Carmel Republicans pick Cazzari for supervisor, Lugo and Schanil for Town Board

CARMEL, N.Y.—Incumbents Mike Cazzari and Mike Lugo – along with former Deputy Supervisor Robert Schanil Jr. – won their respective GOP primaries for supervisor and Town Board on Tuesday (June 24), according to unofficial vote counts posted by the Putnam County Board of Elections.

Cazzari, a two-term town supervisor, defeated local businessman and social media personality Frank Ciano with 66.22 percent of the vote (1,047 to 527), with seven votes cast as write-ins. He will face Mahopac resident Jean Hopper in the Nov. 4 general election.

“I want to express my deepest gratitude to my incredible wife, my amazing children, and my loyal friends,” Cazzari said. “Your love and support mean the world to me. A huge thank you to all my supporters—your encouragement keeps me going. May God bless you all.”

In a Facebook video posted the morning after the vote, Ciano said he was “still here” and promised  to keep making his voice heard.

“Listen, I may not have won the election, but I won the town vote—that's how I see it,” he said. “And you know what? I'm always going to be here for the people; I love this community. And if you ever need something, I'm here. The squeaky wheel gets the oil. But listen, I'm not going to stop squeaking. I can tell everybody that. It's only gonna get worse now.

“I try to run a clean campaign and you know what? I want to say congratulations to everybody, you know,” he continued. “Hope you move ahead ... I just want to say thank you for everybody who supported me and who was behind me. I love this community and I'm not going to stop squeaking.”

With three candidates vying for two GOP nods for Town Board, Lugo received the most votes (1,022, or 39.22 percent).  Schanil —the only Carmel Hamlet resident in the contest—finished second with 821 votes (31.5 percent), ahead of former Supervisor Ken Schmitt (759 votes, 29.13 percent).

“I’m overwhelmed with the amount of support I received,” Lugo said in a text statement. “The people have spoken and now it’s time to get this work done. No hidden agendas, no broken promises. Just hard work with real results!”

Schanil said he was ecstatic and noted that he came into the race relatively late in the cycle. 

“Honesty, integrity, loyalty and transparency wins the race,” he said. “I ran a positive campaign and focused on what I can do—not on what my opponents couldn’t do. I’m looking forward to working with everybody on the board to get things accomplished—to bring those projects we started to fruition. Most important, I’m very thankful to my wife, family and everyone who supported me.”

Lugo and Schanil will face Democrat and Carmel Hamlet resident Brett Wieland in the fall, with the top two vote-getters winning seats on the board.

Also in the town of Carmel, Republican voters chose challenger Jake D’Angelo over incumbent Greg E. Ellner for the Putnam County Legislature District 5 (Carmel Hamlet) nomination, 374 votes (63.28 percent) to 217 (36.72 percent).