GOP Candidate Emerges For Town Board Seat
/By Connor Beach
cbeach@longislandergroup.com
Jim Leonick
After falling 603 votes short in last November’s race for a seat on the Huntington Town Board, Republican Jim Leonick announced earlier this week that he’ll again seek election to the board this fall.
This time around there will be one seat up for grabs. That seat is currently held by Democrat Joan Cergol, who was appointed councilwoman in December after Democrat Susan Berland resigned from the board in order to take her seat in the Suffolk Legislature.
Leonick said he decided to run again because he thought it was important that the public has a right “to choose who sits in that seat as opposed to someone who was appointed and gets to continue in it.”
“I think I scored fairly well with votes in the last election, and I think I have a good chance of being successful this year,” Leonick said.
Leonick began practicing law in 1989 after graduating from Touro Law School in Huntington, and moved with his wife to East Northport in 1993.
For the last 17 years Leonick has worked as a self-employed attorney in East Northport, a background that he said would serve him well on the town board.
“You learn a lot of things about the economy, about people and about your community,” Leonick said.
However, he added that being self-employed or an attorney is not enough to qualify a person to serve as an elected official, and stressed that community involvement is just as important.
Leonick said his involvement in local community organizations, combined with professional experience teaching paralegal classes at Briarcliff College and arbitrating tax grievances on residential properties for New York State, makes him well suited for the job.
Leonick said he enjoyed meeting new people on the campaign trail; however, one of biggest things that he learned is that “the average person in Huntington, or any town, doesn’t know enough about what is going on in the town.”
The town is partly to blame, Leonick said, and his goals if elected include increasing transparency and building a bridge between town government and civic organizations.
Huntington Republican Committee Chair Toni Tepe said the committee has not yet made a formal endorsement, but she did say, “From talking to committee people there is a great deal of support for him [Leonick].”
Joan Cergol
Incumbent Councilwoman
Joan Cergol Plans
Campaign Announcement
As for Cergol, of Huntington, she previously served as the director of the town’s Community Development Agency. She’s expected to formally announce her campaign for town council during a fundraising event scheduled for April 16.
