Recount affirms Norwalk DTC members

NORWALK, Conn. – The winners of last week’s election in Norwalk District A were affirmed in a recount Monday, Democratic Registrar Stuart Wells said.

“On Monday, January 13, 2014, Democratic Party Chairperson Amanda Brown, Town Clerk Rick McQuaid, Deputy Registrar Robert Sodaro and I broke the seal and opened the ballot box for District A and recounted the votes. There were 43 valid ballots,” Wells said in an email. “The totals were very slightly different from those reported on January 9th, but there was no change in the endorsement winners from the caucus.”

This resolves a minor controversy resulting from two recounts Thursday at Kendall Elementary School, where District A chose seven Democratic Town Committee members from 10 candidates. District A Chairman David Watts read the ballots too fast for those tallying the results the first time. He slowed down for a recount but there was still some confusion. Those counting came up with different vote counts for Matt Miklave and Rosa Murray.

Watts refused to count them a third time, saying that everyone knew who the winners were.

The results were as follows:

Carolyn C. Fuller — 40

Matt Miklave — 39

Rosa M. Murray — 38

Eloisa M. Melendez — 36

David A. Watts — 35

Steve Serasis — 32

Dwain Omar King — 32

Elsa Peterson Obuchowski, — 19

David Lloyd Jaeger Jr. — 17

Andy Garfunkel  — 13

Watts said Monday that he had originally tried to make sure that all of the incumbent members won re-election, organizing a meeting at Miklave’s house. He said he wanted to do what District B did, settling the lineup ahead of time to avoid problems later. Then Elsa Peterson Obuchoski filed a letter seeking a nomination, and Melendez, his running mate for Common Council, said she wanted to get onto the DTC and submitted papers. That caused a chain reaction resulting in 10 candidates and incumbents Garfunkel and Jaeger being ousted.

In 2011, Garfunkel ran for mayor and Jaeger ran for town clerk. Garfunkel was the District A chairman in 2013, but resigned that post — but not his spot on the committee — when he entered the mayor’s race.

“I know some people weren’t happy, but I really did everything I could to make sure all the incumbents come back on,” he said.

District A has been doing great, he said. Watts and Melendez won in a landslide last November.

“If it’s not broke, don’t fix it,” he said. “We’re trying to grow the district and we didn’t want to purge anybody.”

There’s a lot of experience among the 2012-2013 District A DTC members, people of “solid caliber,” he said.

Some people have criticized Watts and his family because his wife, Kathleen Watts, checked people in to vote. Watts said he had an elderly woman lined up for the chore, but that person backed out because it was very cold outside.

His wife is District A secretary, Watts said. “My wife is in the e-board of the district committee,” he said. “They voted for her to keep accurate records. She is the elected secretary, responsible for keeping accurate accounting.”

They had a computer connected to the state database during the caucus election, so they could tell ineligible voters why they were being turned away, he said.

Wells said all the paperwork was filed correctly. Processes were followed, he said.

“I just really recounted that one because it didn’t add up. The results are all the same, maybe one or two there,” he said.

Miklave gained three votes in the recount. Murray gained one.

Other results are as follows:

District B

(Only seven candidates ran)

10 ballots were cast

Phaedrel “Faye” Bowman

Edwin Camacho

Ernest W Dumas

Bruce V Morris

Michael Mushak

Travis Simms

Martha Wooten-Dumas

District C

56 ballots counted

John Kydes — 55

Peter Thor — 55

Taber Hamilton — 52

Linda Langston — 52

John Hauter — 51

Brenda Penn-Williams — 51

Kevin Poruban — 48

Deb Goldstein 16

Scott Kuykendall 5

District D

Haroldo Williams — 34

Nicholas Sacchinelli — 32

Vinny Mangiacopra — 31

Lynne Moore — 29

Warren Pena — 27

Diane Lauricella — 26

Krysten White — 24

Marilyn Robinson — 23

Anthony Ditrio — 23

Joe Tamburri — 22

Adam Blank — 17

District E

Michael Barbis — 55

Kate Tepper — 55

Robert Frazier — 54

John Igneri — 54

Piet Marks — 52

Galen Wells — 51

Nora King — 48

Bill Krummel — 16