Politics & Government

UPDATED: Lesko Wins Brookhaven Town Supervisor Race

Mark Lesko will serve a second full term as Brookhaven supervisor.

Incumbent Democratic supervisor Mark Lesko claimed victory Tuesday night after receiving 58.57 percent of the vote with 287 of 294 election districts reporting. Unofficial results yielded a tally of 38,409 votes for Lesko, and 27,151 votes for Republican challenger Cecile Forte.

Lesko ran on the Democratic, Working Families, and Independence party lines. He was first elected to the post in a special March 2009 election, and won the regular election in November of that year. Newsday endorsed Lesko, a former federal prosecutor, in this race. He is a resident of East Setauket.

Earlier in the day on Tuesday, Lesko said he was "pretty comfortable" with the way his campaign had taken shape.

Find out what's happening in Three Villagewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"As an incumbent the campaign is always going to be about our record," he said. "I'm extremely proud of our record. Hopefully people will be happy with the work we're doing."

In the 2009 general election, Lesko defeated Martin Haley with approximately 56.2 percent of the vote or a tally of 34,746 to 27,086, according to the Suffolk County Board of Elections.

Find out what's happening in Three Villagewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In other town races, highway superintendent John Rouse ran unopposed and received 58,700 votes; 214 write-in votes were cast. Tax receiver Lou Marcoccia also ran unopposed, receiving 61,569 votes; 73 write-in votes were cast.

Forte, currently the deputy chair of the town's planning board, ran on the Republican and Conservative party lines. She is the former central academic dean of Suffolk Community College and a member of the board of directors at Mather Hospital.

Following the vote, Forte said she plans to continue working with the town's planning board – and that she plans on taking a long vacation.

"I've done the job to the best I possibly could," she said. "It was just a matter of the numbers."

Chris Vaccaro contributed to this report.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here