A SURPRISE CANDIDATE COULD EMERGE TO REPLACE THE RETIRING OWEN JOHNSON

Fri, Jul 13, 2012

banner, Election 2012, News, Suffolk

The rumor mill has been spinning with potential candidates to replace retiring State Senator Owen Johnson.  Most of the candidate names have been from Islip Town: Boyle, Cilmi, Cochrane, Bergin-Weichbrodt — even Tom Croci.  But there’s a dark horse out there that many maybe overlooking.

As City and State reported in a January 2012 article titled Potential GOP Replacement for Sen. Owen Johnson Emerges, a Babylon Town Councilman may emerge as a possible Republican replacement.  And that candidate is:Lindsay P. Henry.

In January, Lindsay, who was elected in 2001, told City and State that he’s definitely going to try for the seat if Johnson does retire.“My intention is to run for the seat,” Henry is reported saying.

Though the title of the article suggests that Lindsay Henry is a Republican, he is not.  He’s a registered Independence Party member and would need the GOP’s Wilson-Pakula endorsement.  Something he receives to run for Babylon Town Council.  And, as LIPolitics.com columnist Karl Grossman pointed out after the 2011 election, “… the Independence Party [line] was critical in a good number of races in Suffolk County in [the] last election—in both western and eastern Suffolk.” (Read his op/ed here.)

It may be an out-of-the-box move, but Lindsay P. Henry is a white-collar guy, with a working-class resume  — he was a commercial fisherman — and a Tea Party name.  (His middle initial P stands for Patrick, as in Lindsay “Patrick Henry.”)

Henry might be the perfect “GOP” candidate to replace Johnson in a Senate district which has grown increasingly less Republican over the years.

So, who do you think should take Senator Owen Johnson’s place on the GOP Ticket?  Leave your suggestion in the comment box below.