Denise M. Merrifield

Watch our video on Town of Riverhead election issues

DENISE M. MERRIFIELD

Republican

BACKGROUND:

• Merrifield, 61, of Wading River, is making her first bid for elected office. She served one week as an appointed deputy supervisor in 2020 under Town Supervisor Yvette Aguiar but said she left for state pension reasons when a waiver couldn’t be obtained.
• She earned her JD at Albany Law School and a bachelor’s in political science at SUNY Stony Brook. She is an adjunct law professor at Touro Law Center.
• She worked for 30 years as an assistant district attorney in the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, in the homicide bureau for 11 years, as deputy bureau chief of the child abuse and domestic violence bureau and subsequently as deputy bureau chief of the major crimes bureau.

ISSUES:

• Merrifield said she supports the town’s executive order maintaining local control over unvetted migrants entering Riverhead. 
• She said she opposes any airport at the Enterprise Park at Calverton, including any large logistic center supported by a cargo jet airport. She does support economic development there.
• She said she would promote smart economic growth in the town and the infrastructure needed to support it, and work to maintain farmlands and preserve agriculture.