By East End Now | Auxio.tv News
John Carson is again seeking a seat on the Southampton Town Trustees, campaigning on a résumé that is unusually tied to the waters, farms and working landscapes the board is charged with protecting.
Carson’s campaign website describes him as a 50-plus-year East End resident, longtime commercial fisherman, former farm-stand operator, beekeeper, local business owner and advocate for working waterfronts, farmland and open space. His campaign also points to experience as a real-estate appraiser and marine-equipment supplier.
That background aligns closely with the job he is seeking.
The Southampton Town Trustees trace their authority to the Dongan Patent of 1686 and oversee more than 25,000 acres of shores, waterways, marshes and underwater lands. Their responsibilities include public water access, surface-water quality, docks and bulkheads, commercial shellfish and finfish harvests, and preservation of the Town’s maritime traditions.
For Carson, the connection to those waters is not theoretical.
Southampton Trustee records show him receiving permits as far back as 1992 to place eel carts in Shinnecock Bay and pots on Trustee bottomlands, providing a documentary record of his involvement in the local commercial fishing economy more than three decades ago.
His campaign also says he has spent decades fishing the South Shore and Peconic Bay and managing more than 100 bee colonies while promoting regenerative agriculture.
That gives Carson a straightforward argument: the Trustees should include people who have actually worked on the waters and lands they regulate.
It also gives his campaign relevance beyond biography.
Southampton is confronting questions about declining shellfish populations, water quality, public beach access, coastal development and the future of its working waterfronts. The Town itself lists sustainable fisheries, water quality and public access among the Trustees’ central responsibilities.
Carson ran for Trustee in 2025 on the Republican and Conservative lines but fell short in a crowded race for five seats. The current board is now composed of James Mack, Matthew Parsons, Joseph McLoughlin, Hannah Pell-O’Farrell and Sara Topping.
His new campaign appears built less around broad partisan themes than around stewardship.
The campaign describes him as committed to protecting coastal resources, preserving public access and defending the East End’s working-waterfront tradition.
That approach could resonate in a Town where the Trustees occupy an unusual position in local government. They are not simply another advisory environmental board. They have centuries-old legal authority over some of Southampton’s most important natural resources.
The question Carson is placing before voters is therefore fairly direct:
Should someone with decades of firsthand experience fishing, farming and working around Southampton’s bays have a seat at the table when decisions about those resources are made?
His campaign is betting the answer is yes.
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