New York’s 1st Assembly District encompasses Southold, Shelter Island, Southampton and East Hampton towns and a portion of Brookhaven Town. As the lower chamber of the New York State Legislature, its members work alongside the New York State Senate and Gov. Kathy Hochul to create laws and establish a state budget. Representatives’ primary responsibilities include writing and passing bills on public policy matters, setting levels for state spending, raising and lowering taxes and voting to either uphold or override any vetoes from the governor. Assembly members serve two-year terms and all 150 seats are up for election this year. The Democratic Party currently controls the office of the governor and both chambers of the New York State Legislature.
After more than 45 years representing the East End in various elected positions, New York State Assemblyman Fried Thiele of Sag Harbor announced in February that he would not seek reelection.
Recently, the candidates vying for Mr. Thiele’s Assembly seat met individually with members of The Suffolk Times editorial staff to discuss their motivations for seeking the office and outline their key priorities for serving the needs of District 1 voters.
Stephen Kiely (R-Mattituck)
Mr. Kiely said he believes he is the “right person at the right time” to fill the vacant 1st District Assembly seat.
The Mattituck resident is currently the Shelter Island Town attorney and previously served as an assistant town attorney for Southampton, Southold and Brookhaven. In 2016, he left the Southold position to focus on his private practice. He spent three years as a Deputy County Clerk for Suffolk County.
This is Mr. Kiely’s fourth run for elected office. In 2018 he lost a bid for Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice. The following year he mounted a campaign against former Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell, but withdrew from the race prior to the election. In 2023, he ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Southold Town Board, but noted that he was not listed on the Conservative Party line on that ballot, which he has secured for his Assembly run.
Mr. Kiely’s campaign platform is largely unchanged from prior runs: He opposes high-density housing, battery energy storage system (BESS) mandates and overdevelopment on the East End and says he will fight to maintain the region’s rural character.
“I believe that the person who serves as a legislator should have some background in what the job entails, [which is] writing legislation and interpreting legislation,” Mr. Kiely said. “I think between my qualifications and my local ties in the entire district, that I will be the perfect candidate to fill the void that’s going to be left from a 30-year Assembly person that was well regarded on both sides of the aisle.”
On affordable housing and development: Growing up in what he called “suburban hell” in Selden, Mr. Kiely said spending his summers at his grandparent’s home in Sag Harbor felt like an “escape.” The moment he had the opportunity to move to the area, he said, he chose to live in Southold Town.
When he learned about Gov. Hochul’s New York Housing Compact — a controversial 2023 proposal to build 800,000 new affordable homes and apartments throughout the state over the next decade — he decided to run for state office to fight it.
Mr. Kiely criticized the housing mandate, arguing it violated “home rule” and, if approved, would exacerbate environmental issues on the East End, by putting pressure on the local aquifer, disrupting water quality and adding to traffic and congestion problems. The governor’s plan was ultimately scrapped following overwhelming disapproval from Long Island lawmakers.
“I don’t believe we have a housing crisis on the East End,” Mr. Kiely said. “We have an affordability crisis … and we can’t build our way out of it.”
Mr. Kiely said he played an instrumental role in getting the 2023 Community Housing Fund referendum — which established a 0.5% transfer tax on residential purchases in all five East End towns — passed on Shelter Island. He added that the ideal blueprint state and local officials should use to address the affordability crisis in the region is the Shelter Island Community Housing Plan, which he helped draft. That plan includes the establishment of so-called manor houses, which comprise roughly three to five individual units but maintain the traditional building style of residences in the area — in keeping with the rural community character Mr. Kiely pledges to preserve.
He also supports the development of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) on residential parcels and repurposing existing commercial structures for housing rather than creating new developments.
“I’m [for letting] locals determine how they want to address the affordability crisis,” he said. “I’m totally, adamantly against apartment complexes popping up here.”
On open space, environment and water quality: Mr. Kiely wholeheartedly supports the Community Preservation Fund and believes it is a great tool for local municipalities. The Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund, spearheaded by Mr. Thiele in 1998, has been a key resource on the East End for decades. More than 25 years ago, officials in the five East End towns approved a 2% real estate transfer tax to be used for protecting farmland and open space and preserving community character. If elected, Mr. Kiely said he would champion this initiative, but said he would like to push to allow for 50% of the funds to be used for water quality improvements.
“The majority of the [Southold] Town Board is saying we don’t want to get into water quality projects … we just want to preserve open space, but that is short-sighted in my mind,” Mr. Kiely said. “Not to say you have to, but allow the Town Board to make a determination that they want to use up to 50% of the CPF money for water quality.”
On transportation and road safety: Transportation is essential to the local economy on the North Fork, which is why more adequate train service is needed, Mr. Kiely said. If elected, he would advocate for better train service across the East End, and call for better management and increased accountability from the MTA.
“We already have the infrastructure in place — Southold, Greenport, Mattituck — let’s just get it done and get more train service,” he said.
With traffic accidents and DWI-related incidents on the rise in the area, Mr. Kiely advocates for updating criminal laws to address impaired driving, specifically due to marijuana use. He also believes there is a need for better education and enforcement to reduce road accidents and improve safety.
In addition, he supports the recently rejected Grieving Families Act, a proposal that was twice nixed by Gov. Hochul that would allow the families of wrongful-death victims to receive compensation for their emotional anguish.
On bail reform and immigration: Touching on the increase in crime he has seen through his work as an attorney, Mr. Kiely argued that New York’s bail reform laws are making communities less safe and need to be either drastically reformed or repealed entirely.
With regard to immigration, Mr. Kiely argued that a significant chunk of the state budget is being used to fund New York’s sanctuary status, which was created to provide legal protections for asylum seekers. He said the policy needs to be repealed because it primarily benefits “criminal migrants.”
“I’m of the position that if you want to come to this country, become a part of the social fabric of the community, raise kids here, more power to you — your work, our small businesses depend on it,” Mr. Kiely said. “But the only thing the sanctuary state does is protect the criminal migrant … What it does is it prevents local enforcement, upon arrest or conviction, local law enforcement from speaking to or communicating with federal authorities.”
Once rescinded, he said money from the executive order, which was enacted by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2017, can be diverted to more vital budget items, such as funding education and improving public transportation.