Darien Republican Town Committee 2016

Meet Your Republican Candidates

Register Early for GOP Presidential Candidate Forum Saturday, April 23 in Darien

Republican Town Committee Elects Brent Hayes Chairman & Other New Officers

Parting Shot: Current Republican Town Committee Blasts 2 GOP Selectmen

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

Will the Fur Fly at Monday Night’s Republican Town Committee Vote?

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

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

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

2016 Election

By David Gurliacci | October 9, 2016

Government & Politics

By David Gurliacci | April 13, 2016

Government & Politics

By David Gurliacci | March 10, 2016

Government & Politics

By David Gurliacci | February 12, 2016

Government & Politics

By David Gurliacci | January 11, 2016

Government & Politics

By David Gurliacci | January 11, 2016

Government & Politics

By David Gurliacci | January 9, 2016

Government & Politics

By David Gurliacci | December 28, 2015

Government & Politics

By David Gurliacci | December 28, 2015

The Darien Republican Town Committee is hosting a “Meet Your Candidates” event on Sunday, October 9, at the Wee Burn Beach Club from 5 to 7 p.m., and tickets are $25 per person. The purpose of this event is to introduce registered voters to a dedicated team of 5 state and local Republican candidates who are committed to making our community and our state stronger. Two of our candidates are also the endorsed candidates for the Independent Party. Everyone is welcome to come. Tickets are available online now until October 3 at www.darienrtc.com/events/html.

GOP Presidential Candidate Forum 4-23-16

The Republican Town Committees of Darien, Norwalk, and New Canaan are co-hosting a Republican Presidential Candidate Forum at Darien Library at 9:30 a.m., Saturday, April 23, just in time for the primaries on Tuesday, April 26. Admission is free, and everyone is welcome to attend. For those planning to attend, please RSVP to Paul Knag at pknag@murthalaw.com. Former CT Congressman Chris Shays will speak for Governor John Kasich,
Former Greenwich RTC Chair Jim Campbell will speak for Donald Trump, and
Conservative Activist Bob MacGuffie will speak in favor of Senator Ted Cruz. For the first time in a generation, Connecticut’s delegate selection decisions could make a real difference in the outcome of the convention.

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. 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].

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.”

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.

Selectmen Kip Koons and Susan Marks are said to be asking Republicans to avoid voting for five members of the Republican Town Committee leadership at tonight’s GOP Caucus. Nanci Natale an RTC member and head of publicity for the committee, posted a copy of Koons email on her Facebook timeline. His email, according to another source who confirmed the Natale text was accurate, said in part:

“I believe that it is critical to make changes to the current leadership of the RTC so as not to repeat the debacle of last July. Instead, we need to elect residents who better represent all Darien Republicans, who have the town’s common good as their primary focus and who are committed to work together with transparency and honesty.” Koons attached to the email a list of all candidates with five names of RTC members in the leadership crossed out: Chair Karen Armour, Vice Chair Vin Burke, Secretary Laurie Williams, Natale (publicity chair) and Malcolm Hall (recruitment chairman).

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).

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.

« August 2022 »

[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.