I attended a “Hands Off” rally in Florida. I later watched the coverage on TV of the other rallies around the United States. Hundreds of thousands of Americans came together to peacefully protest many of the policies, intrusions and lawlessness of the second Donald Trump administration, and especially the Department of Government Efficiency. There were no Democrat signs, nor any signs bashing Republicans, at the Florida rally. When I spoke to other Florida protesters and listened to the protesters interviewed on television, it was apparent that people came together for the sake of all fellow Americans. People waved ... by Staff Writer

Tilting at All the Windmills

The “Tilting at Windmills” column first appeared in this paper six years ago last month. Happy anniversary to me! Time flies when you’re having fun, and it’s been a blast drafting such entertaining (at least to me) 900 words every four, five or six weeks — depending on how many wise columnists the fine folks at The Express News Group had on rotation. Wait, why didn’t I celebrate the more traditional fifth anniversary? Great question. The short answer is, I forgot. The longer answer might involve painkillers. My March 2024 column was about how I had spent the preceding six ... by Tracy Grathwohl

Disparagers of Truth

Politically eroticized, Tesla-aroused, ludicrously pompous and hubris-infected mini-MAGA Ed Surgan has attempted to belittle Carlos Sandoval and his flying monkeys and boiling frogs impression of life under Trumpian rule [“Who’s the Zombie?” Letters, April 3]. Sandoval is not alone in applying nightmarish metaphors to Donald Trump’s onslaught and the destruction of the constitutional/institutional firmament, nor are he or the opposition “depressed,” as Surgan would have it. (Surgan, self-described as lovestruck over Trump, probably missed the opposition marches that erupted globally last weekend.) It’s anger and love of country, stupid. Not depression. Alert as a sinuous undersea creature, or jungle plant, ... by Staff Writer