Our Choice For First Selectman

This year’s local election campaign has set a new local benchmark for political sophistication. That is good for those looking for choices in a homogenized political landscape, and not so good for those looking for simple answers to their questions. Never before in our experience has so much political information been proffered to voters in the run-up to a local election. The combination of articulate candidates, websites, email lists, and a severely distended Letter Hive in The Bee has created a storm of information so intense that we fear some people may not shovel out in time to get to the polls next Tuesday.

When every point of view sounds so good, how can we distinguish authentic competence from mere marketing skills? Fortunately, at the top of the tickets of the three contending Republican, Democratic, and Independent parties this year are people who, when you strip away all the hype, are sincere, informed, and tireless. They are credible and convincing candidates. A fourth petitioning candidate this year, Patrick Heigel, while amiable, earnest, and eager to serve his town, is not adequately prepared for the town’s chief administrative office. We suggest he begin his local political career at street level rather than in the penthouse.

This year we endorse the candidacy of Republican Pat Llodra based on her extensive record of community service and professional experience. As a veteran high school principal (including a year as interim principal of Newtown High School), as an administrator with the Connecticut Association of Schools, as a director for leadership development and professional training for the state Department of Education, as a school board member, and most recently as a member of the Legislative Council, Mrs Llodra’s experience in successfully administering large and complex organizations with a direct responsibility to the public is unmatched by her opponents. After hearing that every candidate is for fiscal discipline, strategic and long-term planning, open space acquisition, a review of the planning and development of Fairfield Hills, the environmental sanctity of Hawleyville (and every other area of town), we must ask ourselves which of these three candidates is best equipped to negotiate a successful path through various pitfalls and blind traps that attend these issues and the many other issues that stack up on a first selectman’s desk. Articulating problems is one thing. Executing solutions is something else altogether, and in the context of public service and accountability, Mrs Llodra is in our view the ablest executive.

We would like to acknowledge the efforts of Democrat Gary Fetzer and Independent Party of Newtown (IPN) candidate Bruce Walczak to give Newtown a meaningful election campaign. Either could easily end up as first selectman or on the Board of Selectmen as a result of Tuesday’s voting. Mr Fetzer’s emphasis on innovation and teamwork is appealing and challenges us to think about government in new ways, though we wonder whether some suggested innovations, like creating web-based professional portfolios for private individuals and businesses, may be taking the responsibilities of local government a little far afield. Mr Walczak’s challenge to Newtown to sweep the status quo (and the Republican and Democratic parties) aside in favor of a new independent regime for change and progress has fostered a healthy debate about the meaning of local party labels. As both a candidate and chairman of the IPN, however, his relentless attack on the town’s existing political infrastructure and the people serving in it has effectively foreclosed his prospects for the collaboration and consensus he will need to effect the change he envisions. Independence may get you elected to office, but it is interdependence that creates success once you get there.