NORWALK, Conn. – Norwalk’s former police chief was on top at the Democratic convention and he’s on top again – he is the first Norwalk mayoral candidate to get enough petition signatures to be on the ballot for the September primary.
Democratic Registrar Stuart Wells said Harry Rilling had 744 valid signatures as of 5 p.m. Thursday. The candidates need 775 verified signatures and Rilling’s campaign had promised to send over several more pages, Wells said.
“Rilling will most likely have enough within the hour, and almost certainly by morning,” Wells said.
At 11 p.m., the Rilling campaign announced that it had the 775 signatures it needs.
The recent Democratic Party convention ended without an endorsed candidate for mayor when, after five consecutive identical votes, none of the four candidates had the 18 Democratic Town Committee votes needed to win. Rilling had 16 votes in those last five of eight ballots, while fellow canididate Vinny Mangiacopra, District D Chairman, had 15. Former Mayor Alex Knopp made a non-debatable motion to adjourn, and everyone but the Mangiacopra backers voted for it.
All four would-be mayors assumed they would be able to begin collecting signatures the next day, but were told they would have to wait a week, until July 24. They need to get the 775 verified signatures by 4 p.m. Aug. 7.
At 5 p.m. Thursday, eight days after beginning to get signatures, Mangiacopra had 435 verified signatures, with none still sitting in the registrars office pending review, Wells said. Former Town Clerk Andy Garfunkel had 230 verified signatures, plus two pages with 39 signatures pending verification, Wells said. Common Councilman Matt Miklave had 76 verified signatures, with none pending.
“As mentioned before, the numbers are almost, but not quite, official as we must check for duplicate names,” Wells said in an email. “However, the campaigns all send their circulators to different locations to gather signatures, so duplicates for the same campaign are infrequent. All the campaigns will also attempt to get a substantial cushion of extra signatures, even when they reach the magic number. These are usually available from petitions “in the field” but not yet turned in. Petitions from candidates not yet across the finish line get priority in processing, but we do not have much of a backlog. Andy’s two pages will be processed early tomorrow morning.”
The success rate of the circulators varies widely.
Rilling’s campaign submitted 919 signatures, of which 81 percent were verified by the registrars, Wells said. Mangiacopra’s campaign submitted 626 signatures, of which 69 percent were verified.
He said, “The ones that did not check out are either: not Democrats, or not registered, or not legible.”
The Rilling campaign will continue collect signatures at least through the coming weekend, the release said. Rilling mobilized approximately 65 volunteer petition circulators who had collected signatures from all corners of the city by Thursday evening, and the campaign estimates well over a hundred additional signatures will validated by the registrar in the coming weeks, the press release stated.
“Personal contact with voters is the best way to get the message out and to communicate our platform and our vision for Norwalk,” Rilling said in the release. “… As I went door-to-door, folks gave me water, some offered food, and some offered ideas and advice for the campaign. There really is an overwhelmingly positive feeling about my candidacy amongst the people of Norwalk.”
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