Brent Hayes, a Republican Town Committee member who also serves on the Representative Town Meeting, was elected the new chairman of the RTC on Wednesday, as a new slate of officers was chosen to run the town Republican Party.
Hayes, a resident of Overbrook Road in District 1, nominated two vice chairmen — Chris Taylor and Seth Morton. Also among the just-elected officers: Jacqueline Calabro as secretary; Bert von Stuelpnagel, re-elected as treasurer; a deputy treasurer, David Brown, was also elected.
From left: Bert von Steulpnagel (treasurer), Seth Morton (vice chairman), Brent Hayes (chairman), Jacqueline Calabro (secretary) and Chris Taylor (vice chairman). Not shown: David Brown (deputy treasurer).
A total of 17 members of the committee were present for the voting, and all votes were unanimous (except for Steulpnagel’s 16-1 vote — he must have voted to abstain in his own election, members guessed).
Hayes thanked departing Chair Karen Armour “for everything you’ve done for the past year-plus, and it’s not just that, it’s work on the RTM [Armour is a former moderator of the RTM]. You’ve don a tremendous amount for Darien. Thank you very much.”
Armour and several other RTM members who were in the leadership of the committee were removed in voting for new members of the panel during a January caucus. The others were Laurie Williamson, Vin Burke, Malcolm Hall Jr. and Nanci Natale.
The intra-party fight started in 2015, when the Town Committee decided not to endorse Selectman Susan Marks, a close ally of First Selectman Jayme Stevenson, for re-election. Marks petitioned to get back on the ballot, and at a caucus that summer she got well over a hundred Republicans to turn out and vote for her.
RTM Member Spencer McIlmurray, who was endorsed by the Town Committee, didn’t get enough votes at the caucus. She then won re-election as the party-endorsed candidate in the November election. McIlmurray ran as an independent candidate and lost.
At the January caucus, Marks’ and Stevenson’s fellow GOP selectman, Charles “Kip” Koons Jr. joined Marks in again getting Republicans to the meeting. The two selectmen sent messages to various people urging them to vote for any of the candidates but the five who later lost. A slate of petition candidates won seats on the committee.
In February, the Town Committee endorsed a letter criticizing Koons and Marks for lobbying against re-election of committee members.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Stevenson gave a brief report to the committee about Republican State Central Committee affairs. She said the state treasurer has been arrested. (The Hartford Courant reported Wednesday night that Gary Schaffrick, 52, of Bristol was arrested Tuesday night by police in that town on charges of risk of injury to a minor.)
Art Scialabba, a Norwalk Republican and member of the GOP state Central Committee has resigned from his position and is moving to Charleston, S.C., Stevenson said. Scialabba is a former chairman of the Norwalk Republican Town Committee.
Editor’s note: Background information about the conflict between Republicans was added to this article Thursday morning.