Republicans Retain Enfield Town Council; Democrats Win School Board

For the first time in recent memory, different political parties will control the Enfield Town Council and Board of Education.

Unofficial voting results indicate that Republicans maintained their super majority on the Town Council, winning seven of the 11 available seats.

Voters swayed the direction of the school board in favor of the Democrats, with the former minority party capturing five of the nine slots.

Shortly before 10 p.m., 181 absentee ballots had yet to be counted, but the chances of them altering the party status was slim.

Democratic newcomer Tina LeBlanc had the fewest votes among her party's candidates for school board with 2,320. However, that was 63 votes more than the lowest Republican, incumbent Tom Sirard. Two other Republicans, incumbent Chuck Johnson (2,266) and newcomer Kevin Fealy (2,261) also had far fewer votes than LeBlanc before absentee ballots were counted.

Incumbent Republicans Joseph Bosco (District 1) and Scott Kaupin (District 3) retained their seats on the Town Council, as did fellow at-large incumbents Carol Hall, Bill Lee and Ken Nelson. Greg Stokes, chairman of the school board, also won an at-large slot, and Tom Kienzler defeated Democrat Steve Palmer for the District 4 seat.

For the Democrats, District 2 Councilman William "Red" Edgar retained his seat, as did at-large incumbents Cindy Mangini and Patrick Crowley. Tom Arnone, a former school board member who was nominated to fill a vacant seat on the council, but denied by the Republican majority, won the final at-large spot over fellow Democrat Bob LeMay.

Complete voting results will be published Wednesday morning.