A straw poll of Brookhaven Republican committee members who showed up to screen the parade of contenders for Brookhaven GOP leader has put one of the darkest horses in the contest — Lou Marcoccia, a two-time electoral loser — in the lead.
Results circulated at the town GOP executive committee meeting Monday night showed that Marcoccia, a computer consultant, had 44 votes, followed by Jesse Garcia, once a top aide to former town supervisor Felix Grucci, who had 36 votes. Steve Wilutis, an attorney backed by former Supervisor John Jay LaValle, was a distant third with 15 votes. Douglas Segall, who ran unsucessfully for leader several years ago, got 10 votes.
Robert Macedonia, who got no votes, dropped out of the race, and Ken Gaul, who got three votes, was not present at the executive committee meeting because he was in Florida. The other contender who got only three votes was Wayne Rogers, the new deputy elections commiissioner, who some party insiders privately deride because of his ties to Islip Republicans.
Marcoccia, of East Setauket, said he was pleased by the outcome but declined further comment. Marcoccia narrowly lost a primary for town clerk last year and lost a legislative race to Legis. Vivian Vilora Fisher earlier.
However, the straw poll is of limited value because only 144, or 27 percent, of the party’s 527 committee members attended the screening. The convention, scheduled for March 22, will be determined by the weighted vote of committee members based on the GOP votes in last year’s gubernatorial race.
- Rick Brand