Congressman Jim Himes got his way and his Gilliam Lane supporter will be placed on the ballot for School Board, thus providing an actual choice in these fixed “elections” for the first time in this writer’s memory. In fact, it wasn’t a good night for the Democrat Party’s executive committee last night at all as its recommendations were resoundingly rejected by the rank and file time and again.
A little over a week ago, the DTC executive committee recommended Conte to be Lavery’s running mate. It is rare for the full DTC to go against its executive committee. Working against Conte was the fact that he recently changed his party enrollment from Republican to Democrat, a reversal that was pointed out by party members.
Edward Krumeich Jr., in his nominating speech for Conte, referred to the candidate as a Republican, in a slip of the tongue. [Oops!]
In a shocking development, Democrats balked at endorsingformer Republican Rick Novakowski as the party’s candidate to succeed the ever-popular and retiring incumbent Louis Caravella on the ballot as tax collector.
”It seems to me he is not in the mainstream of the Democratic Party,” DTC member Gerald Pollack said of Novakowski.
Pollack said he was troubled by Novakowski’s support of Republican candidates and his penning of right-leaning letters to the editor of Greenwich Time on a number of key issues.
Allies of choice had a key supporter among their ranks, however — U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., the former town party chairman. Even though he was absent from the meeting, Himes sent a letter pushing for the party to field three candidates for school board.
I didn’t realize that, in the eyes of Greenwich Democrats, no candidate for office, even the tax collector, can hold conservative views. If ever there is position for a non-partisan office holder, I would think it would be our tax collector, who I thought was supposed to apply the law in a neutral, objection manner. The Democrats obviously want someone who will pursue their objectives and, presumably, punish their enemies. I don’t know who they found to fit that description but I’ll vote against him on general principle.
Might our next Town of Greenwich tax bill be in rubles?
Have you ever read the drivel that Novakowski writes in his letters to the editor? I can’t remember if he is right wing nut or a left wing nut, but he is certainly a nut.
Do you remember when he and his good friend Lindsay Urso decided they needed to fix some things in Cos Cob school a few years back? Our friend who had children at Cos Cob then and spent a lot of time volunteering in the school had never heard of these people before they started shooting their mouths off.
Sounds like a logical decision by the democrats to me. With respect to the school board, I still can’t get my head around the notion that a school board member should have a party affiliation or that it should have any bearing on their actions. I can’t think of anything more non-partisan than what a school board should do.
Course, I’ve always been jaded since it was explained to me in 9th grade civics that the main purpose of a political party was to get its people elected.
Hey Riverside, I described him as an amiable idiot yesterday but said I’d prefer him as tax collector (which is the position I think he was running for -if it was the School Board, forget it) to the shark the Republicans have anointed. It’s probably a moot point, but does anyone know who, if anyone, the Democrats found as a replacement candidate?
Wait — did you just imply that Jim Himes came out on the correct side of an issue, by promoting choice on the BOE ticket? Are you feeling okay, or should we call a doctor?
Hey Red, I think he was right on this issue, even if his motivation was suspect. The Republicans could do worse than to adopt the same principle of multile candidates, and thus choice, for their own board nominations.. My question going forward is, does his victory presage a putsch of the Democrat Executive Committee? It seems as though those guys were worked over last night by their peers. Maybe it’s time to bring Chris Von Kyeserling over from the Republican party and show them how to behave in a dignified and unified manner.
Novakowski wished to be the Tax Collector candidate. And I agree with “Riverside Dog Walker” … I can’t tell which shoe goes on first, right or left.
The Democrats did not nominate a Tax Collector, so the Republican candidate will run unopposed.