Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Contentious Leadership election at Democratic Town Committee Meeting Thursday

The Democratic Town Committee will elect their leaders for the coming two years at a meeting Thursday evening (7PM, Police Department Community Room). Two candidates are vying for the office of chair, Dan Russo and Elizabeth Santangelo.

Russo, the chair of the DTC for the past 6 years, has been challenged by Santangelo. All eight Democrats on the Common Council signed a letter sent to the members of the DTC, expressing their opposition to Russo as chair. They cited the failure to elect a Democratic Mayor and called for someone who would work effectively with the Democrats on the Common Council.

The Council Democrats expressed their support for Ann Tommasi to continue as Vice-Chair, Sandra Faraci to continue as Secretary, James Streeto as Parliamentarian, and proposed that Grady Faulkner become Treasurer.

Voting for the leadership positions will be by open ballot. In response to a request from Streeto to the Legal Counsel for the Democratic State Central Committee, Kevin Reynolds wrote, "Pursuant to Connecticut Democratic Party Rules, secret ballots are prohibited when those voting are acting in a representative capacity, such as a town committee member. The logic behind this rule is that a member's constituents have an absolute right to know how their members voted."

All meetings of the DTC are open to any registered Democrat.

The DTC will also be electing delegates to a variety of state and regional conventions. These delegates will nominate Democratic candidates for U.S. Senator, Governor and other statewide offices, and for State Legislators whose district includes more than one municipality.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I strongly urge fellow dems to vote for Lisa. At the very least, Mr. Russo must be removed from his position for openenly lying to the DTC on numerous occasions. Not only in the way he removed members from the committee who he felt were a threat to him, but more recently for games he played by changing the date of the meeting for tonight and only notifying his supporters in an effort to win his election over Lisa Santagelo. This is clearly a demonstration of closed and dishonest politics.