Fiscally Responsible?

To the Editor:

The newly formed Independent Party of Newtown has been campaigning for several weeks on a number of issues, not the least of which is a portrayal of themselves as fiscally responsible. A story in last week’s Bee appears to paint a different picture.

It seems that one of their original candidates for a seat on the Board of Education, Republican Donna Monteleone Randle (petitioning on the IPN line as Donna Arlene Monteleone), has jumped ship and has withdrawn from that position and is now seeking to qualify as a write-in contender against the lone Democrat running to fill a two-year vacancy on the school board. She is seeking this position under a third name of Donna A. Monteleone.

After several contacts with officials from the Secretary of the State’s Office, it appears that Ms Monteleone’s (Randle?) desire to switch her ballot position is legal and Ms Randle’s (Monteleone?) reason is to prevent the lone candidate on the Democrat line from running unopposed.

I guess it did not cross Donna’s mind that initiating this change at such a late date would involve additional costs (our money) for town clerk personnel to redact the already completed absentee ballots and throw out more than 15,000 preprinted ballots and that it would incur additional costs in excess of $7,000 for reprinting new ballots and reprogramming chips in the electronic ballot scanners (a cost supposedly being covered by the state, but still our money). I suppose she also did not perceive the resulting confusion and potential for voided absentee ballots that have already been completed.

Does this sound like “fiscally responsible” to you? My opinion is that Ms Donna A. Monteleone Randle, a relatively unknown candidate, decided that it would be beneficial to remove herself from a line of three candidates where only two can be elected and place herself as one of two candidates where one can be elected. Coincidentally, the IPN also benefits by having just two candidates for a four-year term where both are electable. The reporter of this story characterized these latest developments as a “political shell game.” I think he nailed it! This is a registered Republican affiliated with and supported by the Independent Party, who will be running as a candidate for a Democrat seat on the school board. The voters are getting a little dizzy!

A quote from the famous Irish statesman Daniel O’Connell which I referenced in a letter to the editor several weeks ago bears repeating here: “Nothing is politically right which is morally wrong.”

George Caracciolo

Schoolhouse Hill Road, Newtown                            October 22, 2007

(Editor’s note: George Caracciolo is a Republican candidate for the Board of Education.)