This week, Newtown’s two political parties laid their cards on the table, nominating their local election slates for 2001. There were no surprises at the tops of the tickets as Democratic First Selectman Herb Rosenthal and Owen Carney, his Republican challenger, got their respective nominations without opposition. The council candidates put forward by the parties, however, are a mix of incumbents and challengers that promises to change the face of the council after November. Sadly, however, both the Republicans and Democrats have once again failed to provide Newtown with a choice of Board of Education candidates. Each of the three candidates nominated this week are looking forward to certain election – perhaps.

Two weeks ago we asked in this space, “Will Newtown get a choice for school board?” The local political parties have once again answered that question by reserving the right to appoint Newtown’s school board for their own executive and nominating committees. If we are to have an appointed Board of Education, the least we can do is have it appointed by a board or official who is elected by the people of Newtown instead of entrusting the task to a group of people who are neither publicly elected nor directly accountable to the voters. Most people don’t even know who they are.

This year, there may be an attempt to exploit this bipartisan failure to provide choices to the voters by a group of people purporting to be “a new political party in Newtown.” In a letter to the editor this week, the leader of this effort and first selectman candidate for the new “NICE Party” (Newtown Independent Coalition for Excellence), Barry Piesner, says the party’s promised slate of candidates will be “the only avenue by which Newtown residents will be able to address a choice of issues and hear the candidates finally face some tough questions.” That may be overstating the case a bit, but we get his point.

How solid is the popular foundation of this new party? We don’t know. It was organized, according to Mr Piesner, after the “disappointment” of the town meeting that voted to purchase Fairfield Hills and build the new school for grades 5 and 6. The perception was that Mr Rosenthal had unfairly cut off debate on the issue, thwarting Mr Piesner and others who wanted to scale back the town’s up-front financial commitment to the project. The reality was that several hundred voters at the meeting decided to cut short the debate, not Mr Rosenthal. Presumably the same voters motivated to attend a town meeting will be the ones motivated to come to the polls in November. Attempts by Mr Piesner and his NICE party to win support and sway the policies and direction of local government may be equally ineffectual in November. Time will tell.

Whether the NICE party, or any other party, is born of a snub or born of a vision, is widely popular or widely ignored, the bottom line is that new voices will be heard in the debate of local issues, and that is a good thing for our democratic system. Newtown Republicans and Democrats, who sometimes seem bent on limiting our choices, should take note.