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Norwalk: Statement From David Brown


by turfgrrl


January 24th, 2008 · 17 Comments

By David brown

Whether real or imagined, there is a perception here of secrecy and exclusion when it came to letting the Democratic voters in East Norwalk know there was going to be a caucus held where the people representing their point of view were going to be elected.

By not noticing the caucus other than in the Legal Notices in the HOUR the more than 1,200 Democratic voters in East Norwalk were unable to vote for names of their choice on the ballot.

What makes this important is that the 7 people elected by the only 17 Democratic voters who were personally called to vote for a selected few may not reflect the ideas and ideals of the Democratic community. These 7 people will now be part of the selection process that puts forth names to be on future ballots. Perhaps the 1,200 Democrats in East Norwalk would disagree with the 7 elected committeemen about the names on future ballots.

The fairest way to hold this caucus was to invite all the Democrats in East Norwalk, not just a chosen few. The Democratic voters of East Norwalk were disenfranchised by being excluded from being able to vote for who their District delegates should be.

Tags: Norwalk

17 Responses so far ↓ “Norwalk: Statement From David Brown”



  • 1 anonymous // Jan 24, 2008 at 10:49 am

    I agree with you Dave. A select few are trying to hijack the party. Keep fighting these bad people who do not represent the people of East Norwalk.

  • 2 anonymous // Jan 24, 2008 at 12:44 pm

    But you should have called 17 people to vote for you, Dave. Where, other than the Hour and on the DTC web site would you expect the notice to be posted? Does the DTC have the money to mail to 14000 registered Dems? I doubt it!

  • 3 Lunacy Squared // Jan 24, 2008 at 1:07 pm

    It appears the DTC had the money to pay an attorney hundred of dollars an hour with no limits. They had the 3,000 dollars to do the mailing, but will spend it on lawyers. Figures !!! The Dems never posted it and never sent out postcards in district C.

  • 4 Anonymous // Jan 24, 2008 at 1:29 pm

    No doubt Kevin Poruban and Alex Knopp were behind this (for the life of me, I can’t figure out why they’re threatened by Fred Bondi and Dave Brown). Anyway, you two should be ashamed of yourselves. Kevin …. the good people of East Norwalk let their voices be heard when they voted you off the Common Council for the SECOND TIME IN A ROW. Can’t you take a hint!?

  • 5 Tom Tom // Jan 24, 2008 at 1:53 pm

    I think that when things dont go Mike Coffey’s way..there always seem to be overanalized discrepencies. Mike Coffey should RESIGN from the Democratic Party and join the Lieberman for CT party…enough is enough

  • 6 Anonymous // Jan 24, 2008 at 2:46 pm

    Briggs and Slapin found numerous violations by wells and her captains. they recommended serious sanctions that included throwing out caucus results in two districts due to the gross failure to follow the rules. those recommendations were not made by bondi brown and coffee. they were made by allies of wells who finally had enough with her total destruction of the democratic party into the the shambles of what it was before wells ruined it.

  • 7 Democrat // Jan 24, 2008 at 2:47 pm

    There you go again Turgirl, trying to smear our party. If the Republicans are so open, how come they don’t have a website? The answer is, they don’t want to make it obvious, with photos showing that they are actually the Aging White People’s party.
    The Democrats are open to anyone, and Galen Wells has been very good at recruiting new party members. We’ve supported a number of young, diverse candidates in recent campaigns.
    Re: the DTC,lots of people want to get on it. There are often contests and that is a healthy state of affairs. It is easier to become a candidate for office than to get on the DTC.
    Galen has the support of the vast majority of the party, very few of whom support Mike Coffey and his band of Republicrats. Let them join the Republicans or Joe Lieberman, you’re welcome to them. Oh wait, the Republicans don’t want members they can’t trust either.
    So that’s what this melodrama is all about, we don’t want Mike Coffey representing the Dems. The rules were fine when they worked in his favor, and now that he’s antagonized everyone, he’s attacking the leadership and the rules. Let him primary and see how many votes he gets. Good riddance.

  • 8 Democrat // Jan 24, 2008 at 2:53 pm

    “Briggs and Slapin found numerous violations by wells and her captains. they recommended serious sanctions that included throwing out caucus results in two districts due to the gross failure to follow the rules.”
    This is a false statement. I was at the DTC meeting and nothing of the kind happened; they would have needed the approval of the committee to invalidate the caucuses.

  • 9 anonymous // Jan 24, 2008 at 3:11 pm

    7 and 8, it was Coffey Hilliard Bondi Bolden and Grant that led the way on ethics reform, eminent domain reform, open space, living wage, negotiated labor contracts and responsible contractors. wells and her five opposed these progressive things and also voted against wage increases for several unions. at least get the record straight.

  • 10 Dorian Gray // Jan 24, 2008 at 3:22 pm

    Wells has recruited young people ? WTF. Maybe she considers Dorian Gray as young.

    Let’s guess, hmmmm, Mrs. Wells supporters are surely smoking some illegal drug.

    They seem to fit the bill as the aging and losing party.

  • 11 demsknow // Jan 24, 2008 at 3:48 pm

    I find it amusing that #9 has forgotten several republicans who without their input, support and vote, all the above mentioned items would have been dead in the water. Not just once but many times Galen Wells attacked one or 2 Repubs for destroying Norwalk and the democratic process. Thankfully 1 or 2 of them were able to stand up to her and her band of merry followers. Anyone remember the heated disscussion in City Hall parking lot? Many of us witnessed it and we were glad that Galen got brought down a few pegs. Too bad no one in our own party is willing to stand up to her and her cronies. Better watch out Coffey and others just may send you packing after all because not all dems like the way things are being run and how we only get bits and pieces of information. I do have one question, who paid for the hearing, who authorized the payment and if all accounts are correct did any of the DTC members know about this expenditure prior to the newspaper reportings?

  • 12 turfgrrl // Jan 24, 2008 at 3:59 pm

    Democrat: Please explain how reporting on a meeting is smearing the Democratic party? You can praise Galen all you want but the reality, the facts say quite another thing. Losing is losing elections. If you want to claim otherwise be my guest.

    As for the Republican party, I find them more open, more transparent and yes, they should have an RTC web site.

    I really don’t care for party labels all that much, but find it infinitely amusing that so much energy is being spent by Democrats defending the idea of kicking out members of their own party when there are important things to accomplish in the city. I suppose its easier to keep writing that scarlet letter A then dealing with substantive issues.

    I note, with my usual dose of sarcasm, that no one here has discussed any issue related criticism of Coffey or Geake.

  • 13 David Brown // Jan 24, 2008 at 9:52 pm

    To: 2anonymous “But you should have called 17 people to vote for you, Dave. Where, other than the Hour and on the DTC web site would you expect the notice to be posted? Does the DTC have the money to mail to 14000 registered Dems? I doubt it”

    Had the number of candidates for the caucus been noticed before the election I would have known that there were 9 people on the ballot and I would have called some of my Democratic friends to come vote for me.

    However, Mr. Poruban took the rule to mean to show the people coming in to vote the ballot as they came into the room. That is his interpretation of disclosing the names of the candidates in advance of the vote and I disagree 100%.

    Could the DTC afford to send out 14,000 post cards? Probably not, but I could have afforded to send post cards to 100 of my Democratic supporters in East Norwalk.

    I didn’t know the names on the ballot until I got there to vote and I was surprised to see 9 names. If there was to be any sense of transparency and openess in this caucus, Mr. Poruban should have at least told the current members of this District C Democratic Committee that their seats were in jeopardy. He did not. Instead he kept the names secret until the night of the election.

  • 14 Anonymous // Jan 25, 2008 at 1:10 am

    The COMPLETE rules allow that ANY registered Dem can still run for the Town Committee by petitioning. These caucuses were to determine the slate of endorsed candidates — the caucuses are not the election. Does anyone actually understand this point? It sure seems like some perspective has been lost…

  • 15 a call to action! // Jan 25, 2008 at 8:27 am

    Wake Up- Disenfranchised Democrats!

    It is time to take your complaint to the streets- get organized! Democrats who did not make it on the DTC- should form a political action committee. (PAC). You can hold your own monthly meetings- raise money and support the democrats who believe in the PAC’S mission statement.

    The mission of the DTC- is to control and patrol the rank and file- Do you really think this is good for Norwalk or democracy?

    Stand up and fight back- maybe you should lay the ground work for a mayoral primary- with your own slate of candidates.

    If not –keep begging for a seat at the masters of hypocrisy table!

  • 16 Interesting story on My Left Nutmeg // Jan 25, 2008 at 12:51 pm

    Norwalk Liebercrat Challenge: A Blessing in Disguise?
    by: mattw
    Thu Jan 24, 2008 at 14:54:44 PM EST
    It passed unmentioned on MLN, but January’s DTC caucuses in Norwalk saw the ejection of three of that towns six “Dems for Joe,” namely Mike Coffey, Carvin Hilliard, and Fred Bondi.
    Last night, some drama came to the surface at State Central:

    On Wednesday afternoon, a state central committee panel heard a complaint brought by former Norwalk Councilman Michael W. Coffey against Galen Wells, Norwalk Democratic Town Committee chairwoman. […]
    Norwalk Democratic Town Committee rules require, among other things, that a resident be a registered Democrat and have attended at least three district meetings to become a candidate at the annual caucuses.

    Coffey, while having met that obligation, said it and several other town committee rules exclude people.

    “I think this is about standing up for the rights of 14,000 registered Democrats who were disenfranchised by the Democratic chair’s failure to follow the rules and provide proper notice,” Coffey said after Wednesday’s hearing. “I also have issues with the rules. I think some of the rules do more to protect the backroom politicians than they do to protect the 14,000 registered Democrats.”

    Speaking earlier Wednesday, Justin Kronholm, executive director of Democratic State Central Committee, said only that hearing involved “a complaint brought about by the procedures of the (Norwalk) Democratic Town Committee caucuses.” Kronholm said a panel comprising three state central committee members would hear the complaint.

    (iron-clad subscription only link here - TurfGrrl covers the hearing here.)

    Now, while applications were due weeks before the caucus and the caucuses were advertised in the local newspaper, I don’t know enough about the Norwalk rules to say which way State Central would (or should) rule. And, Mr. Coffey lost by a margin of something on the order of 51 votes to 8, so it’s unlikely that a second bite at the apple will net him any real benefit.

    I’m happy to see people who supported Lieberman post-primary be chased out of positions of authority in the party, but the effect of the Liebercrat challenge being successful is actually a pretty interesting one: if State Central should intercede, a lot of those (especially urban dems) who have found their local party inaccessible and meetings held outside of public view will have a new ally – the state party itself.

    Plus, since the dispute seems to center around the difference between following the letter of the party rules (as asserted by the DTC) and the implied spirit of the rules (as asserted by the Liebercrat contingent), the DSCC intervening would essentially show that they’re willing to reach in and rewrite the rules to ensure that local parties meet their standards for openness. That would be a real change, and I’d expect Caruso’s Bridgeport contingent to be the very first in line for their pound of justice if State Central opens that door.

    Simply put, if Norwalk’s procedures don’t pass muster from the state perspective, we can expect a large number of closed-shop DTCs to be blown open in the coming year. Stay tuned.

  • 17 anonymous // Jan 25, 2008 at 4:56 pm

    This back from Anonymous 2 - I see what you mean. Poruban’s behavior is childish and uncivil. I gather he’s in cahoots with the leaders who hijacked the party for their own ends? You’re really in a pickle. You should form your own party.

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