On March 5th, there will be a primary in five voting districts in town for election to the Republican Town Committee. Those districts are 2, 4, 5, 8, and 9. You are in one of these districts if you vote at Town Hall, New Lebanon School, Riverside School, Central Middle School, or the Bendheim Western Greenwich Civic Center.
Why is this happening when just over a month ago there were the bi-annual caucuses for both the Democratic and Republican Town Committees? The simple answer is that the current RTC leadership realized that they had not won enough votes in the caucuses to retain their leadership positions, so they decided to petition for primaries. That is their right. What I strongly object to is the false narratives, poor behavior, and spewing of misinformation, all of which has resulted in a poisonous atmosphere, poorly run meetings, unprofessional conduct, and most importantly for a town committee, the worst performance in the 163 year record of the Greenwich GOP.
Town committees have two primary jobs:
1) Find good, qualified candidates to run for various elected offices: and
2) Help them win.
That is it. And that is enough. Recruiting good, qualified candidates is not easy. The committee’s job ends on Election Night each year as recruiting and planning for the next election cycle begins. Having been the Greenwich GOP Chairman for four years (2002-2006), I can tell you from first hand experience that you never try to control or undermine elected officials once they get in office, and you never try to bully them to fit an ideological position. The current chair and a few of her co-leaders of this RTC have repeatedly done both since they assumed the reins of RTC power in March of 2022.
Whether speaking against the proposals that I ran on, and won on with town-wide support, or trying to bully people like the new BET Chair, this behavior has brought embarrassment to our town, and our party.
Their recent claims and boasts are 100% false and can be easily verified, yet they continue to make them. Let’s set the record straight on each:
The current Chair and a few other RTC leaders actively worked–unsuccessfully–to recruit Republicans to run against Lauren Rabin, Jackie Budkins, and me last spring. They did not support us. In an article in a newspaper on May 13th last year, one week after Lauren Rabin, Jackie Budkins, and I announced our intention to seek re-election, the RTC Chair was quoted as saying the process was still open and she welcomed anyone to throw his or her hat on the ring. She said this in print and publicly, while privately asking several people to run against us. That is her right, but to claim otherwise is false. This is just a fact.
They claimed credit for our victory when they had zero involvement in our campaigns, and just focused on the BET and RTM, where most of their candidates lost, which included some good people that got tainted through affiliation with them. That is just a fact.
The current Chair attempted–unsuccessfully–to strong-arm the internal choice of the BET for Chairman, one of the most powerful positions in town government. They exerted extreme pressure on Harry Fisher to step aside so that another member could become BET Chair. In what became a pretty hostile situation, which looked terrible for Republican members of the BET, they pushed for a candidate who received the least votes from Greenwich residents instead of Harry, who received the most votes from Greenwich residents of any incumbent BET member. This is just a fact.
The Chair instigated the primaries on March 5 because she did not have enough votes to keep hold as RTC Chair without them. She picked up the petitions herself and circulated them herself, and in some cases, had others running to various districts with those petitions. Moreover, she went after a current Republican Selectwoman that is popular in town and has proven her elect-ability several times. That is just a fact.
Many of the people serving on the RTC are fantastic, hard-working, dedicated Republicans who care deeply about this town. Unfortunately, they have been led the past two years by people who consistently put out misinformation and manipulate truth on a regular basis. That is just a fact.
The Chairwoman continues to claim she is the first female RTC chair in our town’s history, but that honor belongs to Cindy Rubicam, who was the first, and then Dolly Powers, two highly respected public servants who went on to serve on the Board of Selectmen (Cindy Rubicam) and in the state legislature (Dolly Powers), and who both had successful and dignified tenures running the RTC. That is just a fact.
The leadership of this RTC has been a disaster for the Republican party and everyone in Greenwich. That is my opinion.
I’ve been grateful to both run with a terrific team of people and to work with a terrific team of people. I have also been able to work with people with whom I disagree, both here and at the State Capitol. Working with friends across the aisle to oppose bad legislation and support good is what a servant of the public is supposed to do, and yet this approach has been, and is still being, vilified by the current RTC leadership and a few of their surrogates on social media (which tells you a lot). Two years ago, I pledged to do my best to try and work with this current leadership group, but after two years, the window of trying to work with them has closed. It is time I will not get back, and I will not waste any more of it.
To be clear, I have had the honor of having my name on the ballot nine times, and nine times the people in our community spoke loudly that they want progress, dedicated service, and results. That lesson, and that record, is both ignored and scorned by this group.
I know we can run this town without the lies and bullying that have characterized the leadership of the RTC, led by the chairwoman, and a few of her leadership colleagues. We have done it before, and we will do it again.
If you are a registered Republican, please get out and vote this Tuesday for those people who will elect a new Chairman. If you are an unaffiliated voter who used to be a Republican, please consider re-affiliating officially by Monday and vote on Tuesday.
These are the candidates that I am supporting:
District 2 Voting at Town Hall
Jill Barile
Nicholas Barile
Scott Diddel
Joe Kelly
Jill Kelly
District 4 Voting at New Lebanon School
Paul Cappiali
Victoria Cappiali
Andrea Blume
Mike Bocchino
Josh Brown
District 5 Voting at Riverside School
Jerry Cincotta
Andy Duus
Mike Hahn
Marc Johnson
Paul Olmstead
District 8 Voting at Central Middle School
Lisa Becker Edmundson
Michael Evenston
Janet Freitheit
Michael Freitheit
Caron Vizzo St. Phillip
Dina Urso
District 9 Voting at Bendheim Western Civic Center
Barbara Darula
Patty DeFelice
Pam Pagnani
Lauren Rabin
Steve Warzoha
Carol Zarilli
Greenwich deserves better than what we have witnessed the past two years, and our town deserves to have the Greenwich Republican Party back that was the envy of the state for decades, and actually did what they are supposed to do: find qualified candidates, run civil campaigns, and win.
