Coming out of the , Mineola Village Board admitted he had just received “a very expensive lesson in civics” Tuesday night.
Still in good spirits after the Mineola Village election and his third place showing behind newcomer George Durham and incumbent Lawrence Werther, Wales said “it was an honor to run in the village. I appreciate the support they gave me for a new candidate.”
In the unofficial total, Wales came in one short of what he called a “respectable” number of 500, but ended up gaining two additional votes in the absentee ballots to end the night with 501.
Werther received 691 votes while Durham tallied 834, second only to , who ran uncontested and garnered 973 votes. The numbers include absentee ballots and will be certified Wednesday evening.
“The compressed time frame is always tough,” Wales said. “I was happy to give it a run and I’d do it again.”
Following the results at the village hall, Trustee Paul Pereira and former Trustee Thomas Kennedy, who decided not to run for reelection, thanked Wales for his participation in the race and encouraged him to continue to appear at village board meetings.
“I think it shows we have a vibrant village when people will step up to take local office,” village attorney John Spellman said. “We’ve always had a very good community - sometimes we’ve had some acrimonious campaigns - but I think we’ve put those in the past, I think that in this situation where ideas predominate and that’s a great thing for Mineola.”
Before the polls closed, many of the candidates headed over to for a celebratory dinner with family and friends.
“A lot of you guys walked with me, helped us out, I truly appreciate that,” Durham said. “We have some new ideas and some different things that we want to take and work with and modernize some computer technology and stuff and make it more accessible to the village.”
For Werther, who decided not to run for a full term as mayor after serving first as deputy under ’ administration and after Martins was elected to the state senate, Mineola is “a destination and as I’ve always said, a great place to live, a great place to work, a great place to shop. It’s all because of my friends, my neighbors, guys like you who changed my wife’s and my minds and took what was our starter home into our home. The one thing I’m positive of - I’m not leaving Mineola until its feet first.”
Martins called Strauss, Werther and Durham to congratulate each of them on their victories.
The cunertified, total vote is as follows:
Candidate Ballots Absentees Total Votes Mayor Scott Strauss – – 973 Trustee George R. Durham – – 834 Lawrence Werther, Sr. – – 691 Christopher Wales 499 2 501*Vote breakdown for absentees and ballots cast in some races were not immediately available.
Unfortunately there was never a debate for the candidates to be able to state their positions for all the residents to see.