The Power of Incumbency

[Bustopher Jones]

The Wallingford Democratic Town Committee renominated Vincenzo DiNatale and Nick Economopoulos to run for Town Council. In the 35+ years that I have been following Wallingford politics, these two are without a doubt amongst the worst Councilmen I have ever seen, and in no way deserve to be re-elected. Yet, they are renominated with no problem. To make matters worse, the Dems nominated 7 candidates for a maximum of 6 seats; this results in candidates within the same party trying to outdo their fellow candidates in order to avoid being the odd man out (even if their party wins all of the possible seats allowed by the minority representation provision of the Charter), rather than working together as a team. (That is not conjecture; I have witnessed this before in Wallingford.) With the popularity of the DiNatale name in both parties, it is likely that at least Vincenzo will wind up bumping another far more deserving candidate.

Isn't incumbency wonderful? :(

[gunderstone]

There are actually 7 running for 6 available seats (as limited by state statue) for Council and BOE for both parties:

Wallingford Republicans name 7 and 7 (http://jasonzandri.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!AA559A45099B2EBD!6323.entry)

Big crowd of Wallingford Dems turns out (http://jasonzandri.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!AA559A45099B2EBD!6324.entry)

There may be 8 for Council from the Democrat side if Geno Zandri collects all the signatures he needs over the next 3 weeks (he probably will be able to) - Wallingford Dems prepare to run with no mayoral hopeful - Geno Zandri attempting to petition on as 8th candidate for Town Council (http://jasonzandri.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!AA559A45099B2EBD!6337.entry)

[oldnickel]

There is nothing wrong with letting the people decide. I have heard way too many times the convenient excuse that an individual could not run for office because the party leaders were against and fixed the voting. This is actually more democratic.

As a DTC member, I would have seconded anyone willing to run for office. At the very least that person deserves an up or down vote. It doesn't I support the individual, I just support their right to have a fair shot.

I would be willing to sign Geno's petition as well.

[Wallyworldite]

The word is that the Dems may very well end up with 9 on the ballot. Gee, who could the 9th be? Maybe... Lucille?

[gunderstone]

I have also heard word of mouth that there might be a 9th candidate that is petitioning; if that is the case I would expect that the paperwork would need to be filed by Monday to give them a fighting chance to get the nearly 400 signatures they need by the deadline that is a little more than a week away.

Guess we'll know soon enough - it's all speculation at this point

[oldnickel]

Lucille should run for Mayor again. No vumbaco as competition to split the anti dickinson vote.

[flatrat]

Lucille should run for Mayor again. No vumbaco as competition to split the anti dickinson vote.

Excellent point. A few more of his base have gone onto Valhalla in the last two years as well.

http://k41.pbase.com/u14/terry434/upload/41829616.AmishBuggyIntercourse.jpg

[Bustopher Jones]

Lucille should run for Mayor again. No vumbaco as competition to split the anti dickinson vote.
Maybe Jimmy Vumbaco is the 9th candidate. (Gee, how would he function without Emperor Brodinsky telling him what to say and how to vote?)