New Haven Independent

Democrat Anthony “Unk” DaRos and Republican John Opie will run for the town’s top elected office they told the Eagle this week. “Yes, we are running,” said Unk. “Yes, we filed our initial papers Wednesday,” said Opie. Both men seemed happy about their decisions. The election is Nov. 6.

The men, both former First Selectmen, will face each other and it is seems likely they will face a third candidate, the incumbent Democrat Cheryl Morris, whom both candidates say has created distrust in town government. Asked what each thought the single most important issue facing the town was today, Da Ros did not hesitate: “The first and most important thing is to bring back public trust in one’s own local government. That is the biggest problem right now,” he said, referring to the Morris-Marcus administration.

When asked the same question in a separate interview Opie gave a remarkably similar answer:

“I think probably the worst thing that has happened to Branford is the decline in confidence in its leadership, and I would very much like to restore that. We have a great town and we have great people working for it. The town’s reputation shouldn’t be in question.”

DaRos and Opie criticized the Cheryl Morris administration saying that in only seventeen months she has created distrust in the minds of the people, a distrust that she does not comprehend.

From the outset Mrs. Morris, who is 56 and is the wife of Bruce Morris, a former state senator and an important back-room player in Democratic politics, transformed how Branford does business when she hired Ed Marcus, the state’s former Democratic Chairman, to be the town counsel. He quickly set out to do it his way— Morris herself had minimal political experience.

Marcus backed changes for Charter Revision and a new form of government for Branford—but both went belly up. He tried to get housing on the Queach. That failed after a huge town outcry. He initiated a police inquiry into the granite found at DaRos’s masonry business, sending a detective to investigate whether DaRos paid royalties, a move to eliminate a political rival, DaRos later said. That deed occurred a year ago tomorrow and led to a full-scale set of hearings known as Granite-gate. The Representative Town Meeting is still awaiting a final report.

Marcus didn’t help Morris with the voters when last summer he threatened to sue citizens who voiced their concerns about Granite-gate.

Ms. Morris has not said what her political plans are but many believe she will run for a second term. If she fails to get the Democratic nomination in July, her husband has indicated she might well run as an independent candidate. At one point it was thought that Peter Panaroni, Branford’s current state representative would run instead of Mrs. Morris. But that is unlikely if Morris wants to run. More likely, sources said, Panaroni would run with Morris for Second Selectman and keep his state job. But Panaroni is not without his own legal problems with his own town.

DaRos, 64, held the First Selectman’s job for six years and is immensely popular. He left office at the end of 2002. Opie, 59, held the job from 2003 to 2005, having served in town politics for two decades, first on the RTM, then as second selectman and currently as third selectman..

Over the last several months, Unk and Opie’s efforts have begun to get underway. Organizations are being created and political strategies are beginning to take shape. Each candidate also has started a website: www.bringbackunk.org and www.bringbackopie.org.

Unk said he had decided to run (he will formally announce in June, as will Opie), because he felt another two years of the Morris-Marcus administration would be terrible for the town.

He minced no words when it came to the Bruce and Cheryl Morris-Ed Marcus legacy: “I mean they certainly had a track record, which wasn’t good. It is no secret. I always thought they wouldn’t do it in their own town. Wrong. They thought this was just a great big money mill. And that’s what they turned it into. And all the decisions were made on money and not on morality and what was right.”

Opie filed his campaign committee financial paperwork at Town Hall. He announced that his running mate will be Kurt Schwanfelder, the current Republican Minority leader of the RTM. Schwanfelder has been a key RTM member for more than two decades.

The two Republicans are very different in personality and approach to politics. Opie is laid-back. Schwanfelder is direct and forceful. Opie said he chose Schwanfelder because “Kurt’s been very good at sticking up for people’s rights and is very vocal. He has been at it a long time. We are very different people. We are like counterparts. Some people like his kind of dynamics and some like mine, hopefully. We agree on virtually everything. Our families in Branford go back a long time. Actually my father and his father were best of friends. They would both be happy with this….”

DaRos’s selection for Second Selectman is Fran Walsh, who served in the same position with Unk during his prior terms. Walsh, a former Branford school principal, is considered smart, able and politically savvy.

The first big fight will be between DaRos and Morris for the Democratic endorsement. If Morris loses before the 90-plus member DTC, then she is likely to run as an Independent. Then the two candidates will have to go after their own voters as well as the “unaffiliated vote.” In Branford the 9,411 Unaffiliated voters make up the largest portion of voters in town.

For Opie and Schwanfelder the easiest thing for them to do is just sit back and watch Morris and Da Ros slug it out. Opie has the luxury of being above the fray, and when a winner is announced, he can then direct his energy against his opponent.

Opie says that like his last campaign in 2005 he will run an “above board and honest campaign.” Back then Opie did not take off his gloves; that is not his style. But the clear implication in choosing Schwanfelder is that if Opie doesn’t, Schwanfelder will. What Opie did say about the 2007 campaign is that this time “we are going to run a strong campaign.”

Unlike the Republican Party which is unified, the Democratic Party is split between those who support Mrs. Morris and those who do not. It has been this way ever since Mrs. Morris refused to fire Marcus last year.

“You have to earn the respect of the people,” DaRos said. “They certainly have squandered anything they had going for them, and unfortunately they have dragged a lot of people down with them. They are dragging down the Democratic Party as well and after they do that they will attempt to abandon ship,” Da Ros told the Eagle in commenting on both Mrs. Morris’s and Mr. Morris’s role in the DTC.

One thing is clear. both Opie and DaRos will run a campaign that is antithetical to Bruce Morris’s view of politics.

DaRos recalled Morris’s swearing in, a “coronation,” as he described it. “And Bruce Morris got up and said ‘who said New Haven politics doesn’t work in Branford?’ Within five minutes of her swearing in, he said that. And he thinks it is quite okay for him to say that. But people move to Branford because they don’t want that kind of politics.”

Opie and DaRos said that the one thing each can do is to engage people again in town life.

The voters of Branford will also have a job to do. They will have to make a special effort to become engaged in this election. Of the 18,723 registered Republicans and Democrats in the 2005 election, only 7,574 or 40.45 percent voted, the lowest percentage in the last five elections.

This time around the town is at stake.
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