Republicans Willing to Lead Us Responsibly

As a registered republican I was disappointed to hear about the actions of the Farmington Republican Town Committee in blocking two term incumbent Town Councilman Jon Landry from running for a third term. At best, this was an unwise move given the recent vote on the new high school given that Councilman Landry was only council person to oppose the building. I fear, however, that the reality is much worse. In fact, this was not just an unwise move by the committee choosing not to endorse an extremely popular candidate, but political retribution for Councilman Landry not “falling into line” and supporting the new high school. This is made evident by the fact that the RTC replaced him on the slate with the chairman of the building committee, Bill Wadsworth, who not only supported the expensive renovation, but actually ushered through the plan for a $184 million high school. It would seem that political retribution seems to be the name of the game right now as is evidenced by the treatment of building committee member Justin Bernier, who was first spoken of poorly in the newspapers, and then asked to resign from the building committee for little more than opposing the new high school.

I don't understand why different views on this issue (and others for that matter) are not encouraged or even allowed both in our party and in our town. Wisdom would dictate that the Farmington Republican Party would welcome the lone dissenters, especially after the outcome of the high school referendum where voters rejected the plan by a more than 2 to 1 margin. As it stands, the slate put forth by the RTC is made up only of candidates that vocally supported the project. Simple logic dictates that there will always be multiple viewpoints. In addition, it is the job of the elected officials to represent their constituents.

In the September 12th primary, I will be supporting Jon Landry, Justin Bernier, Paul Cianci, and Jeff Apuzzo as a rejection of the appearance of political retribution and as a statement that our party and our town should have room for diverse candidates and diverse ideas. I am confused and discouraged by the choices of the RTC and cannot support either their decision-making process or slate of candidates.