There were no surprises Tuesday in the village elections for Flower Hill, Port Washington North and Baxter Estates: nine officials ran unopposed for re-election, and all nine officials won.
Rob McNamara won another term as mayor of Flower Hill, the highest office up for grabs in the election. He received the most votes — 54 — of any of the candidates running in the three villages.
“I’m proud to have the support of the village,” he said. “Fifty-four votes is a lot for an uncontested race.”
He said that turnout was low for that reason — there were no competitive races.
Nonetheless, Flower Hill had the highest turnout among the three villages. Trustee Kate Hirsch received the second highest vote total with 49 ballots. She was closely followed by her fellow trustees, Randall Rosenbaum and Gary Lewandowski, who each received 48 votes.
There were also two write-ins: Erik Sulzbach for mayor and Michael Brennan for trustee.
McNamara added that the fact that no one was challenging him or the trustees meant that residents were happy with the work the village was doing.
“It shows that we have a good village and people aren’t particularly concerned about anything,” he said.
McNamara reiterated that improving the roads and regulating building were his two priorities as mayor. Having spent a little over a year as mayor, he said he was unsure if he would run again when his term was up in two years.
“We’ve got a lot of things going good right now, so we’ll worry about two years in two years,” he said.
In Port Washington North, village Justice Sheldon Greenbaum received the most votes, with 41 votes. Trustees Steven Cohen and Michael Malatino received 40 votes and 36 votes, respectively.
Cohen’s daughter Jordan received two votes. Steven Cohen said he did not know who voted for her or why, but added he was happy to return for another term.
“It feels great,” he said. “I appreciate everybody coming out to support me and glad I can continue with the board and add value to the village.”
He said his immediate focus would be developing the park that the village is in the process of purchasing. As for the low turnout, he said that it wasn’t because residents were unaware of the election.
“I think it depends on what people are doing that day and what is going on in their lives,” Cohen said. “Certainly we reach out to more people than that. Turnout is always a tricky thing at every level.”
Baxter Estates, the smallest village in Port Washington by both size and population, also had the fewest number of ballots cast. Trustees Douglas Baldwin and Alice M. Peckelis were re-elected, each receiving 18 votes.
