Bringing Choice To The Election

To the Editor:

Imagine that our state parties agreed that neither Republicans nor Democrats could account for more than half of our US Senate delegation, and that both parties recommended a single candidate who they thought had the interests of the state at heart. In each election, the voters were provided one and only one candidate for the senate race, handpicked by the respective party so that the Connecticut delegation would contain the pair of senators the parties considered the best team. Is this an election? Now, imagine that they cross-endorsed one another’s candidate. Is this any more of an election?

Last week, both major parties selected three candidates and cross-endorsed the other party’s three candidates for the six seats on the Board of Finance (BOF). Thankfully, we have the Independent Party of Newtown (IPN) to help Newtown voters have a real, American election — even for the BOF. When first formed, I was extremely skeptical of the IPN. Today, I am much less skeptical. What follows should not be construed as an endorsement for the IPN or any of its candidates. Instead, I am describing why I am thankful.

Several years ago, The Bee ran a series of editorials arguing against the process of “Democracy by Committee” (my term) prevalent in local Newtown politics where seats on boards were divvied up and candidates handpicked for those seats. Instead, The Bee encouraged the major political parties to increase the number of candidates and so provide the citizens of Newtown with true elections where voters could actually choose who they thought best. Today, we have an ability to elect our town representatives, but only because of what initially looked like a single-issue political action group, the IPN. Last election, the IPN expanded the number of candidates for several of our boards, including the Legislative Council, Board of Education, and Police Commission. As a result, the members these boards, through the process of election, knew that the Newtown voters considered them the best candidates for their positions.

This year offers an even broader election process. We now see an election for selectmen that provides voters with six excellent candidates, very likely because the political climate created by the IPN two years ago encouraged an election that broke the longstanding status quo. This year, the Board of Finance finally has more than the six handpicked candidates running for its six seats — solely because of IPN. As our election season progresses, hopefully we’ll learn more about all of the known and the soon-to-be-known candidates. Then, we the voters can have an American election across all town positions, creating a town government that represents the interests of Newtown in the large rather than those of two Newtown political committees, comprised of the hundred-or-so Republican and Democrat party faithful. And further, our elected representatives will have the demonstrated support of Newtown voters and so can be more confident that their views truly reflect the public will.

Deborra Zukowski

4 Cornfield Ridge Road, Newtown                               August 2, 2009