A Hard-Fought Campaign

To the Editor:

It was a hard-fought campaign for the 106th District statehouse seat, and it has been my immense honor to be the Democratic candidate in my first run for public office. I would like to thank the 5,700 voters in Newtown’s 106th district who cast their vote for me to become their next state representative. Alas, the results show my campaign falling 48 votes short, and I have waived my legal right to a recount in the interest of saving the Newtown taxpayers this $3,500 cost. Despite the loss in my race, I am cheered by the victory of Democrats at all other levels: Elizabeth Esty kept the Fifth District Congressional seat blue, Chris Murphy thankfully will be in the US Senate, and of course Barack Obama was reelected handily, and will continue to keep our country on the right track.

With immense gratitude, I would like to thank all of those who worked so hard to spread my message of economic growth, job creation, helping small businesses, and improving education at all levels. These include my campaign coordinator Alex Pachkovsky, my intern Abby Hungaski, my treasurer Rich Stein, and dear friends Sherry Chapman, Hannah Albee, Wendy Rafferty, Fran Wong, Cathy Filiato, Kiley Gottschalk, Sheilah Krasnickas, Marj Cramer, Erin Nikitchyuk, Cara Manes, Laurie Veillette, DeeDee Morlock, Desiree Galassi, and Andrew Morosky. I also am so grateful for the support of the Newtown Democratic Town Committee, including Chairman Jim Juliano, Treasurer Alan Clavette, John McCarthy, Jim Gaston, Joe Bojnowski,  LeReine Frampton, Herb Rosenthal, Rich Boritz, Eric Paradis, Jay Gill, Nancy Juliano, Paula Stephan, Eva Bermudez, Sharon Kish and Edgar Beers.  Thank you to Chris Lyddy for his nomination and endorsement. My family – sisters Regina Kruger and Sabrina Mancini, and my mom Rosemary Wright – were out at the polls with me yesterday to greet voters, and I thank them. (I know I must be forgetting someone, and I do apologize to anyone I have forgotten to list.) Thank you to my “family” at Trinity Episcopal Church, who have been so supportive in the past five months. Thank you for all who hosted a lawn sign, wrote a letter to the editor, or posted positive comments on Facebook. And also thank you to everyone who made donations, large and small, to my campaign – 150 from within Newtown, to qualify for our so important public campaign financing here in Connecticut.

I am proud to have run a campaign based around specific ideas, research, and my experience in key areas that affect peoples’ lives. Part of this was my decision to run a positive campaign, with no “contrast” ads highlighting potentially negative information about my opponent, leaving that up to the journalists and individual voters to research. I will always question whether this was the right choice. I now realize that Newtowners had a right to a full hearing of both candidates’ backgrounds, in order to choose the best person to represent us in Hartford, and it is the responsibility of a candidate to present all of the relevant facts so that voters can make an informed choice – even if this is difficult, and risks your being labeled as “negative.”

I look forward to continuing to serve our community as a realtor, volunteer, and in other ways that have not yet presented themselves. Thank you again to all of my supporters, and let’s look forward, not back.

Sincerely,

Lisa Romano

28 The Boulevard, Newtown                                    November 7, 2012