Government & Politics
GOP Elephant wide

Parting Shot: Current Republican Town Committee Blasts 2 GOP Selectmen

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A month after two Republican members of the Board of Selectmen campaigned against five sitting members of the Darien Republican Town Committee, the RTC sent a letter to the selectmen criticizing them for it. Selectmen Kip Koons and Susan Marks had sent messages to various people indicating that five candidates for re-election to the RTC should not be re-elected, and at the town GOP Caucus, where many Republicans came to cast their ballots, those five received the fewest votes, resulting in their removal from the committee as of March, when the newly elected committee’s term starts. “The circulation of material specifically and negatively targeting individuals by name is inappropriate for our town,” the letter reads in part. “Its precedent contradicts the chief purpose of the RTC to encourage and elect or appoint volunteers. We should be guided by basic and necessary civility in process and procedures lest we compromise volunteerism as an essential feature of our town.”

Government & Politics
GOP Caucus January 2016

Overturned: Five in Leadership of Darien Republican Town Committee Voted Out

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When the results of Monday night’s Darien Republican Caucus were read out to an auditorium with few but the candidates still present, the top 21 vote-getters who won seats on the Town Committee did not include five members who were in leadership positions. RTC Chairman Karen Armour didn’t make the cut; nor did Vice Chairman Vin Burke; nor Secretary Laurie Williamson; nor Publicity Chair Nanci Natale; nor Recruitment Chairman Malcolm Hall Jr. (Treasurer Bert von Steulpnagel was re-elected, one of two candidates with the fourth-highest vote total.)

All eight petitioning candidates were elected: James Demark, Belinda Bewkes Metzger, Jane Nedder, Alexander Davidson, Christine Simpson Stone, Walter Cusick Donovan, Thomas Bell and Jacqueline Calabro. Candidates for seats were asked to stay in the Town Hall Auditorium to hear the results and sign a statement that they had heard them. After thie vote was announced, at about 9:30 p.m., the room was, for the most part, very subdued, apparently in respect for the members who didn’t win election. One person waved and gave a brief shout, and that was about it.

Government & Politics
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Here Are the Candidates for Election to the GOP Town Committee at Monday’s Caucus

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Eight more candidates have stepped forward for seats on the Darien Republican Town Committee, to be elected at Monday night’s GOP Caucus in Town Hall. These are the candidates with their addresses and districts (in order of district):

James J. Demark — District 1 — 57 St. Nicholas Road

Belinda Bewkes Metzger — District 1 — 36 Ox Ridge Lane

Jane R. Nedder — District 1 — 7 Dew Lane

Alexander Davidson — District 2 — 71 Delafield Island Road

Christine Simpson Stone — District 3 — 37 Stephanie Lane

Walter Cusick Donovan — District 5 — 57 Fairfield Ave. Thomas G. Bell — District 5 — 37 Fairfield Ave. Jacqueline A. Calabro — District 6 — 6 Tulip Tree Lane (Calabro already sits on the committee but had not participated in the process to get the nominating committee’s endorsement, RTC Chair Karen Armour said.)

The GOP Town Committee’s nominating committee for the caucus had already endorsed 18 candidates for seats (see list below).

Government & Politics
GOP Elephant

GOP Town Committee Releases List of Endorsed Candidates for 2016 Committee, Caucus on Jan 11

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Darien’s Republican voters are invited to the Republican caucus on Jan. 11 that will pick members of the Republican Town Committee, either accepting the RTC’s endorsed candidates or voting in others. The list of 18 candidates endorsed by the RTC (the full list is at the end of this article) includes veterans on the (nonpartisan) Representative Town Meeting — Karen Armour, the current chairman of the RTC (and former moderator of the RTM), along with RTM members Seth Morton, Nanci Natale, Bert von Stuelpnagel and Frederick Conze, who is also the former chairman of the Planning & Zoning Commission. The legal notice for the meeting was published Monday by Darienite.com, here. A previous GOP caucus, which met on July 27, overwhelmingly rejected some candidates that the RTM had endorsed for seats on the Board of Selectmen.

Government & Politics

LEGAL NOTICE: Republican Caucus Meets Jan 11 to Vote on Town Committee Members

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[The following legal notice is paid for by the Darien Republican Town Committee.]

LEGAL NOTICE

Notice is hereby given that there will be a Caucus of all enrolled Republican Electors of the Town of Darien at 7:30PM on January 11, 2016 at the Darien Town Hall Auditorium, 2 Renshaw Road, Darien, CT 06820. This Caucus is called exclusively to endorse candidates for the Darien Republican Town Committee. No other business shall be in order. The Caucus will endorse candidates to serve on the Darien Republican Town Committee (“RTC”) for the 2016 to 2018 term. Candidates to be proposed for endorsement at the Caucus are listed below with their voting district:

Karen A. Armour, District 6

David Anthony Brown, District 5

W. Vincent Burke, District 4

Frederick B. Conze, Disrict 1

Bonnie Frate Dora, District 6

Mary Forman Flynn, District 2

Malcolm Hall, Jr., District 2

Joseph H. Hardison, III, District 4

Brent Thomas Hayes, District 1

Charles A. Koons, III, District 1

Douglas J. McKay, District 4

Seth W. Morton, District 3

Nanci R. Natale, District 6

Raymond D. Slavin, District 6

Christopher H. Taylor, District 6

Bert H. von Stuelpnagel, District 1

Laurie E. Williamson, District 3

David Carey Woll, Jr., District 2

Other candidates for endorsement by the Caucus may be nominated by petition by submitting to the Chairman or the Secretary of the Republican Town Committee not less than five (5) days prior to the date set for the Caucus, a declaration of candidacy, which shall include the candidate’s name as it appears on the Town of Darien’s list of registered voters, the title of the office being sought and the signatures of twenty-five (25) registered Republican electors of Darien.