It’s official — longtime Southold Town Councilman Al Krupski is running on the Democratic ticket for a seat in the Suffolk County Legislature that will soon be left empty by Ed Romaine, who won the race for Brookhaven Town Supervisor last Tuesday.

Krupski announced the move at a meeting of the Southold Town Democratic Committee Tuesday night at the First Universalist Church of Southold.

“It seemed like a good opportunity to serve everyone in Southold and a little more, going in to Riverhead and Brookhaven,” Krupski said.

On Election Night Rich Schaffer, the chairman of the County Democratic Committee who also won big in his bid to complete County Exec Steve Bellone's term as Babylon Town Supervisor, mentioned Krupski as one person he'd like to see in the county legislature. Krupski, a former Town Trustee who runs Krupski's Vegetable and Pumpkin Farm, said Tuesday night that this is a good time in his life to run for a higher office.

“It’s just been a matter of timing — I have been offered to run for this and that over the years, but with my kids being so small, there just was not enough time between running to concerts and little league games,” he said. “Now that they are older, there is more time to devote to the job.”

The legislature will hold a special election for the seat in January or February, and if elected Krupski said he will have to run again next November for a full two-year term. With his eight years of experience on the Southold Town Board and a lifetime of farming on the North Fork, Krupski said he believes he’s seasoned enough to spread his wings and get things done at the county level.

“There are so many issues of land preservation and dredging and maintenance of our local waterways that is taken care of by the county,” he said. “I think it’s important to have that kind of balance of representation in the legislature.”