Primaries matter.
If you don’t vote when you legally have the opportunity, you literally don’t count. Aug. 14 from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the Weston Middle School Gym is when Westonites who are registered as Democrats or Republicans can soon make their voices heard. Please be sure to vote in the party primaries.
Those who tune in to political chatter only in the autumn often complain that they don’t like any of the candidates. Well, on Aug. 14 we can help to determine who those candidates will be. Republicans will choose their candidate for six offices, and Democrats for four.
If you will be away on that date, or if you meet other state specified criteria for voting by absentee ballot, obtain an application for an absentee ballot from the town clerk’s office. Or download it from the town of Weston’s website.
Republicans will choose between two competitors for the opportunity to face an uphill battle against incumbent U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy.
After eight years with Gov. Malloy at the helm in Hartford, members of both parties will get to choose their candidate to succeed him.
How many candidates are in that competition? A total of seven. Two Democrats, both from Fairfield County. And five Republicans, four from Fairfield County.
You’ve probably been receiving a lot of campaign material in the mail lately. You can find out a good deal more about the Republican gubernatorial candidates by watching the four of them who participated in the “CT Realtors” debate in June. It can be readily found on YouTube.
The two Democratic Party gubernatorial candidates have debated far and wide. They also had a “CT Realtors” debate, in July after the petitioning candidate had secured a spot on the Aug. 14 ballot. You can find it on CT-N.
But for Westonites, perhaps the most interesting contests are elsewhere on the ballot. On the Democratic side, the contest for lieutenant governor pits Susan Bysiewicz, endorsed by the party, against Eva Bermudez Zimmerman. Bysiewicz knows Weston. For one thing, when she was secretary of the state at the time, she swore in former First Selectman Gayle Weinstein.
Her opponent hasn’t been to Weston as far as I am aware. But I read that as a child she was one of the students on the winning side in the Sheff v. O’Neill case involving inequities in public education.
Democrats have a choice between three lawyers competing for the attorney general nomination. All of them are interesting, for their own reasons.
Republican John Shaban, formerly a state legislator representing Weston and a couple neighboring towns, petitioned his way onto the G.O.P. ballot in this slot. His opponent is Sue Hatfield, a state prosecutor from Pomfret.
Of particular note for Republicans, Jayme Stevenson is one of three candidates for that party’s lieutenant governor nomination. She has Weston’s interests at heart, and a good understanding of our region, presently serving her second term as chairman of the Western Connecticut Council of Governments and her fourth term as Darien first selectman.
“About Town” is also a television program. It appears on Fridays at 5:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 10 a.m. on Cablevision Channel 88 (Public Access). Or see it at aboutweston.com.