That's right, you heard me correctly. This year our town of Orange, CT is having its local elections, and our local head of government is the First Selectman. For the first 173 years of our town's history, a Democrat was never in the First Selectman's office. For the last 10 years, Democrats have had it. The Democratic incumbent has done a pretty good job over his six years in office, bringing plenty of new business to town to keep property taxes down. So why am I volunteering for a Republican?
The Republican challenger is a great guy: well-known local farmer, has been a member of the board of selectmen for the last six years and has been elected/re-elected in landslides. He's also a public school bus driver and was my bus driver from Kindergarten-6th grade.
A nice thing about Orange is that generally both candidates reject ideologies and approach just about every issue from practical standpoints. The Republican has run a pretty honest and decent campaign, while the Democratic incumbent has been using some tricks, such as running push polls accusing his opponent of being unqualified and of evading his income taxes. I volunteered at the debate put on by the local League of Women Voters yesterday, and the Democrat, Mr. Goldblatt, was often flirting with the line between "tough" and "nasty" while the Republican, Mr. Zeoli, was doing his best to stay away from partisanship and mudslinging. The big issue this year, as in most years, is taxes. Obviously, no one wants high property taxes and we'd like to expand our tax base. Both candidates are fairly pragmatic on this issue, with Mr. Goldblatt promoting as much economic development as possible to bring in private taxpayers, while Mr. Zeoli also promotes economic development while asking that we try to keep our budget as fiscally responsible as we can while still preserving the spirit of our town. So, my question for all of you is, would you yourself be open to volunteering to get a Republican elected?
