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Friday, July 22, 2011

Parties set their sights on November - Wallingford Democrats’ Testa tops ticket, to take on Mayor Dickinson

As published in the Record Journal, Thursday July 21, 2011

By Adam Wittenberg
Record-Journal staff
awittenberg@recordjournal.com
(203) 317-2231

WALLINGFORD
— The Democratic Town Committee nominated its slate of candidates Wednesday, hoping to take back majorities on the Town Council and Board of Education and win the mayor’s office for the first time since the early 1980s.

Vincent F. Testa Jr. will be at the top of the ticket. The veteran town councilor and former school board member lost his 1997 bid for mayor by a wide margin, but pledged things would be different this time.

“I’m honored, I’m thrilled, I’m excited and I can’t wait to hit the trail with the great people that are going to be nominated this evening,” Testa said. “We’re just going to have a really good night on Nov. 8.”

The Democrats have not come close to defeating Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr. — a Republican and the secondlongest- serving top municipal official in the state — since Michael Brodinsky ran in 2003. The Democrats did not endorse a mayoral candidate in 2009.

The party nominated six council candidates — the most seats it can win because of minority party representation rules. Those same rules guarantee it will hold at least three seats, which it does now. The rules also apply to the school board, where Republicans have a 5-4 edge.

For the council, incumbents John Sullivan and Nicholas Economopoulos will run alongside Robin Hettrick, Donald Harwood, Debbie Reynolds and Jason Zandri.

All but Reynolds have run for council before.

Harwood, who was chairman of the School Building Committee during a $72 million overhaul of 11 schools, was unsuccessful in 2009. Zandri, a computer systems administrator who helps raise money for the town’s annual fireworks display, lost in 2007. Hettrick, town committee vice chairman and a former Zoning Board of Appeals member, did not win in 2005.




Zandri


Testa

Reynolds, a business analyst at The Hartford, hasn’t run previously but is the mother of Jesse S. Reynolds, who lost council bids in 2007 and 2009. Jesse Reynolds nominated his mother as well as his father, Patrick, who is trying to win back a seat on the Board of Education.

Patrick Reynolds, who teaches science at the high school and college levels, won a term on the board in 2007 but lost in the last election.

The Democrats’ school board slate includes four incumbents: Michael Votto, Valerie A. Ford, Jay Cei and Kathy Castelli, the board’s secretary; and one newcomer, David Leonardo.

A 2006 Sheehan High School graduate, Leonardo graduated from the University of Connecticut in May with a degree in history.

He is an intern with John Larson’s re-election campaign for the 1st District U.S. House seat and is helping with the mayoral campaigns of Dan Drew in Middletown and Testa.

Democratic Town Chairman Vincent Avallone praised Leonardo’s involvement and said he was pleased with the candidates.

“I feel we have one of the best slates all the way around,” Avallone said.


Sarah Nathan / Record-Journal
Wallingford resident Vincent F. Testa stands to be acknowledged after being nominated as the Democratic candidate for mayor at the Democratic Town Committee meeting in Wallingford.

Wallingford GOP puts on a show for nominations

As published in the Record Journal, Thursday July 21, 2011

By Robert Cyr
Record-Journal staff
rcyr@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2224

WALLINGFORD
— The Republican Party caucus Wednesday night was filled with poetry and poetic speeches and performances, as the town committee formed its slate of candidates for the Board of Education, Town Council and mayor’s office.

The night started with a procession of players from the Yalesville Fife and Drum Corps and the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps, followed by a formal set of nominations and seconds for candidates.

Wallingford native Jerry Labriola Jr. was recently elected state party chairman. He said local leaders like state Sen. Len Fasano, R-North Haven, helped him on the way to the chairmanship while he was seeking other spots in the party. He then lauded Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr., joking that he had taken office not long after the astronauts of Apollo 11 walked on the moon in 1969.

“We are so lucky to have a leader that just does a consistent good job and is rewarded every two years with re-election,” he said. Support in the auditorium of Dag Hammarskjold Middle School was strong on an oppressively humid July evening, with 65 registered Republicans in the audience and nine guests, said party notable and school board member Chet Miller. Miller was nominated to run for his seat again.
The party nominated Miller, Roxane McKay, Joseph Marrone, Michael Brooder, Tanya Bachand and political newcomer Christine Mansfield for the Board of Education.

As for the nine-member Town Council, it is Republican controlled, with six members including Chairman Robert Parisi. Planning and Zoning Board member Patrick Birney nominated Parisi in his speech, citing Parisi’s quote in a 2009 Record-Journal article as one of his favorite all-time quotes on politics.

In the article, Parisi was asked how his party came to be in the majority after a long stretch of Democratic control on the council.

“Wallingford needed stability and reassurance at time when both were scarce,” Birney quoted.

Jerry Farrell Jr., former commissioner of consumer protection and council vice chairman, announced earlier this year that he would not seek a 17th term on the council. He stepped forward to nominate local business owner John Le Tourneau to a third term.

Farrell said Le-Tourneau was the best man at his wedding seven years ago, and has shown the same altruistic qualities while serving the town.

“He’s the best man for the job because he stands up for the people of Wallingford,” he said.

The party nominated all five incumbents, including Le-Tourneau, Parisi, Rosemary Rascati, Vincent Cervoni and Craig Fishbein. Tom Laffin, a 31-year-old businessman, was chosen to replace Farrell.
Rascati, who admitted to being normally reserved, composed a poem to nominate Dickinson to another term. Dickinson, who has been in office 28 years, is the second­ longest-serving mayor in the state.

“ ’Twas the middle of April in ’83 / when a fine young man came up to me / said he: I’ve been asked to run for mayor this year / and an honest opinion I’d like to hear,” she read. “He’s guided us through thick and thin / and made sure at all times that we could swim. / So let’s return him to the helm to steer the ship forward once again.”

After the slate endorsements, the 13 candidates made their acceptance speeches. Fishbein, revealing a bit of a theatrical side, also read an original poem aloud.

“With two years in the past / the sail’s always at full mast / attacking the budget with pencil,” he read. “But in these uncertain times / it is best to dispel with rhymes / and to avoid at all costs idle gossip.”

Dickinson, long known for his penchant for dramatic presentations, did not disappoint his party after accepting its nomination. His speech bordered on avant-garde theater, as he spoke rousingly over the snare drums and fifes playing old patriot themes.

“There are drums of assembly because the winds of change are blowing all around us,” he said. “Just look at state level or national level. Our country, our state, must begin to adapt to a new reality. It’s not going to be the way it’s always been. The winds of change are requiring us to reassess what we do and how we do it.”


Dickinson