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It was the group's second crack at tapping a candidate for the town council seat.

And once again, it wasn't easy.

The Democrats had nominated the rest of their slate at their May 11 convention. They decided to meet again to re-vote on the two-year council term, however, after they had tallied the results three times and obtained three different results, with John Stefans and Rose Sanders each appearing to be the winner at different times.

On Monday, the committee met to decide between Mr. Stefans and Ms. Sanders, but a new problem arose when one of the committee members abstained from voting and swung the final total toward Mr. Stefans.

Had that committee member simply not been present, Ms. Sanders would have won.

"You can't make this stuff up," Supervisor Phil Cardinale, a Democrat, said while awaiting the result of the vote.

In choosing party nominees, each district is allotted a number of votes equal to the number of votes cast on the committee's party line in the most recent gubernatorial election. For example, if 100 people in a district had voted on the Democratic line for governor, the district would control 100 votes at the Democratic committee's nominating convention. If two Democratic committee members represent a given district, each controls half the total votes. If just one committee member represents the district, he or she controls all the votes.

According to the rules the committee was working under, if only one committee member in a two-representative district is present at the convention, that person controls all the district's votes.

If no committee representative appears for a district, none of that district's votes is counted.

But what if both representatives show up and one abstains?

That's what happened Monday in the 13th district and, for a while, committee members were unsure what the ruling should be.

The 13th district has 247 votes. Committee member Gwen Mack threw her 123.5 votes behind Ms. Sanders, but the other committee member, Eva Roberts, abstained.

The final vote, without Ms. Roberts' 123.5 votes, had Mr. Stefans winning by 29.5 votes, with 2,113.5 votes to Ms. Sanders' 2,084.

At that point, some committee members began questioning whether an abstention should be counted in a separate category, or whether it should be counted the same as if a committee member were absent.

They said that had Ms. Roberts simply stayed home instead of coming to the convention and abstaining, the winner would have been Ms. Sanders. But because Ms. Roberts abstained, her 123.5 votes went to no one.

Committee members debated the rules governing this situation for about 30 minutes before finally calling officials from the county Board of Elections and ultimately deciding that Mr. Stefans had won.

As for the rest of the Democratic ticket: Mr. Cardinale, the incumbent supervisor, will head the slate, which also features council candidates Kathy Berezny, Shirley Coverdale and Mr. Stefans, as well as incumbent highway superintendent George Woodson and incumbent Town Clerk Diane Wilhelm.

All those candidates will also have the support of the Working Families party, except Mr. Stefans, because that party supported Ms. Sanders, who said she is not planning to run on that line or challenge the results of Monday's vote by the Democrats.

The Republicans have nominated Sean Walter for supervisor and John Dunleavy, Jodi Giglio and George Gabrielsen for council. Mr. Gabrielsen and Mr. Stefans will face each other for the two-year seat, while the other council candidates will run at-large for the two available seats.

Mr. Stefans is retired. His resume includes a stint with the Daily News in New York as a reporter from 1964-65. He served in the U.S. Army from 1965-68 and worked with Chase Manhattan Bank from 1968 to 2001. After retiring from banking, he served as editor of the Traveler-Watchman in 2004 and as Mr. Cardinale's administrative assistant in 2005. From 2006 to 2008 he was editor of the News-Review.

He said his business background and his knowledge of local issues make him a good candidate, and he said he is a "big fan" of Mr. Cardinale and will support his initiatives.

Ms. Sanders, who works for the Suffolk County Clerk's office, was elected as a Councilwoman in 2000 as a Republican and served four years before the Republican committee nominated John Dunleavy instead of her when she sought re-election. She ran a primary but lost. Two years ago, she changed her registration to Independence.

However, the fact that she did not change her registration to Democrat may have played a role in the outcome Monday, judging by some of the questions she received from committee members.

"You still refuse to become a Democrat but you want our nomination?" one committeeman asked her. She was also asked why she never voted to appoint Democrats to town positions when she was in office, and she said that was not true.

"I look for qualifications first," Ms. Sanders said, adding that party affiliation didn't figure into her votes when she was on the Town Board.

Mr. Stefans, on the other hand, tried to stress the importance of promoting other Democrats and not going outside the party for candidates.

"I've long felt this party doesn't serve itself well by continuing to nominate people who aren't Democrats," Mr. Stefans said.

He was also asked about his temperament.

Mr. Langhorn said that after the May 11 convention, he received an angry call from Mr. Stefans but said he later spoke with the candidate, who apologized.

But some committee members asked if this was Mr. Stefan's normal temperament.

"Yes, I tend to get feisty and scrappy, but I'm not so sure that's bad in a campaign, particularly with the nasty charges you face. But no, this is not a pattern," Mr. Stefans said. "I've had a long successful corporate career and if I pulled this stuff a lot or even at all, I certainly wouldn't have achieved the level I did in the bank."

Mr. Stefans was a senior vice president and director of corporate communications for Chase from 1991 to 2001.

Mr. Langhorn said he felt the earlier outburst was "uncalled for" but said he still supports Mr. Stefans.

tgannon@timesreview.com