{news} Darek Shapiro for Stamford Mayor

Fri Jul 22 15:06:36 EDT 2005

Front page of today's Stamford Advocate:

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-greens3jul22,0,479553.story?coll=stam-news-local-headlines

Green Party hopeful would be 4th candidate in mayor's race

By Donna Porstner
Staff Writer

July 22, 2005

STAMFORD -- The Connecticut Green Party plans to put up a mayoral candidate 
in November, bringing the total number of people seeking the city's highest 
elected office to four.

While the other hopefuls are talking about the rising cost of government and 
public education, North Stamford resident and environmentalist Darek Shapiro 
said the No. 1 issue facing Stamford is rising energy costs.

"The main issue everybody's discussing is high taxes, but that is not the 
problem, that's a symptom of the problem," he said.

If something isn't done to lower energy costs, businesses and middle-class 
residents are going to flee and Stamford is "going to be a bedroom town for 
high-cost homes," he said.

Shapiro, 52, of Surrey Road, said the way to make the city more affordable 
is to reduce energy consumption. He said the solution can be as simple as 
replacing traditional light bulbs with more efficient ones.

"I'm a progressive thinker. I'm an idea man. That's how I make a living," 
said Shapiro, who specializes in green architecture -- a term in the 
industry for designing energy-efficient buildings with renewable or recycled 
materials.

Shapiro is the founder of the 2010 Clean Energy Committee, which lobbied the 
Board of Representatives to recently pass legislation agreeing to purchase 
20 percent of the municipality's energy from clean sources by 2010.

Since the Green Party did not put up a candidate for Stamford's last mayoral 
race in 2001, Shapiro has to petition his way onto the ballot the same as an 
unaffiliated candidate. He needs to get 182 signatures from Stamford voters 
representing 1 percent of the votes cast during the last municipal election 
in 2003, said Pearl Williams, who is in charge of nominating petitions for 
the secretary of the state's office in Hartford.

Shapiro is jointly petitioning along with David Bedell of Glenbrook, a Green 
Party member running for constable, the Board of Education and the Board of 
Representatives.

While he is putting his name in for all three races, Bedell said he only 
plans to run for constable. He plans to be a placeholder and find other 
Green Party members to run for those seats.

Bedell, who was a write-in candidate for registrar of voters last year, is 
secretary of the Fairfield County Chapter of the Connecticut Green Party.

Shapiro and Bedell have until the Aug. 10 deadline to file their nominating 
petition.

"Our eventual hope is to get someone on every single board," said John 
Amarilios of New Canaan, chairman of the Fairfield County Chapter of the 
Connecticut Green Party.

The Green Party has elected candidates in Hartford, New Haven and small 
towns in the northwestern and northeastern corners of the state but does not 
have anyone in office in lower Fairfield County, Amarilios said.

Last fall, Amarilios ran unsuccessfully against incumbent state Sen. William 
Nickerson, R-Greenwich, for the 36th District seat.

"One of the biggest problems we have as a third party is the hurdles we have 
to go though to get candidates on the ballot," Amarilios said.

The problem, he said, is that the people who have the power to change state 
election law are Democrats and Republicans who have no incentive to entice 
competition from minor party candidates and unaffiliated voters.

Even when petitioning candidates get on the ballot, their names appear at 
the bottom under state law. If there is more than one petitioning candidate, 
state Elections Officer Arthur Champagne said, "whoever filed first gets the 
upper line."

Shapiro is one of two petitioning candidates challenging Democratic 
incumbent Dannel Malloy, who has been mayor since 1995. The other is Achille 
Fiore, an Oaklawn Avenue resident with no political affiliation.

Malloy's third challenger, Republican Christopher Munger, is a former FBI 
agent who lives on Elaine Drive.

Neither Fiore nor the Republicans see Shapiro as a threat.

"My support is growing," Fiore said. "I am not worried about the competition 
whatsoever."

Republican Town Committee Chairman Daniel McCabe said odds are slim Shapiro 
will take away votes from Munger.

"We're absolutely, totally not worried about him because the Green Party 
tends to attract a fringe voter and those people do not vote Republican," 
McCabe said. "He will not be a factor in the overall race."

The Green Party has 46 voters registered as members in Stamford, compared 
with 21,574 Democrats and 13,964 Republicans. There are 19,744 unaffiliated 
voters in the city, 251 members of the Independent Party, 46 Libertarians, 
10 members of the Connecticut Party, seven members of the Reform Party and 
six members of the Concerned Citizens Party.

"I look forward to the campaign and engaging all of the candidates in a 
discussion about their visions for the city," Malloy said.