Registered Republican and Conservative voters in Smithtown will head to the polls on Tuesday to choose party candidates for the Town of Smithtown Town Board.
Running for two at-large seats on the Republican side are incumbents Edward Wehrheim and Robert Creighton, challenged by attorney Lawrence Gray.
In the Conservative primary, Wehrheim and Creighton are challenged by former Smithtown Highway Superintendant Daniel Donnelly.
To help guide our readers, Patch has compiled the following biographies.
Edward Wehrheim
Councilman Edward R. Wehrheim was first elected to the town council in 2003 after working for the town's department of parks, buildings and grounds since 1972. He was appointed as director of the department in 1989 and remained department director until his retirement in 2003.
Wehrheim was born and raised in Kings Park. With his wife, Diana, they have two daughters, Kellie and Michelle. According to the candidate, he is a graduate of Kings Park High School and a graduate of United States Navy Airframes/Structural Mechanic Service School-Millington, TN. A veteran in the United States Navy, he was honorably discharged after two tours of duty in Vietnam between 1968-1971.
Wehrheim serves as a Trustee of the Kings Park Education Foundation and is a member of several local organizations including the Smithtown Sunrise Rotary, The Smithtown Historical Society, and the Smithtown BPO Elks Lodge.
Robert J. Creighton
Robert J. Creighton has been a councilman for the Town of Smithtown since 2008. He is a former police commissioner for the Suffolk County Police Department as well as a former chief investigator for the county's district attorney's office.
According to the candidate, he has held several management positions in the private sector including American Express and Visa International. He has served as an adjunct professor at Suffolk Community College and ran his own security company.
Creighton resides in Kings Park with his wife of 51 years, Geraldine. They have five children and nine grandchildren.
Creighton says he is active in organizations such as The Cleary School for the Deaf, Knights of Columbus, COPS Foundation, Ancient Order of Hibernians, Ascent School for Children with Autism, Suffolk County Police Emerald Society and St. Joseph’s Church.
Lawrence Gray
Lawrence Gray is a former special assistant attorney general in the appellate section of the New York state attorney general’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. He was previously a special assistant attorney general in the Office of the Special State Prosecutor for the Investigation of the New York City Criminal Justice System.
According to the candidate, he is a 1969 graduate of St. John’s University School of Law, where he was an associate editor of the St. John’s Law Review. Gray is editor-in-chief of New York State Bar Association's New York Criminal Practice and its Supplements. Some of his other publications include Criminal and Civil Contempt (NYSBA 2006), and Evidentiary Privileges—Grand Jury, Criminal and Civil Trials, Fourth Edition (NYSBA, 2003).
Daniel Donnelly
Conservative candidate Daniel Donnelly served as the Smithtown highway superintendent from 1998 to 2001.
Polls open at 6 a.m. and close at 9 p.m. To find your polling place click here.
