{news} article about 3rd parties in Meriden Record-Journal

Sun Oct 25 22:50:33 EDT 2009

This is interesting, but it seems to be saying that parties are irrelevant because they don't stand for anything.

David Bedell

http://www.myrecordjournal.com/site/tab1.cfm?newsid=20382061

Pushing the donkeys, elephants to one side

				By: Jeffery Kurz,
				Record-Journal staff

Generations ago, there were residents who would not read the Meriden Record because it was a Republican newspaper, and others who would not
read the Meriden Journal because it was more liberal.

And there are still people today who will
enter the voting booth and select along a strict party line, no matter
the individuals who are running, just in the way that there are still
people who wouldn't consider buying anything but a Buick or wouldn't
question their doctor or seek a second opinion about a medical issue.

 But there are indications that this attitude may be on the wane.

In Meriden, a new party, considered a flash-in-the-pan two years ago,
is stronger than ever and already playing an influential role in this
year's municipal election. In Southington, four petitioning candidates
for the Town Council could nudge party-endorsed candidates from the
winning tally and influence the council configuration under the state's
minority party representation law.

 Across the state this year,
there is a 20 percent increase in the number of petitioning candidates
from 2007, the last municipal election. And the number of unaffiliated
voters continues to outpace the number of registered Democrats or
Republicans statewide.

 "People are tired of party fighting,
they really are," said Floresia Allen, a candidate for the City Council
in Meriden. "They just want a choice, and they're looking at
individuals. And that makes a difference."

 A year ago, Allen was a Republican, making an unsuccessful bid to unseat state Rep. Emil "Buddy" Altobello, a Meriden Democrat.

 Now in her bid for the council, Allen is a We The People candidate.

Allen said she was not unhappy being a Republican, that "the town
committee was wonderful," but that ultimately she found We The People a
better fit.

 "I feel I gave it my all when I ran against
Buddy," she said. "With We The People I feel I'm able to go in there
and do what I need to do for the community."

 Arthur E. Cyr had
been a registered Republican since Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, won the
presidency. But that changed in July, when Cyr switched his voter
registration to unaffiliated. He is one of four petitioning candidates
for the town council in Southington.

 Cyr supported President
Obama in the last election, and says he likes the Democratic president
and Connecticut's Republican governor, M. Jodi Rell.

 "It's not about parties," he said.

 Cyr wasn't asked to run for council by the Republicans, and wasn't willing to let that stop him.

"One of the reasons I'm running is that after three years of attending
all but one council meeting I've been frustrated with the lack of
action on things that need to be changed in this town," he said.

 Cyr said that 40 years ago in Southington "it was unheard of for an independent to try to run. Things have changed."

Now, there's a possibility that independents could have a significant
effect on the composition of the nine-member council, on which no party
can have more than six representatives.

 "That could be a
devastating blow to the Republican party in this town," Cyr said.
Republicans are in a 5-4 minority on the council to the Democrats.

 The effect has already been felt in Meriden.

Walter A. Shamock Jr. was for 16 years a Republican councilor until he
lost in the 2005 election. He won back a seat in 2007, this time as a
We The People candidate.

 "I think people initially thought
that was a flash in the pan," said Bob Williams, We The People party
chairman. "Well, it isn't. To the contrary, we've gotten a lot of new
faces, and as time goes on we've built a lot of credibility."

Even though he was the incumbent, Mayor Michael Rohde did not receive
the Democratic Town Committee endorsement. Instead it went to Stephen
T. Zerio, a former city council majority leader. Before the September
primary, which Rohde won, he secured a cross-endorsement from We The
People to guarantee him a spot on the ballot, a small victory for the
minor party.

 After Zerio's defeat, Frank Cirillo, a former
26-year Democratic town chairman who backed Zerio, told the
Record-Journal the public was less and less influenced by political
parties and that a town committee endorsement was no longer needed to
win.

 With just about 30 registered voters, We The People lags
far behind the Democrats, at about 11,600, and Republicans, at about
4,300, in Meriden. But Williams says that's not the point. Any
registered voter can belong to We The People.

 "We didn't push it," he said. "Why do we have to?"

The party has a rather streamlined platform, which includes giving
people more opportunity to voice their opinions at city council
meetings and holding referendums on any big-ticket items. There's also
talk of returning the city to a strong-mayor form of government.

 "All we are saying is, 'look, we want people to be more accountable,'" said Williams.

Two years ago, Joshua Broekstra ran for council, unsuccessfully, as a
Green Party candidate. The party is established in places like New
Haven but not so much in Meriden, so this year he's running with We The
People to challenge incumbent Dante Bartolomeo, a Democrat, and
Republican Steven S. Weronik.

 Though a Democrat traditionally,
the 25-year-old Broekstra said "I went to We The People because they
don't care what letter you have behind your name.

 "I don't
feel the city's going in the right direction," he said. "Unless third
party candidates challenge the status quo you won't see a difference.
If you stand on the sidelines and do nothing about it you don't have
any right to complain."

 Broekstra says he considers it part of an emerging trend.

"A lot of people two years ago with We The People thought it would be a
fluke," he said. "They didn't go away like a lot of people thought they
would."

 Running outside the Democratic or Republican party lines is nothing new in Connecticut, of course.

Former Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr., a long-time Republican, created A
Connecticut Party when he ran in 1990. U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, a
long-time Democrat, represents Connecticut today as an independent.
Lieberman lost the backing of the Democrats when Ned Lamont defeated
him in a primary in 2006, only to prevail as an independent in the
general election.

 Lucille Trzcinski two years ago mounted an
unsuccessful independent campaign to unseat long-time Republican Mayor
William W. Dickinson Jr., in Wallingford.

 It would be
surprising if any emerging trend involving municipal candidates did
much to influence voter turnout. Municipal elections have a more direct
consequence on the individual when it comes to property taxes,
development and education. But municipal elections nonetheless tend to
fall far behind in voter turnout when compared to state and national
contests.

 Voter turnout in the 2007 municipal election was
34.8 percent in Meriden, compared to 70.42 percent in last year's
presidential election. In Southington, it was 31 percent in 2007, 79.41
percent last year. In Wallingford, it went from 45.7 percent to 85.42
percent, and in Cheshire, the change was 44.5 percent to 74.96 percent.

As of September, there were 855,518 voters registered as unaffiliated
in Connecticut, compared to 760,775 Democrats and 414,265 Republicans.
That puts unaffiliated voters at more than 40 percent of the overall
registration.

 Though it's considered a "blue," or Democratic
state, the number of unaffiliated voters in Connecticut has been at one
third or more since at least the 1950s. The only exception is 1983,
when it was 32.9 percent.

 jkurz@ record-journal.com

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