First Selectman Election 2021

Official Darien Vote Count, Including Representative Town Meeting

GOP’s McNally Wins First Selectman Race, Republicans Win Board of Ed Seats

McNally Has a Strong Work Ethic, Dedication to Darien and Financial Acumen

Terrie Wood: Monica McNally Understands Finance, Listens With Open Mind and Heart

Tara Ochman Reaches Across Political Divides, Is Keen to Find Solutions, Watches Spending

Monica McNally Was Diligent, Found Middle Ground in Getting RTM To Approve Darien Bag Ordinance

Monica McNally Has the Knowledge, Skills and Temperament To Be First Selectman

2021 League of Women Voter’s Guide to Candidates: PART ONE: SELECTMEN

Guess How Much Darien Sends to the State Government in Taxes

Former Selectman Susan Marks: GOP Slate for Board of Selectmen Has Wide Experience, Knowledge

First Selectman Candidate Monica McNally Listens, Builds Consensus, Has a Talent for Organizing Groups

Former Board of Education Chair Tara Ochman Announces Run for First Selectman

Board of Education Election 2021

By David Gurliacci | November 3, 2021

Darien Elections 2021

By David Gurliacci | November 2, 2021

Letters to the Editor

By DARIENITE.COM | October 27, 2021

Letters to the Editor

By DARIENITE.COM | October 25, 2021

Letters to the Editor

By DARIENITE.COM | October 25, 2021

Letters to the Editor

By DARIENITE.COM | October 14, 2021

Letters to the Editor

By DARIENITE.COM | October 10, 2021

Board of Selectman Election 2021

By DARIENITE.COM | October 7, 2021

Letters to the Editor

By DARIENITE.COM | October 2, 2021

Board of Selectmen Election 2021

By DARIENITE.COM | September 29, 2021

Letters to the Editor

By DARIENITE.COM | September 28, 2021

Government & Politics

By David Gurliacci | July 16, 2021

At 4:38 p.m. the Darien Registrars of Voters Office released the count of both absentee ballots, ballots from newly registered voters and votes cast at polling stations around town. The vote count had been stopped by the head moderator for the vote count on Tuesday night. Both Susan Gray, the Democratic registrar, and John Visi, the Republican registrar, said they didn’t know why the count had been stopped, but the Secretary of the State’s Office had consented to it. At that time, the two registrars expected the vote count to resume late the next morning and perhaps be over by 12 noon. Instead, the count stopped again by the head moderator, who left the registrars office for a time.

McNally Stevenson tweet GOP win election night 2021

Although official vote totals from the Darien Registrars of Voters Office were not available Tuesday evening, joyful Republicans said they won the first selectman race and the contest for Board of Education seats. A dejected official in the town Democratic Party said the same. First Selectman Jayme Stevenson tweeted that Monica McNally, the GOP candidate to replace her, had “won in a landslide.” This article, originally published at 10:33 p.m., Tuesday, was updated at 11:11 p.m., with new information. Susan Gray, the Democratic registrar of voters said absentee ballots were not expected to be counted until late Wednesday morning.

To the editor:

I strongly urge the voters of Darien to elect Monica McNally as our first Sselectman on Nov. 2. Having worked with Monica for many years on the Representative Town Meeting, she has earned the highest respect of her peers and is recognized as a true leader. Her dedication, work ethic and financial acumen are the perfect combination we need in our next first selectman. Monica’s extensive experience with our town government has provided her with the practical know-how to manage Darien through the inevitable uncertainty that lies ahead.

To the editor:

It’s a pleasure to write this letter in support of Monica McNally as Darien’s next first selectman. Currently serving on the Board of Selectmen, Monica brings a wide range of relevant experience to the responsibilities of first selectman. She’s served in leadership roles for eight years on the RTM and knows the operations of our town. She was a successful financial advisor for 10 years with Smith Barney and thoroughly understands bond markets, interest rates and cash flow. Monica was a founding member of OPUS for Person to Person and has chaired several other community organizations.

To the editor:

I am writing to express my unqualified support for Tara Ochman as first selectman of the Town of Darien. As a community, we have lived through an exhausting pandemic, increasingly volatile weather patterns, and increasingly vitriolic political discourse. At the same time, we have been blessed with a sizable influx of new Darien residents, who have strengthened our community by just being a part of it. Tara is uniquely qualified to provide the leadership that our town needs at this time. She is a visionary, keen to find solutions for the local impact that storms and flooding will have on our homes and businesses.

To the editor:

Darien has an important choice to make in November in deciding who can best provide the type of strong leadership we’ve come to expect from our first selectman during Jayme Stevenson’s successful tenure. I would like to share my perspective on candidate Monica McNally with the Darien community, as I had the pleasure of working with her during the campaign to reduce plastic use in Darien, as a co-chair of BYO Darien. Monica was assigned by the Public Works Committee to present our petition to the full Representative Town Meeting and move the process forward. She performed very diligent research and investigated the potential impact of our petition on the Darien community from all possible angles. She created very relevant documentation to satisfy questions from the RTM members when she presented the petition to them.

To the editor:

Starting in December 2018 I served with Monica McNally on the Representative Town Meeting’s Public Works Committee. As chairman, Monica demonstrated knowledge, tolerance, consideration, inclusiveness, curiosity and sensible budgetary leadership. Monica was instrumental in the passing of numerous initiatives and budgetary items resulting in significant positive impact to the quality of life in Darien. These important infrastructure initiatives don’t gain much notoriety but they foster improvements to town safety, sidewalks, roads, waste management and recycling, sewer and storm drainage, etc. She also served on the RTM Rules Committee and subcommittee for technology.

Compiled each year as a public service by the League of Women Voters of Darien. This Voters’ Guide is designed to provide information about the candidates to the public in a nonpartisan and balanced way to assist them in casting an informed vote on Election Day. Questionnaires were submitted to candidates for local offices, asking one or more office related questions. Responses were limited to a specific word count and are printed exactly as submitted by the candidates. For every ballot position, a voter may write in the name of someone who is not listed as a candidate on a separate line at the bottom of the ballot for “Write-In Votes.”

In the State of Connecticut for those votes to be counted, the individual whose name is being written in, must have registered with the Secretary of State.

To the editor:

I‘ve lived in Darien for 35 years and served as a public official for 28 years (12 years on the Representative Town Meeting and 16 years as your town treasurer). But, I’ve never heard of the situation that occurred on Sept. 26! That day, two U.S. senators and a U.S. congressmen came to Darien to insert themselves into our First Selectman race supporting the Democratic candidate. Why so involved in our small town of about 21,000 people and a local political race?

To the editor:

First Selectman candidate Monica McNally, and Board of Selectmen candidates Jon Zagrodzky and Marcy Minnick are the team that will continue lead Darien to be a town people want to move to, raise a family, shop, dine, open a business and retire in. Monica, currently on the Board of Selectmen, has been giving back to the town for over 25 years. As a community advocate, she was a founding member of OPUS and president of the YWCA Women‘s Club. Elected to the RTM eight years ago, she quickly rose to the leadership roles of vice-chair of the Rules Committee and chaired the Public Works Committee. Importantly, Monica has a solid foundation in finance, having worked as a financial consultant for Smith Barney.

To the editor:
For over 20 years, I have known Monica McNally as a natural leader, extremely capable of organizing groups of people to achieve good things. From the days our children attended Tokeneke School kindergarten together, and our co-leadership of a pack of Cub Scouts, to watching her for years working with the Darien RTM, she has always brought people together for large, and small, causes. Her way of consensus building, and listening to the voices of others, has proved to be a perfect way for her to be a considerate but strong force, and will be the best way to lead Darien forward. Monica will listen to you, to all of us. She will always act in the best interests of Darien and its residents.

« August 2022 »

Tara Ochman, a Democrat, member of the Board of Education and its former chairperson, announced Thursday that she is running for first selectman. “For too long, the talents and experience of our residents have been undervalued, and for too long our town government has just managed the town, but not planned, really, for what’s next.,” Ochman told a crowd of about 100 people in front of Town Hall at 5:30 p.m.

“Our infrastructure, our roadways, our town-owned land and beaches need improvement,” she said. “They’ve been ignored too long. “We need to re-evaluate and modernize our emergency response plans. We need workable, user-friendly technology upgrades that allow us to operate efficiently and honor and aid the hard work of our town employees, making access to our town services easier for everyone.”