This has to be one of the stealthiest campaign seasons ever. Tonight mayor Moccia is conifdent he won’t need a full 10 minutes to chat with East Norwalk residents about the race. I think that sums up the campaign thus far, and that rests with the challenger, Walter Briggs who hasn’t exactly come out of the gate with a strong message. Like Mr. Peabody, I took a trip in the wayback machine to dig up some newsy news from 2005.
Let’s take a look back at what The Hour was writing about 2 years ago by Patrick Linsey:
Even as the clock ticked down, with the polls opening in a matter of hours, candidates kept up the pressure, distributing literature, knocking on doors and making last-minute calls to undecided voters.
Democratic Mayor Alex Knopp, who is seeking a third term, spent his lunch break at the Democratic Town Committee’s West Avenue headquarters, calling voters. He returned at 7 p.m., to make a few last telephone appeals.
“The campaign is focused on organizing a big get-out-the-vote effort,” said Knopp. “Our concern is that in a low turnout election, the opponents can rev up more anger.”
Knopp said tomorrow will be a particularly special day for his family. “I’ll be taking my daughter to vote for the first time,” he explained. Knopp smiled, adding they’d had a discussion earlier, and he is reasonably sure he’s got her vote.
Several miles away, at the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Democratic volunteers used the organization’s 20-line phone bank to blanket districts in calls.Republican volunteers made calls from their party’s headquarters as well. “It was basically just cleaning up whatever districts we didn’t get to in the week,” said Arthur Scialabba, Republican Town Committee chairman and candidate for treasurer.
Many Republican candidates took a break to gather at the Norwalk Inn, at a party organized by John and Karen Tobin to thank supporters for their hard work.
Republican mayoral candidate Richard A. Moccia said he spent his day recording telephone appeals to voters and making calls to personally thank supporters.
As Moccia sat at his table, Tobin placed a large, wrapped package in front of him. She informed him he had won an earlier raffle.
Moccia grinned. “Next the election,” he said.
“I don’t want to be cocky about it,” Moccia continued. “I’ve been doing a lot of campaigns in the last 25 years. I definitely feel momentum building my way.”
Common Council candidates also campaigned hard over the last several days. Considerable resources were expended in Districts A and D, perhaps Norwalk’s most competitive, where several council races were decided by margins of less than 200 votes in 2003.
Democratic Councilman Peter Wien is seeking re-election in District A, where he won by a margin of 48 votes two years ago.
“I find it a difficult time,” Wien said of the last days of a campaign. “It’s sort of like Christmas: Everybody goes running to church. Everyone hears from their councilman.”
Nevertheless, Wien said he has spent a lot of time on the telephone, “trying to reach the people who are undecided and seeing if I can figure out why.”
He said the calls had resulted in several “wonderful conversations,” citing in particular one feisty 91-year-old woman whom he called “sharp as a tack.”
Republican Kelly L. Straniti is running for council in District D, where she lost by just 164 votes in 2003. She was forced to leave town for several days to attend a funeral, but was able to reach every household in her district with one final mailer last week.
“I’m very excited and I feel really positive,” Straniti said. “I was able to reach across our district to different neighborhoods about quality of life issues that people are interested in.”
or this one:
By JILL BODACH
Hour Staff WriterNORWALK — If the heads of the Republican and Democratic town committees are correct, the mayoral election may be a battle of David and Goliath proportions — at least as far as the issues are concerned.
Republicans are hoping that voters will look at the Goliath items that spell the difference between the incumbent Mayor Alex Knopp and challenger Richard A. Moccia.
“Taxes, crime and the parking are three of the key issues that are really resonating this year,” said Art Scialabba, Republican Town Committee chairman. “This year is a referendum on the Knopp administration and whether he’s been able to improve certain things like education, crime and taxes.”
The Democrats, on the other hand, would prefer voters to look at the more David-sized “bread and butter” issues that affect their everyday lives.
“The things I hope the voters focus on are what makes difference in everyday lives … the bread and butter issues,” said Galen Wells, chairwoman of the Democratic Town Committee. “Issues like new schools, textbooks for kids, speed humps on residential streets and low spending increases, which individual tax bills don’t show. I think, and I hope, that voters will support the person who has a record of accomplishment and who will continue that.”Scialabba said that Knopp’s words versus his action may be the stone that topples Goliath as voters measure his success against his campaign promises.
“You can talk about what you want, but people are going to respond to what actions have been taken, not what words have been said,” Scialabba said.
Scialabba said that the issues of crime, increasing police officers and parking are too big to ignore and that the voters he and other members of the Republican Party have spoken to aren’t planning to ignore them today. Scialabba said that Knopp’s administration has said it will address them but has not done so.
“Crime is a big issue. People don’t feel safe, and it’s not only people on the streets but children in the schools as well,” Scialabba said. “There is clearly gang activity that this administration chose not so much to ignore, but not to publicize and tackle head-on. We’ve had many people come up to us and say this administration has ignored the issues instead of addressing them.”
Many promises to address these issues have not been kept, Scialabba said, and parking woes also have gone woefully unanswered.
“When you change the outside perception of Norwalk from a vibrant downtown to a parking disaster to a ‘ticket town,’ as we are being called, it is a very hard stigma to overcome. All the good done in SoNo over the last several years has been torn down by this administration,” Scialabba said.
Wells said these situations have been exaggerated by Republicans and are red herrings thrown out by the Republican Party to divert voter attention from Knopp’s positive changes to life in Norwalk
“I think they are red herrings, especially the crime stats,” Wells said. “Crime overall has not gone up. All other violent crimes like assaults, burglaries, etc. have gone down but it’s very easy to get people all upset about a supposed increase in crime. There are more cops on streets and school resource officers in schools for anti-crime courses.”
Wells also supported Knopp’s decision to charge a user fee for parking in South Norwalk, a decision Republicans and merchants have criticized heavily.
“I think it’s very important for people to realize that there is no such thing as free parking — someone pays for it, it’s just a question of who that is,” Wells said. “With this usage, the parking fees shifts burden to user, not property taxpayer. An older lady who lives in Cranbury, for example, shouldn’t pay for parking in South Norwalk that she never uses when the person who comes in from Westport or New Canaan doesn’t have to pay.”
Wells said voters should focus instead on the positive aspects of Knopp’s tenure as mayor.
“Norwalk really is moving forward,” Wells said. “The quality of our life is getting better and schools are getting better. All kinds of redevelopment plans are staged and ready to go. It would be a shame to stop that progress.”
The one thing both sides do agree on is that they hope registered voters turn out to the polls Tuesday to make their voices heard.
The Republicans cite a slight increase in voter turnout, which they credit in part in the increased vibrancy in the Republican party and not letting confidence in one side or the other’s victory deter voters from their constitutional right.
“There has been an uptake in the number of voters registering this year, but we are still outnumbered by the Democrats who are, in turn, outnumbered by the nonaffiliated voters,” Scialabba said. “We’ve seen a tremendous surge in activity during the past several weeks, more so then we’ve had in elections of the past and we hope that translates into the votes we need to recapture the mayoral and council seats.”
Wells said that since the local races do not appear as glamorous as the presidential race, voters are often more reluctant to vote.
“We had a big increase last year, very little increase in voter registration this year, but we don’t know whether they will go to the polls. We hope they do,” Wells said. People don’t realize that the local election has more to do with everyday life then the presidential election does. It’s important that voters elect the mayor and then vote to keep the Democratic Common Council.”
Compare and contrast.
