New Haven Independent

Meyer, who attended the event, put a red “Unk” button on his lapel, and delivered a talk to nearly 100 supporters, many new to the scene. They gathered at the home of Stephanie and Len Farber in Pine Orchard.

“This is the place where a new day dawns for Branford, a new day in that it puts the best interests of Branford first, a new day because it will be a new administration that is open, that is transparent, that is accountable, and I will tell you that means so very, very much . This is that new administration,” Meyer declared.

He called Unk and his running mate, Fran Walsh, “the comeback kids” or the “bring-back kids,” as someone in the audience suggested of the pair who led Branford for six years, ending in 2003. Meyer took the unusual step of endorsing a candidate before the Branford Democratic Committee (DTC) nominates its candidate on July 19. First Selectwoman Cheryl Morris has not officially entered the race although she did inform the DTC last month that she intended to seek the Democratic nomination. Her husband Bruce, a member of the Democratic State Central Committee, has also suggested that she could run as an independent.

“I think this was a time to take sides,” Meyer told the Eagle afterward. “I went to see Cheryl and Bruce Morris this week and sat down with them in their home and told them that I was going to be endorsing Unk and Fran. I was very pleased with Bruce’s reaction. He said ‘They are all your friends who helped you in politics in Branford, and I understand that.’ I thought it was a very statesman-like reaction.

“My feeling is that now is the hour,” he said. This early endorsement would be a way to pull people into the campaign, he added. One of those on hand, Tootsie Laske, the former longtime town clerk, has come out of retirement to work for the Unk campaign. “This town needs them more than ever,” she said.

The structure of this campaign is based on the use of block captains and volunteers who will go door-to-door, to enlist voters in the campaign. Many of the volunteers were members of the Hilltop Brigade, a grass roots movement that helped to elect key Congressional Connecticut Democrats, like Joe Courtney, in 2006. So far Unk’s campaign has recruited 200 volunteers to work in Branford’s five election districts. Mrs. Farber and Attorney Penny Bellamy are heading up the Block Captains effort. Victor Cassella, a member of the Board of Finance, is the campaign chairman and RTM member Lonnie Reed is in charge of media relations.

Republican John Opie, former First Selectman after DaRos and before Morris, has previously announced he will seek the First Selectman’s spot, and he will be joined by Kurt Schwanfelder, the current RTM Minority Leader, who is running for Second Selectman. Opie and Schwanfelder have been involved in Branford town government for many years and know the issues well.

Not far from windows festooned in buntings of red, white and blue, Unk, who is 64 and a stone mason by trade, said he wanted to make it clear why he was running.

“I’ve heard it said that I am only running because I am mad as a wet hen about what’s been happening to our town over there last two years.

“I’ve got to admit that feathering their own nest cronyism, non-stop bullying and other shocking behavior—has certainly grabbed my attention,” he observed in his understated way. “I also admit that injustice and misuse of power gets me riled. I have seen it first-hand,” he said referring to town attorney Ed Marcus’s unsuccessful effort to tag him with a granite theft. (The Granite-Gate committee, announced a year ago this week and chaired by RTM member Scott Thayer is yet to issue a final report.)

Unk criticized the Morris-Marcus Administration’s pro-development platform (Mrs. Morris ran on an open space platform in 2005), one that has centered on four major developments: Queach (that development plan ultimately failed,) Founders Village (now in court,) Tabor, a settlement The Marcus Law Firm advocated that would have permitted 275 condos on land next to the town dump (now in court and awaiting a hearing in Waterbury Superior Court June 25 after the RTM rejected the settlement,) and, most recently, Hilltop, where a Rhode Island Developer wants to build a new mall near exit 56.

DaRos said that “…Branford needs honest leaders to fight these battles. No more back-room deals.”

He read from a prepared text. But at one point, after saying he was eager to do the job “for as long as you want us,” he added extemporaneously: “My Republican friends are passing word around that I am only interested in this for two years. Well, I am going to tell you right now. That is not true. You’re going to have to carry me out of that Town Hall …feet first.” The room erupted into wild applause.

As he had in the past, Da Ros wanted Former Second Selectman Fran Walsh, to be his running mate. Walsh agreed. Walsh, a veteran educator, is the former Principal of the Branford Middle School that now bears his name.

When he introduced Unk, Walsh asked: “What is the difference between Unk and his opponents? They say John Opie is a nice guy and I think he is a nice guy”.

“But I think there are such dramatic differences between Unk and anybody else,” he said in an apparent reference to Mrs. Morris. ” One of the major differences is we have a passion; we have a passion for Branford, for its people, for good government without self- serving motives, for good police, good fire, good education. And I don’t see that passion anywhere else. I think there isn’t the drive that Unk and I bring to the table.”

At the outset of the Morris administration, when she and Marcus seemed intent on dismantling town government, putting political appointees on commissions, encouraging development and, lest we forget, sending the cops after Unk himself, Unk said he became very angry. “It was the catalyst. I will say that upfront.But I know that Branford deserves better. Also, I don’t think there are a whole lot of people who can take these guys on, to be willing to go out front,” he said in an interview.

As for envisioning two types of campaigns, one if there is a primary and one if there is not, he said: “I would think it will be two different types of campaign. I know John. Everyone knows John. We know we can certainly run a campaign, one that is honorable and on the high road. No question about it. I know this other one will be different,” he said referring to Morris. “I can run either one. And you know what, I can run both simultaneously.

“Morris told the DTC she will run as a Democrat. I am looking forward to a primary. It is a better way to get the issues out. As ugly as primaries can be, it might be a good thing for the Democratic Party. If it takes a purging then that is what it takes. Generally, the party will come out of it better.”

He said he was deeply committed to another principle: to reunite an acutely divided and angry party, one split between those who support the Morris-Marcus group and those who support Unk. “Hey, we were asleep a couple of years ago to allow this to happen in the first place,” Unk told the Eagle. ” We just weren’t minding the store. And from now on this should be a lesson.”
It should also be a lesson for the Republicans.

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