No, Mr. Haley had not won his race with incumbent Supervisor Mark Lesko. In fact, Republicans won just four of nine town races this Election Day, and they even failed to secure any of the three townwide posts up for grabs.
But the GOP did hold onto its majority, despite an expensive and exhausting effort by Democrats to steal the 2nd and 6th district Town Board seats from Republican-backed incumbents.
Mr. Haley said the most telling sign that Republicans had a more impressive showing than Democrats Tuesday came from his concession phone call to Mr. Lesko.
He said the supervisor told him in their conversation that "there's a message out there for Democrats."
"He sees it coming," Mr. Haley said.
And while Democrats have had perhaps more success in Brookhaven the past four years than any other time in the past century, Republicans will once again control a majority of votes on the Town Board for two more years.
"It's a testament to the majority," said Brookhaven Republican chair Jesse Garcia. "The voters said they are happy with what they've done. At the end, the voters validated the Republican majority and its work."
The focus for Democrats was in securing Conservative Jane Bonner's 2nd District seat on the North Shore or Republican Keith Romaine's 6th District seat on the South Shore, but they came up short in both races, according to preliminary results released by the Suffolk County Board of Elections. Ms. Bonner defeated Democratic challenger John Leonard by 1,164 votes, with 55 percent of the total vote, while Mr. Romaine fought off Democratic challenger Ron Lupski and Independent Joe May.
"Anything they could have thrown at us they did," Ms. Bonner said of the Democrats' effort in the two districts. "None of it stuck."
Said Mr. Leonard: "I'm disappointed, but I also know that our team ran as good a campaign as we could, so I have no regrets."
Voter turnout was down in both districts despite a strong push from Democrats hoping to turn out the vote. More than 4,800 fewer votes were cast in the two districts this year than there were in the 2007 general election.
"I think Democrats stayed home," said Brookhaven Democratic chair Marsha Laufer, speaking to a Sun reporter at the Democrats' election night gala at the IBEW union hall in Hauppauge.
Since the start of councilmanic districts, only one incumbent council person has lost an election. That was in the 2005 4th District race, when Democrat Connie Kepert secured former Republican Councilman James Tullo's seat on the board.
Ms. Kepert won her third consecutive victory with 54 percent of the vote over Republican Rick Cunha. Mr. Cunha, a Farmingville builder, came within 850 votes of Ms. Kepert's tally, a large improvement over the Republicans' 2007 showing in the district.
Incumbent Republicans Tim Mazzei and Kathy Walsh also won re-election bids for their Town Board seats, as did Democrat Steve Fiore-Rosenfeld.
Mr. Lesko, Highway Superintendent John Rouse and town clerk-elect Patricia Eddington all won townwide races Tuesday. Democrats have now won nine of the past 10 townwide Brookhaven elections, despite enrollment statistics that favor Republicans.
But Democrats have not had as much success in council district races, winning the majority just once since the inception of councilmanic districts. Republicans have led the town 94 of the past 100 years.
Mr. Lesko said he was disappointed in the results for Democrats across Long Island Tuesday but happy to know his party did not lose any seats in his township.
"We at least held the line in Brookhaven and I'm happy for that," Mr. Lesko said. "But it's a tough night."
gparpan@northshoresun.com
And the winners are ...
Town Supervisor
Mark Lesko (D)
33,995 votes to 26,877
56 percent
Town Board
District 1
Steve Fiore-Rosenfeld (D)
6,196 votes to 4,039
61 percent
District 2
Jane Bonner (C)
6,974 votes to 5,810
55 percent
District 3
Kathleen Walsh (R)
4,398 votes to 3,079
59 percent
District 4
Constance Kepert (D)
5,328 votes to 4,489
54 percent
District 5
Timothy Mazzei (R)
6,345 votes to 3,909
62 percent
District 6
Keith Romaine (R)
5,059 votes to 4,589 (D) and 70 (I)
49 percent
Town Highway Superintendent
John Rouse (D)
32,715 votes to 28,323
54 percent
Town Clerk
Patricia Eddington (D)
30,315 votes to 29,145
51 percent
Closer look at the numbers
* Town Supervisor Mark Lesko received a larger percentage of votes Tuesday than former Supervisor Brian Foley did in either of his two town elections.
* There were nearly 14,000 fewer votes cast in this year's six council district races than in the 2007 general election, although absentee ballots added to the Board of Elections' official results could change the numbers some. The supervisor's race drew more than 16,000 fewer voters to the polls than in 2007.
* The council district that saw the fewest voters turn out at the polls was the 3rd District, where just 18 percent of voters pulled the lever Tuesday, the lowest turnout in any race since the inception of councilmanic districts.
* Democrats Connie Kepert and John Rouse joined Republican Kathy Walsh as the only three incumbents in Brookhaven to win by a smaller percentage in 2009 than they did in the 2007 general election. Mr. Rouse slipped the most, dropping nearly five percentage points.