Rebecca Sanin will replace Sidney Joyner as a Democratic candidate for the Suffolk County Legislature in the16th District after he was disqualified over residency issues.
Sanin, who heads the Health and Welfare Council of Long Island, based in Huntington Station, previously ran for town supervisor but lost to Ed Smyth. She has been deeply involved in community issues, especially those in Huntington Station.
Joyner is a trustee for the South Huntington Board of Education, and works for Suffolk County.
Sanin will run against Legislator Manuel Esteban, who defeated longtime Legislator Susan Berland in the last election.
Joyner defended his candidacy by saying that redistricting allowed him to run for the legislature that he didn’t yet live in. The ruling last week said otherwise.
“It appears to this court that Sidney B. Joyner is violating the very Suffolk County Charter that, if elected, his first act would be to swear to uphold,” wrote Supreme Court Justice Thomas Whelan.
His position on the ballot had been challenged by Huntington Republican Al White.
The decision to nominate Sanin was first reported by the Babylon Beacon.
Included in the 16th District are Commack, Dix Hills, East Northport, Elwood, Melville and South Huntington in the Town of Huntington, Deer Park in the Town of Babylon and Brentwood and North Bay Shore in the Town of Islip.
The rule reads:
A County Legislator shall have been a resident of the County and legislative district represented for at least one year immediately preceding his or her election and shall maintain a residence in the County legislative district which he or she represents during his or her entire term of office and at the time of his or her nomination or designation for such office. The requirement for residence in a legislative district for one year immediately preceding election and at the time of nomination or designation for such office shall not apply in a year in which Legislators are running in newly apportioned legislative districts if such individual Legislator has been nominated or designated to run in a legislative district whose geographical boundaries are different from the geographical boundaries for the one to which he or she has been elected to represent for the year during which such new nomination or designation is made.