After an intense (and blessedly short) campaign now is the time to thank everyone who stepped up to make the recent special election for state senate a worthwhile and rewarding experience. I am especially grateful to my wife Vera who signed on as treasurer and to my old political friends who guided me through the shoals of running a minority party campaign, which I was forced to do by party rules. In a special election there are no primaries, so I had to petition onto the ballot as an independent candidate. To the nearly 700 signatories to my petition and to my friends who helped me get those signatures, I offer my humble thanks. Even humbler I must be, to thank all my friends who contributed money to my campaign since the two-party system makes it impossible for a petitioning candidate to qualify for state funding. Printing ‘palm cards,’ mailers and producing lawn signs is a part of the political process and I salute the Alpha Graphics team in Stamford for their outstanding work.
And thank you also to all those who in the election itself ignored the constraints of our two-party system and voted for the “petition candidate,” as I appeared on the ballot. I thank my opponents for the three lively debates we held and the organizers: respectively, My Voting Power (MVP), The League of Women Voters and The Round Hill Association.
The Fourth Estate should receive praise too for accurate reporting on the issues – and my name was misspelled only once!
This entire effort was an exercise in small ‘d’ democracy. You seek public office with a purpose in mind and mine was to give regular voters a choice and I feel it was amply fulfilled. The people’s choice was Ryan Fazio and I congratulate him. “Democracy works, ok!”
Finally, to all the voters of Greenwich and the 36th district, another political season is over, this time brief: thank you for putting up with all the lawn signs – they show our democracy is vibrant and for that we should all be grateful.
John Blankley
