Patrick Vecchio will have competition from a current town councilman in November when he decides to run for his 13th Town Supervisor term – Robert Creighton.
Creighton, a Republican who was re-elected to his seat on the town council in 2011, announced via email statement Wednesday that he will formally make his intention to run for town supervisor known on Feb. 25. He will make the announcement at 7 p.m. at the Smithtown Elks Lodge, located at 120 Edgewood Avenue in Smithtown.
- We asked our readers who should run against Supervisor Vecchio. See what they said.
Creighton, a longtime Kings Park resident, has invited a yet-to-be-released list of both elected officials and "Town of Smithtown visionaries" to attend and participate in his announcement.
“For Smithtown to succeed in such economically depressed times, now is the time to reorganize and re-define the role of town government," he said in the statement. "We must work hand in hand with entities to ensure Smithtown’s future and bring it back to the progressive, thriving community it once was.”
Crieghton, a former Conservative, switched parties in October 2012, a move many thought set the stage for him to challenge Vecchio in a Republican primary.
The councilman's announcement comes after the town's Republican committee told Patch that it would back Vecchio for his 13th term, even as criticism has mounted against the supervisor for the town's performance after a recent blizzard dumped 30 inches of snow on the area. While Vecchio has said the slow plowing was the responsibility of the town's highway supervisor, Vecchio also caught fire for pledging roads would be plowed by a certain time, when they weren't.
