Schaffer survives Dems leadership vote

Suffolk County Democratic Committee chair Rich Schaffer survived a challenge against his leadership during an over three-hour-long party conference Tuesday night.

Schaffer, who is the Town of Babylon supervisor and has led the county Democrats for 26 years, defeated Southold Town Democrats chair Kathryn Casey Quigley during the party’s county convention at the Hilton Long Island/Huntington on Sept. 22.

“I want to thank [Kathryn Casey Quigley] for a very spirited, hard-fought challenge,” Schaffer said following the vote. “I’m thanking her personally for making me a better person… the energy she has brought to this party is something that we need to bottle.”

Over 1,000 party committee members voted by a vocal roll call. Schaffer won a majority of voting points, 113,010, to Casey Quigley’s 84,234, with majorities across all towns except Riverhead, Southold, Shelter Island, and Islip.

Schaffer said he felt cautiously optimistic throughout the night, with almost all committee members from his home of Babylon voting for him. All committee members from Southold and Shelter Island voted for Quigley, although their voting scores were lower due to population differences.

State Sen. Monica Martinez officially nominated Schaffer, and pointed to his accomplishments at electing women and people of color to offices and judicial positions across the county and state, and credited Schaffer for getting herself, the first Salvadorian woman, elected to the state senate.

“These accomplishments belong first to the men and women who earn them,” Martinez said. “But they’re also a part of the record of Rich’s leadership, that helps create the opportunities for these historic gains to actually occur.”

Martinez ended her speech by saying that whoever won the election, that it was just a vote between Democrats, and that their fight should be fought together.

“The real fight is not in this room,” Martinez said. “The real fight is in November.”

Casey Quigley launched her campaign in late 2025 after saying she saw Democrats lose across the county in local and federal races year after year, while running paper candidates in districts that turned out to be more competitive. Casey Quigley also promised to end the Suffolk County Democratic Party’s practice of, what she said, was making deals with the Conservative Party to pick and choose where to run candidates.

This issue came to light recently when Anthony Portesy, the chair of the Brookhaven Democratic Party, left his race for county clerk, leaving incumbent county clerk Vincent Puleo, without opposition. During Tuesday night’s convention, Portesy seconded Schaffer’s nomination for party chair.

Some supporters of Casey Quigley wore pink-colored clothes, and a few wore pink wigs as they cast their vote. Other committee members voting for Schaffer or Casey Quigley passionately shouted their choice.

After the results, which were overseen by Tom Garry, counsel and law chair for the New York State Democratic Party, came in, Casey Quigley took to the convention stage to congratulate Schaffer, thank her supporters, and rally the party together as one entity ahead of the midterm elections.

“I continue to believe this challenge left our party stronger than when it began,” Casey Quigley said. “And the hundreds of new volunteers to the party lead us as we forge forward. I look forward to continue supporting committee members, candidates, and the party to my fullest capacity to unite behind our candidates and win elections up and down the ballots.”

“I have said from the beginning of this campaign that our loyalty as Democratic committee members is not to a person, it is to the mission of our party, so the fight continues,” Casey Quigley added.

Ahead of the vote, Casey-Quigley said she felt the roll call was a disadvantage since people had to lay out their loyalties in front of party leaders. Last week, Casey Quigley told The Suffolk County News her campaign heard reports of “pressure campaigns” the Schaffer team was conducting in county offices to turnout the vote. Schaffer’s team denied the claims.

On Sept. 21, City and State New York reported on allegations from Town of Islip Democratic Committee member Ken Colón and chair Leigh Ann Barde that Schaffer supposedly offered money and pressured for votes. In a public statement, Barde said she was changing her vote from Schaffer to Casey Quigley due to the alleged deals with the Conservative Party, the allegations Colón made, and “threats to people’s livelihoods,” including her family’s.

Schaffer said the article blew conversations he had with committee members “out of proportion” and that he did not intend to create issues with committee members.

“I feel bad they feel I put them in a bad position, and hopefully we can move forward from here,” Schaffer said.

The Suffolk County Republican Committee held its convention in February, where party members, without challenges, nominated their candidates for local and federal races in November.

Schaffer said he’s looking forward to working with the new committee members brought into the county Democratic Party by Casey Quigley, and said that he’d look at specific concerns the Southold Democratic leader has raised about his leadership tactics, on a case-by-case basis.

“Kathryn and her campaign forced me to be a better person, to learn about myself, to learn about what I was not doing as a leader, and how to address that going forward,” Schaffer said. “I’m excited about the opportunities ahead of us.”