The results of the Democratic primary in the Town of Babylon on September 10 "are a testament to our organization" said Babylon Town Democratic leader Jeff Casale, while Eugene Burnett of Wyandanch, who helped put together the opposition ticket, says the results "empowered his community."

"We did win," said Burnett when asked about the results. "We won for Felicia Collins (who ran for County Sheriff). "She was our candidate and clearly our community rejected Dan Donnelly who was the hand-picked choice of (Babylon County leader) Richard Schaffer."

The Democrats had nominated Babylon Town Councilman Steve Bellone to run for Supervisor, with Carol Quirk of Deer Park and Mike Johnson of Copiague for Town Council seats. The three were challenged by Dr. Randolph A. Tobias of Deer Park for the Supervisor’s spot, and Lisa Coalmon of West Babylon and James Crawford of North Babylon for Town Council.

"The results clearly show that the Bellone-Quirk-Johnson team was the team of choice for Democrats in this Town," said Casale. "We won every hamlet, except Wyandanch, including North Amityville, and every Village, in some cases with more than 90 percent of the votes."

Burnett said numbers don’t tell the whole story. "What this primary showed was that our community is not going to go along to get along and that we have issues that have to be addressed and the Democratic Party has to respect us for that."

Burnett said that even without money and without the power of patronage, his team made a statement. "We are not going to accept this Democratic party structure’s giving us crumbs on dirty plates any longer."

Prior to the primary, Burnett had outlined several issues, including the Town’s failure under the Democrats to address the inequity of the Town’s assessment system and their opposition to councilmatic districts.

And, unless the Democrats address those issues in their platform between now and November 3, Burnett and Tobias said they will not have their support.

"It can no longer be 'business as usual' here in Babylon," said Tobias who pointed to the fact that residents in a house in Babylon Village valued at $800,000 pays less in property taxes than homeowners in a home valued at $250,000 in his community. "Our support centers around whether or not the Democrats are going to take this problem seriously and pledge to correct them as they pledged they would do when they first ran for office," said Tobias.

Board of Election results showed Bellone with 3,800 votes to Tobias' 1,387. Quirk received 3,455 votes and Johnson, 2,625 to Crawford's 2,347 and Coalmon's 1.468.

The run for the official slate was not without a little worry and sweat, however. Positions on the ballot were drawn by lot and the names were lined up with Bellone and Quirk on the same line as one of their opponents, and Johnson on the next line, below Quirk. That, said Casale, raised the real possibility that people, who are used to voting across, might become confused and think that one of the other candidates was on their ticket.

"I think Mike’s lower numbers showed, indeed, that some people were confused," said Casale. "Fortunately our efforts in getting out there and educating people paid off."

Johnson said he knows for a fact that people were confused. "I had several neighbors tell me they voted across Row C and that they thought they were voting for me," said Johnson.