After a couple of weeks of waiting, while the people of the town and nation devoted their attention to more important matters, NICE Party founder and former first selectman candidate Barry Piesner emerged this week to put his spin on his party’s embarrassing failure to get all but two of its slate of candidates on the November ballot. Following discussions with the state Elections Enforcement Commission, Mr Piesner and the NICE Party agreed to voluntarily withdraw the candidacies of eight of ten of the party’s candidates. Mr Piesner was fined $200 for falsely attesting to the authenticity of the signatures on the petition forms he circulated in his attempt to win a place for himself and his fellow NICE Party candidates on the ballot.

This week, Mr Piesner admitted that he made some technical mistakes in the last minute rush to get his petitions filed on time. He portrayed his $200 fine as a friendly slap on the wrist from the Elections Enforcement Commission. Then he attempted to shift attention from his shortcomings by raising questions about the ethical conduct of Town Clerk Cindy Simon in her handling of the matter. Mrs Simon initiated the investigation into the matter in a complaint to the Elections Enforcement Commission that questioned the validity of certain petition signatures.

Mr Piesner alleges without evidence that Mrs Simon’s actions were a sinister attempt to undermine his party and protect the established political landscape in Newtown. He alleges that he and his party were the victims of these machinations.

If Mr Piesner wanted these allegations to have any credibility whatsoever, he probably should have picked a different target for blame. Mrs Simon’s long service as town clerk in Newtown has been impeccable. While she is a Republican, people of all political persuasions recognize her integrity and professionalism. (The Democrats have long-since stopped running anyone against her in local elections, recognizing that there just isn’t anyone in town that can do the job as well or as impartially as Cindy Simon.) In this case, she suspected the validity of some of the signatures on NICE Party petitions, and forwarded her concerns to the state for investigation, as she is required to under law. As it turned out, the state investigation found signatures that were not authentic. Mrs Simon did not run to the press with her suspicions, as Mr Piesner charged in a press conference this week. The Bee only found out about her complaint to the state weeks after the fact when we asked about the status of the NICE Party petitions.

No, Mrs Simon is not the problem. Mr Piesner’s petition drive was disorganized and running late. He signed an official document swearing that every name on his petition was signed by that person in his presence, when that clearly was not the case. (He claims he never read what he was signing – a surprising admission from a man who wanted to be Newtown’s chief administrator.) Mr Piesner’s efforts to get a slate of candidates on the ballot were disorganized, sloppy, and technically dishonest. On top of that, he is now trying the tarnish the good name of one of this town’s straightest arrows – Cindy Simon.

Mr Piesner has no one to blame for his party’s false start but himself. We would have been far more impressed with his efforts to provide Newtown with a choice of candidates if he had not, in the end, tried to make himself out to be the victim of a nonexistent political conspiracy.