What is Waterbury Mayor Mike Jarjura up to?

“While the numbers are much bigger, the state’s economic problems aren’t unlike the problems I faced here when I took over the helm,” Jarjura said. “I truly think I have the expertise, the skills and experience to help this state.”

Read Penelope Overton’s story in the Republican-American.

Commenters on that piece helpfully point out that Waterbury had a state appointed oversight board calling the shots for a meaningful piece of that workout period; which fans will recall followed two consecutive criminals who occupied the office (with a brief administrative appearance by – now State Senator & CT05 aspirant – Sam Caligiuri) before Jarjura took office.

True, he managed to survive (as in, he lost the machine vote but won when the A/B’s were counted) a primary challenge in August from (then) Board of Aldermen President J. Paul Vance, Jr., ensuring him a victory in heavily Democratic Waterbury (the hapless Republican Town Committee, without anybody to stand up on their own, and hoping to ride Jarjura’s coattails – in the eventuality that Vance won the primary – to a couple of seats in the Aldermanic chamber, were persuaded to cross-endorse Jarjura).

But really, sir, a bid for Governor?

Surely Jarjura is actually looking for a seat at the table, and hopes to leverage Waterbury’s delegates to the convention to wrangle another position on the ticket or possibly a Commission in a new Administration?

Is it just a matter of time before Eddie Perez, Bill Finch, John DeStefano, and Dick Moccia indicate their interest in moving to Hartford in some capacity? Continue Reading

Chris Donahue posted the link to the editor of the Hour, but here’s Stuart Wells’ letter in its entirety. I hate when analysis is only presented as percentages, let’s see the raw the data. Why is this important? Well what’s more voters A) 20% of 6000, B) 40% of 3000 or C) 30% of 4000? The answer is 1200 for each. Kinda tells a different story doesn’t it.

By Stuart W. Wells III, Democratic Registrar of Voters

The first statistic about the recent election should be obvious from the results; Republicans did a better job of voting than Democrats.

Typically about 40 percent of the members of the major parties vote in Mayoral elections while around 20 percent of the unaffiliated voters do so. This year the Republicans turned out 41.9 percent of their voters, the Democrats managed 34.3 percent while 22.8 percent of the others (unafilliated, independent, etc.) voted, for an overall turnout of 30.66 percent.

The turnout by ward is given below:


Ward Democrats Republicans Others

A 30.1 percent 39.3 percent 20.4 percent

B 25.5 percent 23.1 percent 11.9 percent

C 37.9 percent 47.0 percent 28.0 percent

D 37.8 percent 40.0 percent 24.3 percent

E 39.2 percent 47.0 percent 25.5 percent


Men and women voted at about the same rate: Men 31.63 percent; Women 29.88 percent

The greatest differences between groups are in two categories – age and length of residency. Of those who are new to Norwalk, i.e. registered for the first time in the two years since the last mayoral election in 2007, only 9.17 percent voted, while those registering in the three years between 2005 and 2007 voted 18.51 percent and longer term residents voted 37.27 percent.

The age distribution of voting was:


Teens 10.6 percent

Twenties 8.8 percent

Thirties 13.7 percent

Forties 29.3 percent

Fifties 37.9 percent

Sixties 43.9 percent

Seventies 55.4 percent

Eighties 49.2 percent

Nineties 25.0 percent


Why do so few typically vote in elections for mayor? Surely one factor is money. In a presidential election, hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on the campaigns, and they are featured on television news and in the newspapers every day for over a year. In addition, millions are raised, and spent, for the local congressional election. Plus candidates for state senator and for state representative spent, collectively, $250,000 on their campaigns. This year, we have a race for congress and for U.S. Senate where millions will be spent, plus races for governor and the other constitutional offices where more millions will be spent and the local candidates for state senator and state representative will again spend $250,000. Even more will be spent if, as seems likely, one or both parties have primaries for several of these major offices.

In contrast, in the recent election, the candidates for mayor, town clerk, common council and board of education spent about $100,000 in total. That’s less than $10 per person who actually voted. The New York Times reported that Mayor Bloomberg spent over $100 million on his campaign, or $183 per vote he received. Here in Norwalk, Rowayton had the highest voter turnout of any precinct. They should be congratulated on their civic-mindedness, but this was somewhat aided by what seems to have been, by all accounts, a bitter fight for local taxing district commissioner on which the candidates spent over $5,000 according to their financial reports. It’s not just money for mailings and newspaper advertisements that matters either. In the past people had phone numbers listed in the white pages. Today, everybody has a cel phone and an email address, but neither one is easily available. You can hardly blame them, what with all the unwanted telemarketing calls and junk email they (and I) receive and the risks of identity theft. However, it takes more money now to reach voters than it ever did.

Absent millionaire candidates, Norwalk will never be able to spend the kind of money it takes to generate substantial turnout in a local election. Clearly, though, we must to a better job of engaging our new, young voters in the electoral process.

One way would be to pay more attention to voter registration and elections in our high schools. High school students may register to vote when they turn 17, though they can’t vote until they are 18. We, as a society, need to do a better job of introducing our young adults to the process of registering to vote, learning about the community in which they live, and voting.

There is another factor to consider as well, and that is the number of local races for what are, essentially, no-show positions. The City Treasurer, Sheriff and Selectmen have no actual duties, and therefore do not have actual campaigns. We elect seven constables out of the eight who run. Constable are allowed to serve legal papers, and can make money doing so, but there is no good reason that they couldn’t be appointed by the mayor and common council, with, say, the mayor’s party getting four and the other party getting three. Fewer races would make the voting process less cumbersome and confusing. Furthermore, it could allow a single-sided ballot, which would save printing costs. During the recanvass (recount) conducted on the Saturday immediately after the election, each ballot was examined to see if the ovals were filled in properly so that the tabulator could read the ballot. You would be surprised at the number of people who did not turn their ballot over and vote both sides. Or maybe you wouldn’t be.

A lesser, but still significant problem is the change in voting location every year between local and state/federal elections. This affects 37.5 percent of Norwalk’s voters and only 29.3 percent of them voted in 2009 while 31.5 percent of those who do not change location went to the polls. Not a huge difference, but statistically important. We could do something about this problem, and the many calls we receive on election day asking�

“Where do I vote,” if two or more different districts could vote in the same location. Most voters could then go to the same location every year, and simply go through the checker line for their voting district and get the appropriate ballot. The tabulators can be programmed to accept ballots from more than one district, so they would not present a problem, and few, if any, additional poll workers would be needed. However, state law, written in the days of the old lever machines, currently prohibits this solution.

Heidi Keyes and John Tobin can breath easy now, the weekend recount added votes but didn’t change the outcome. Keyes, a Democrat joins the three parents not politicians as new members of the baord of education (BOE.) Tobin rounds out the Republican sweep of the at-large council seats.

The final numbers:

BOE

Heidi Keyes 5,907

Artie Kassimis 5,901

at large Council

John E. Tobin 6,077

Anna K. Duleep 6,056

Tonight the BET will announce the results of the teacher’s contract that went up to arbitration a short while ago. The gist is that there is a zero percent increase for the next three years however step pay raises remain. In previous years, yearly pay increases and step raises were awarded, sort of making a compounding effect on labor costs. A step, for those not familiar with contract language is really just a pay grade. I’ll post the details from the BET meeting when I get them.

Last night’s resounding sweep of any incumbent BOE member is really quite stunning when you think about it. It caps a year where Dr. Sal Corda resigned following the exit of Karen Lang (sort of) and in the prior year Stuart Opdhal. The long and winding story on this really is that after years of inept BOE management, Norwalk finally woke up and made a change. In looking at the election results this year, is obvious that this year more than most, Norwalk pikced and chose it’s winners very carefully, except in District C, but that’s a whole other post.

Yesterday’s election was really set into motion by the Democratic Town Committee, which had an opportunity upon the resignation from the BOE of Bruce Kimmel, after he abandoned his Democratic party registration, to do something different. Instead they collectively buried heir heads in the sand, though not quite at calf pasture beach, and ignored the increasing concerns voiced by the state board of education, but the findings of the cambridge report, by the CREC report, by the PTOs and by all the parents who clamored for better communication from the BOE.

The DTC has the opportunity to pick Steve Colarossi as it’s replacement pick to the BOE, but in sort of puppet theater production of pretend to choose a candidate, they went with Amy Jimenez, a former BOE member. The Republicans, perhaps because they understand fantasy football, picked up Colarossi and worked to create a slate of candidates that would represent change. Heading into summer, the DTC could have changed course, but didn’t. Greg Burnett didn’t make the cut in the DTC nominations, but the rest of the Democratic BOE incumbents did, except with the addition of Heidi Keyes. Gregg Burnett didn’t fall into the “let’s deny there’s a communication problem” crowd, so it’s somewhat odd that he was rejected by DTC voters, but his loss looms large in the hypocrisy that subsequently occurred.

As the summer gave way to fall, the Parents Not Politician’s worked hard and communicated voiceferously about the lack of BOE communication. They were everywhere. At the same time, the bunkered mentality of the incumbents was still in effect, and the classic “party line” became noticeable. Whether it was portable classrooms, principal hires or lunch program choices, the incumbents made no effort to communicate to the public, even as simply as posting to their own web site. By the time Corda resigned, and the search for a new superintendent spread, they were too far down the path of denial that their lack of communication was the problem. They lit the fuse of getting voted out, by the imperialistic decision to be the “search committee.” No other action that they’ve undertaken could have so clearly demonstrated that they didn’t want to change, and change the level of communication about the Norwalk Public Schools than this.

The desperate act, organized by State Rep. Bruce Morris, to inject race into the election at the end, by holding a rally on the eve of the election and brining in Rev. Al Sharpton to promote the idea that there needed to be minority representation on the board was also boneheaded. All stats that come out of the school district point to the large hispanic student population, and these so-called Democrats pointed to the lack of minority representation should Mosby and Murray not be re-elected all the while forgetting about Magdalia Rivas. Then again, Bruce Morris has consistently shown that when he means minority, he excludes all races but black. The diversity of Norwalk’s schools happens to include Asians as well as immigrants from all over the world. It should be celebrated as part of the advantage of an educational expereince that prepares students for the global economy. Not something to box into a label and count only when elections arrive.

I hope that this new BOE quickly organizes itself by engaging parent task forces, represented by parents, teachers, students, and yes even administrators, that can harness the energy of wanting to make the Norwalk educational experience better. I have a feeling that they will, and that they will communicate better and in more diverse ways that hoping that people just show up to the meetings for a three minute audience.

Just when you thought the Norwalk Municipal election was over, it continues. Due to the automatic triggers of the 1% rule, an automatic recount of the board of education (BOE) and at-large common council races has been triggered. The recount will be held at 10 am at City Hall in the Community Room with Professor Plum and the lead pipe.

Here’s the current “official” vote totals for the at-large race:

Here’s the current “official” vote totals for the BOE race:

So what does the recount entail?

All the ballots will be manually examined for the hanging chads, stray marks, duplicate votes. marks outside the bubble in order to determine voter’s intent and then rerun through a ballot machine. Then the totals will be final, once everyone agrees on the ballots submitted and run through the machine.

Voters rendered an unprecedented outcome in Newtown’s municipal election on Tuesday night, where Democrats lost virtually every contested seat to a combination of Republican and Independent Party of Newtown (IPN) candidates. The lone exception was incumbent Councilman Dan Amaral in the third district, who lost the machine total, but prevailed on the A/B’s to win by five votes when the counting was done. Newtown has three Legislative Council Districts, each with four positions; there are no at-large Legislative Council positions.

Popular long-time Legislative Council member Patricia Llodra (R) was elevated to First Selectman, filling the seat left vacant by Joe Borst (R), who completed a two-year term after unseating five-term incumbent Herb Rosenthal (D). Joining Llodra as Selectmen are long-time Legislative Council Chair Wil Rodgers (R), who lost a bid for State Representative to Chris Lyddy (D) last November; and William F. Furrier (IPN). The First Selectman (the only full-time, paid elective position other than Town Clerk) and two Selectmen are elected at-large.

The Bee has the complete rundown of Tuesday’s results.
Continue Reading

The people of Norwalk have spoken, an re-elected Republican Dick Moccia to a third term along with handing him a majority on the Common Council. Friends and party faithful were on hand at the Norwalk Inn to congratulate Moccia early in the night as votes started trickling in. In a short victory speech Moccia singled out the negativity of the campaign as being somewhat more prevalent than in years past.

“Someone named anonymous kept signing off on the blogs [comments] in the media, ‘can’t you feel the love Dick‘ and tonight, all I have to say is that I do feel the love. Thank you for all of your support.” He went on to blast the media for allowing anonymous comments that spread lies, not just in Norwalk but nationwide, and suggested that people spend more time engaged in discussing the issues.

Unofficial winners

The Race: Mayor

Dick Moccia -R incumbent

The Race: Town Clerk

Andy Garfunkel -D incumbent

The Race: at-large Common Council

Fred Bondi -R incumbent

Doug Hempstead -R incumbent

Rick McQuaid -R incumbent

Joanne Romano -R challenger

John Tobin -R challenger

Without Absentees trailing by 100 votes is

Anna Duleep – D incumbent

Too Close to Call at this type

The Race: Common Council District A

Erik Anderson -D challenger

Rich Bonenfant -R incumbent

Dave Jaeger -D challenger

Diana Palladino -R challenger

The Race: District B Common Council

Carvin Hilliard -D incumbent

Travis Sims -D challenger

The Race: District C Common Council

Nick Kydes -R incumbent

Laurel Lindstrom -D incumbent

The Race: District D Common Council

Clyde Mount -R challenger

Kelly Straniti -R incumbent

Too Close to Call at this type

The Race: District E Common Council

Victor Cavallo -R challenger

Andrew Conroy -R incumbent

Nora King-D challenger

Chris Potts -D incumbent

The Race: Board of Education

Steve Collarossi -I challenger

Erin Halsey -R challenger

Sue Haynie-R challenger

Artie Kassimis -R challenger

Without Absentees trailing by 100 votes is

Heidi Keyes -D challenger

Reports from the field indicate that turnout is low throughout Norwalk and especially at Columbus school. About 5000 people had voted by noon today, putting Norwalk on track for a total voter turnout of between 10k and 11k.

No endorsements or Team Turfgrrl this year. Instead a recap of who is running and a short summary of why you may or may not want to vote for the candidate. Some candidates have a “pretty good” chance, which just means that I think they will likely win, whereas most candidates have a “good” chance meaning they might win.

Most of the races are in what we like to call “Too close to call.” Incumbents usually have an edge, and people with high community involvement and name recognition do too. Of all the races the Mayor’s race is easier to call, simply because there’s more data out there on predictors, the main one being financial support. It’s not hard to handicap a race when there’s such a lopsided difference in fundraising.

The Race: Mayor

Dick Moccia -R incumbent

Odds of Winning: pretty good.

Why Vote For Him: In four years he’s been in office, the City of Norwalk has done okay.

Scott Merrell -I challenger

Odds of Winning: Scottie needs to be beamed up.

Why Vote For Him: You want to throw your vote away and are too chicken to vote none of the above.

Steve Serasis -D challenger

Odds of Winning: Steve who?

Why Vote For Him: In two years on the Norwalk Common Council he has mostly abstained. He also promised to take a furlough if elected. If you believe the city runs itself, he’s your guy.

The Race: Town Clerk

Andy Garfunkel -D incumbent

Odds of Winning: pretty good.

Why Vote For Him: Has managed the clerk’s office into the 21st century.

Mary Roman -R challenger

Odds of Winning: good..

Why Vote For Her: You want to bring that Olympic experience back to City Hall.

The Race: at-large Common Council

Thomas Agosto II -D challenger

Odds of Winning: good.

Why Vote For Him: You want to see the average age on the Common Council go down, or at least get in better shape, Agosto is a martial arts physical trainer.

Fred Bondi -R incumbent

Odds of Winning: pretty good.

Why Vote For Him: You know him. He knows you. Fred is Fred.

Amanda Brown -D incumbent

Odds of Winning: pretty good.

Why Vote For Her: She represents the youth, the underserved and anyone not represented by anyone else in Norwalk including her Brien McMahon alumni.

Anna Duleep -D incumbent

Odds of Winning: pretty good.

Why Vote For Her: A recent addition as a mid-term replacement, Duleep has shown she’s a quick study. Plus she wins the most informative campaign web site award.

Mike Geake -D incumbent

Odds of Winning: good.

Why Vote For Him: The most accessible council member and has techie street cred. Yet he hasn’t updated his web site since August. Follows his own mind.

Doug Hempstead -R incumbent

Odds of Winning: pretty good.

Why Vote For Him: Doug is a seasoned Common Council veteran and actually reads his packet and thinks about things. Plus he’s the only candidate running a survey about what you think on his website.

Rick McQuaid -R incumbent

Odds of Winning: pretty good.

Why Vote For Him: In his day job works for the Norwalk Public School System. Has that expereince to dissect all those BOE “special appropriations.”

Joanne Romano -R challenger

Odds of Winning: good.

Why Vote For Her: She devotes much of her time to helping people in Norwalk.

Kate Tepper -D challenger

Odds of Winning: good.

Why Vote For Her: Has an English degree and might raise the bar on the quality of Council language.

John Tobin -R challenger

Odds of Winning: good.

Why Vote For Him: He will make the tough decisions, no abstentions with Tobin.

The Race: Common Council District A

Erik Anderson -D challenger

Odds of Winning: good.

Why Vote For Him: Wants a more open and transparent government along with reducing property taxes and improving roads.

Rich Bonenfant -R incumbent

Odds of Winning: pretty good.

Why Vote For Him: He ran for council to get out of the house at night.

Dave Jaeger -D challenger

Odds of Winning: good.

Why Vote For Him: Wants to do great things to improve Norwalk.�You want to do great things too.

Diana Palladino -R challenger

Odds of Winning: good.

Why Vote For Her: She’ll work hard at being a great responsive council member.

The Race: District B Common Council

Carvin Hilliard -D incumbent

Odds of Winning: A sure thing.

Why Vote For Him: You have no choice.

Travis Sims -D challenger

Odds of Winning: A sure thing.

Why Vote For Him: You have no choice. Plus you like boxing.

The Race: District C Common Council

Nick Kydes -R incumbent

Odds of Winning: good.

Why Vote For Him: You really want to be represented by someone who skips most meetings and doesn’t read his packet.

Laurel Lindstrom -D incumbent

Odds of Winning: pretty good.

Why Vote For Her: You want to bring neighborhood concepts to City Hall.

Michael O’Reilly-R challenger

Odds of Winning: good.

Why Vote For Him: You really do vote “row A all the way.”

Kevin Poruban -D challenger

Odds of Winning: good.

Why Vote For Him: You think the $200 million on Education building renovations was well spent.

The Race: District D Common Council

Chris Donahue -D challenger

Odds of Winning: good.

Why Vote For Him: Knows a thing or two about tourism and technology, plus he wants to make Norwalk better.

Clyde Mount -R challenger

Odds of Winning: good.

Why Vote For Him: You want to bring business efficiency to the the council.

Marilyn Robinson-D challenger

Odds of Winning: good.

Why Vote For Her: You’d like to bring back that Knopp or Collins administration experience.

Kelly Straniti -R incumbent

Odds of Winning: pretty good.

Why Vote For Her: The only Council member that has voted consistently against increasing taxes, spending, user fees and raising the cost of living in Norwalk. Now that’s a consistent voting record.

The Race: District E Common Council

Victor Cavallo -R challenger

Odds of Winning: good.

Why Vote For Him: In his day job he practices law.

Andrew Conroy -R incumbent

Odds of Winning: good.

Why Vote For Him: He’s a smart guy.

Nora King-D challenger

Odds of Winning: good.

Why Vote For Her: You want a stronger focus on reducing taxes and curbing spending.

Chris Potts -D incumbent

Odds of Winning: good.

Why Vote For Him: You want someone on the Council to be a Physics major and play chess. He’s handy with a spreadsheet too. Most likey to compare and contrast anything by�Dostoyevsky�with Public Works Council Committee meetings.

The Race: Board of Education

Steve Collarossi -I challenger

Odds of Winning: pretty good.

Why Vote For Him: You want someone who is passionate, detail oriented, involved and likes to communicate. And he’s a lawyer by profession.

Erin Halsey -R challenger

Odds of Winning: good.

Why Vote For Her: She wants to change the BOE into a more responsive board.

Sue Haynie-R challenger

Odds of Winning: pretty good.

Why Vote For Her: You wants someone unfraid of asking questions, digging into the data and leaving no statement unturned. she believes that Norwalk should raise the bar and not just meet standards. She was a PTO leader.

Amy Jimenez -D incumbent

Odds of Winning: good.

Why Vote For Her: You want someone who is �a consensus builder. She buys into the one voice communication thing.

Artie Kassimis -R challenger

Odds of Winning: good.

Why Vote For Him: You want someone who knows how to use technology to reduce operating expenses.

Heidi Keyes -D challenger

Odds of Winning: good.

Why Vote For Her: You want someone who knows how important early childhood education and literacy is, she wants better BOE communication.

Shirley Mosby -D incumbent

Odds of Winning: good.

Why Vote For Her: You want someone who likes to fight for issues. She thinks they communicate just fine.

Rosa Murray -D incumbent

Odds of Winning: good.

Why Vote For Him: You want someone who has been a steady presence on the board. She believes the board has things under control.

****

There are other races, but you are on your own.

Candidate web site listed below:

• Andy Garfunkel Town Clerk
• Anna Duleep At Large
• Chris Donahue At Large
• David Jaeger District A
• David McCarthy 6th Taxing District
• Doug Hempstead
• Amy Jimenez
• Heidi Keyes
• Joanne Romano At Large
• John Tobin
• Kevin Poruban
• Laurel Lindstrom District C
• Mike Geake At Large
• Moccia for Mayor
• Nora King District E
• Parents Not Politicians
• Rosa Murray
• Shirely Mosby
• Rich Bonenfant
• Steve Colarossi
• Steve Serasis for Mayor
• Sue Haynie