Babylon Town Council Winner, Losers Reflect on Campaign

The one thing three of the candidates who ran for seats on Town's council agree on is that the race was a good campaign.

Democratic contender , who was elected with 14,286 votes, knew that running for a council seat would mean a lot of hard work. Looking back after a victorious election night he said he wouldn’t have done anything different.

“I knew it would be hard work, I did a lot of door to door. It was strenuous,” said , who has served on the town planning board for three years.

On the campaign trail he said heard the same words over and over from local residents and it wasn’t gripes about taxes.

“People in Babylon love living in Babyon and they love Steve’s [] record,” he said.

Fellow victor, incumbent Democrat Jackie , who was elected to a second term with 14,310, was unavailable for comment by press time.

The two Democratic challengers easily beat Republican opponents and , who received 11,518 and 10,420 votes respectively with 152 of 154 districts reporting early Wednesday morning.

Yet neither candidate seemed daunted by the defeat.

In his concession speech Gargiulo said it had been a great campaign.

“It was a great campaign, without a doubt, and we had the best team," he said. "Matt was a great running mate. It also brought my family, my sons together, made us stronger. We’d like to thank all our conservative family, as well. We all worked so hard,” said Gargiulo, adding, “I want to wish Jackie Gordon and Tom Donnelly good luck."

The defeat was the second one for Gargiulo as he lost a bid for a town board seat in 2005.

With the election over Gargiulo said he is looking forward to continuing to coach and celebrating his 27th anniversary with his wife. As for running again he saod it’s too early to say, adding “but you never know down the road.”

Groh, who lost an legislative seat bid in 2009, also wouldn't say if he'd run again.

“It’s frustrating to be on the right side of the issues, and they seemed to resonate with the people we spoke with,” said Groh. “But I’m really more disappointed for the people we wanted to help, and for everyone who worked so hard. We really wanted to make town hall a nice place to work and visit.”

Current councilwoman , who did not seek election, will fill in for after she deploys in January for an Army Reserve stint.

Barbara Capella Loehr contributed to this story.