Representative Town Meeting Begins New Term

Twelve hours after he was sworn in as the town’s first selectman, Jamie Cosgrove presided over the town’s newly elected Representative Town Meeting (RTM). As required, he took their attendance, witnessed their swearing-in, oversaw the appointment of the RTM’s top officers and welcomed the town’s legislative body to its new term. 

The voters who gave Cosgrove a resounding victory over Democrat Lynda Mollow did so as well for the RTM. While the Democrats picked up one RTM seat, the Republicans won an 18 – 12 majority. Since 2013, the R’s have held a majority on the RTM.

At their organizational meeting last night, held in the community room at Fire Headquarters,  the 30-member RTM welcomed six new members, five Democrats and one Republican. They are Democrats Jessica Buchanan, Ray Dunbar, Robin Comey, Dan Adelman and Tom Brockett and Republican Sean Kelly who sat across from them. 

The only cliff hanger going into the RTM meeting was which seat incumbent Republican RTM member Robin Sandler, a former town counsel, would take. Sandler won a seat on the RTM and on the Board of Assessment Appeals (BOAA). He cannot serve in both posts though he could run for both seats. Sandler decided yesterday to continue to serve on the RTM. This means that the first selectman will nominate a replacement for Sandler on the BOAA, which will have to be approved by the BOS.

Low Voter Turnout

In the end, of the 20,256 registered voters in Branford, only 7,310 cast their votes on Election Day, about 36 percent. Statewide the percentage of voters this year – 29.89 percent – came in lower than Branford’s. That’s about what’s expected in a non-presidential voting year, but low turnout has become the norm and it’s not clear how to change that pattern.

The voters overwhelmingly voted Cosgrove into office with his third big win in the first selectman’s race since 2013, giving him 61 percent of the vote. He had 4,389 votes to Mollow’s 2,857 votes or 39 percent of the vote. 

Highest Vote Counts

The Board of Selectmen consists of the chair, who is the first selectman, and two elected selectmen. 

According to state law, unsuccessful candidates for first selectman may take a seat on the board of selectmen if they have more votes than the actual candidates for selectman. The second and third selectmen seats go to whichever candidates have the second and third highest number of votes of all the candidates running for first selectman and selectman.

As in past years, the candidate running for first selectman or first selectwoman, the town’s top office, did not get as many votes as a selectman candidate. Mollow, the Democratic candidate for first selectwoman, came with 2,857 votes to incumbent Democrat selectman Jack Ahern, who won 3,576 votes. Ahern, the town’s retired fire chief, and his Republican counterpart Joe Higgins, Jr., virtually tied, with Ahern getting 3,576 votes and Higgins getting 3,577 votes, down from past years. As a result, Ahern and not Mollow will take the Democratic seat on the BOS.

A similar pattern emerged in 2013 when Democrat selectman candidate Bruce Storm won more votes than Andy Campbell who ran that year for first selectman. And in 2015 Ahern won more votes than Mark Rabinowitz who was seeking the first selectman’s job on the Democratic line.

In 2011 Cosgrove won more votes running as a candidate for selectman than did Joy McConnell who ran for Republican first selectwoman. That was the first year that Cosgrove took his place on the BOS as a selectman. Democrat Unk DaRos was elected first selectman and Campbell was elected selectman.

RTM Districts

In 2015, the Republicans won five of the seven RTM election districts in town: Districts 1, 4, 5, 6 and 7. The Democrats won two districts, District 2 in Stony Creek and District 3 in Short Beach.

In 2017, the Republicans won majorities in four RTM districts, 1, 5, 6 and 7.  Democrats held the majority in two districts, District 2 in Stony Creek and District 3, in Short Beach. However, this year District 4 split evenly with three Dems and three Republicans.

In terms of voter turnout, six of the seven RTM districts voted for Cosgrove with only Stony Creek going for Mollow by a small number. In Short Beach, once a traditional Democratic district, the vote was close but Cosgrove won over Mollow by a small number as he had in 2015.

Since his first election in 2013, Jamie Cosgrove, grandson of the late Dan Cosgrove, the longtime boss of bosses of the Democratic Party and then the head of the Taxpayer Party, has won resounding victories, first against then Selectman Campbell, then against Democrat Mark Rabinowitz, a former school principal, and this time against Mollow, a nurse and an education advocate.
 
In other town wide elections, Lisa Arpin, incumbent the town clerk, was re-elected as well. She won over Maggie Bruno, a former longtime RTM member, 54 percent to Bruno’s 46 percent.

The race for town treasurer pitted incumbent Michael Nardella against Kurt Schwanfelder, who is now a member of the Democratic Party. Nardella drew 52 percent of the vote to Schwanfelder’s 48 percent.

Tax Collector’s Race

Perhaps the most hotly contested race was the one for town tax collector. That seat opened up after Joanne Cleary, a Democrat who was cross endorsed by both parties in recent elections, decided to retire.

The tax collector’s race caused a split in the Republican Party after Sandra Kraus, an unaffiliated voter, decided to seek the Republican endorsement against RTM member Bob Imperato, a highly respected businessman. Kraus became a Republican just before the party caucus, and she won the backing of Town Attorney Bill Aniskovich. She packed the Republican caucus and won its endorsement. Many Republicans who backed Imperato were angry and dismayed.  When a seat opened up on the town’s prestigious Board of Finance, Cosgrove appointed Imperato to fill it. Imperato had planned to run again for the RTM.
 
In the end Kraus lost the tax collector’s seat to Roberta Gill-Brooks, a retired AT&T executive who took the race with 51 percent of the vote to Kraus’s 48 percent. Kraus lost her own district, the Fifth, as well as the Fourth District, where Imperato was a popular vote getter.

A number of long-term RTM Republican members, including Dennis Flanigan, the RTM moderator; Ray Ingraham, Republican majority leader and chair of the Republican Party; Frank Twohill, Jr., chair of the RTM education committee; and Peter Black, chair of Ways of Means, also won re-election.

Flanagan resumed as moderator last night and Ingraham continued as majority leader. Democrat Chris Sullivan continued as minority leader and Democrat Adam Hansen resumed as clerk of the RTM. 

In the First District, Republicans Twohill, Jennifer Zambrano, John Carter, and George David Wells won four of the six seats in the district. Democrat Clare Torelli was re-elected and after a tie vote and recount, Jessica Buchanan took the Democratic seat in the district after Michele Sember bowed out. Lisa Ahern decided not to run for re-election.

In the Second District, Ray Dunbar, a captain in the police department and former moderator of the RTM years ago, won a seat on the Democratic side. He ran after Josh Brooks, a long-serving member, decided not to seek office again. Incumbent Peter Hentschel was re-elected on the Democratic ticket. On the Republican side, Jim Walker, a long-serving member of the RTM won re-election from the Stony Creek district.

In the Third District, Incumbent Peter Jackson and Robin Comey were elected on the Democratic side. This was Comey’s first race for the RTM and she led in votes from the Short Beach district. Attorney Peter Black was re-elected on the Republican side after receiving only two more votes than Dawn Perrotti, a newcomer on the Republican ticket. Perrotti decided against a recount.

In this year’s election, the 4th District split 3 – 3. On the Democratic side, Adam Hansen was re-elected with strong voter support. Long-serving RTM member Maryann Amore decided not to seek re-election this year. Democrat Dan Adelman, an attorney, decided to run and won an RTM seat from the Fourth District. So did Dorothy Docknevich, a long-serving RTM member. On the Republican side, Jim Stepanek and Darren Lawler, both incumbents, won re-election . Sean Kelly ran on the Republican ticket and won. Incumbent Louis A. DeSerio, who served for one term, decided not to seek office again.

In District 5, Flanigan, the moderator, and Ingraham, the majority leader, won re-election as did Don Conklin and John F. Leonard, an attorney, who was the 2015 RTM parliamentarian. The four men now hold the major positions on the RTM.

Last night Conklin was named chair of the Public Services committee and Leonard became chair of the Rules & Ordinance committee as well as the RTM parliamentarian. Democrat Maryanne Hall, long active in Branford’s schools, was re-elected. She ran with a strong slate of Democrats: Bruce Storm, a former selectman and schools superintendent, Dr. Randy Reinhold, a retired chief of surgery at the former Hospital of St. Raphael and Louis Siegel, chairman of a national insurance risk control company. All but Hall lost.
 
In District 6, Ed Prete, Marc Riccio, and Anthony Alfone, chair of the Administrative Services committee, were re-elected as was Democrat Chris Sullivan who continues as the Democratic minority leader.

Serving with Robin Sandler in the Seventh District is Republican Incumbent Tricia Anderson who won re-election along with newcomer Tom Brockett on the Democratic side. Lynda Mollow, who served on the RTM from the Seventh District, did not seek re-election because she was running for first selectwoman during this municipal election.

She told the Eagle she intends to keep active in Branford politics and public life. One of her major themes during the campaign centered on getting residents more involved in public decision making, a good deal of which, she said, is made behind closed doors.

Board of Education

There were three seats on the Board of Education and four contenders. Long serving member Judy Holtz won re-election for a three year term as did Shannen L. Sharkey, a teacher and a former assistant principal in the Oxford schools. John Prins, a long-serving BOE member, faced what might have been a run off against fellow Democratic candidate Sarah Lockery. But Lockery decided not to contest the race.

The newly elected BOE members take their seats on the nine-member school board at a time when the BOE formally embarks on the $88.2 million renovation of Walsh Intermediate School.
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