New-Look Town Council Elected

The decision by three members of the Town Council -- Republicans Terry Jones and Jim Diaz, and Democrat David Holdridge -- not to seek re-election created space for some new faces to join the group. 

Except two of the new faces are actually fairly familiar in town government.

Steve Eichelberg, chairman of the Economic Development Commission, and former Zoning Chairman Kevin Dombrowski, will join Mike France as the council's newest members. All three are Republicans.

Other winners include Republicans Linda Davis, Sean Sullivan and John Marshall, and Democrats Mary McGrattan, Bill Saums and Sharon Wadecki.

Democrats Naomi Rodriguez and Ed Monahan failed to win seats on the council.

"I'm very grateful," Eichelberg said. "I know I had a lot of support in town and am very grateful for those that supported me. We have a great team on the town council and I'm looking forward to working with those guys."

The new council has six Republicans and three Democrats.

"A lot of them I have worked with before," said Democratic Town Councilor Mary McGrattan, who received more than 2,000 votes. "Some I don't know very well, but I have no problem working with members of the Republican party and opposing views, because I think we're all rational, reasonable people and I think it will be fine."

Best of all, she said, "communication is back," a reference to mayor-elect John Rodolico. "I think he'll be overwhelmed for a while, but I hope to support him and give him some of my ideas from the past, what worked and what didn't work," said McGrattan, a former mayor.

"I'm very excited about some of the people on the town council, especially some of the new members," said Town Councilor Bill Saums, who was re-elected Tuesday. "We've got some great members, and we've also got some fantastic members that we're going to miss.

"But I'm confident that we have a great new mayor in John Rodolico," Saums continued. "I think we would have had a great new mayor in Tony Saccone, too. Either one of them would have done a fantastic job, and I'm looking forward to working with the new council and new mayor."

"The council is fabulous," said Town Councilor Linda Davis, who was again the town's top vote-getter. "I think it will just be a continuation of how well we got along with the group that we had. We all got along well. We worked really well together, but I see the same thing with this group."

Town Councilor Sean Sullivan concurred.

"I think it will be an excellent town council for the town of Ledyard," he said. "All the people who got elected are great people. I thank the people who ran and didn't get elected. We had great choices all around."

Town Council Candidate

Dist. 1 votes

Dist. 2 votes

Vote totals

Linda Davis, R

 1,214

 1,093

 2,307

Sharon Wadecki, D

 909

 894

 1,803

John Marshall, R

 998

 924

 1,922

Bill Saums, D

 919

 838

 1,757

Mary McGrattan, D

 1,008

 894

 2,002

Steve Eichelberg, R

 1,117

 850

 1,967

Edward Monahan, D

 688

 701

 1,389

Sean Sullivan, R

 1,110

 1,118

 2,228

S. Naomi Rodriguez, D

 852

 757

 1,609

Kevin Dombrowski, R

 985

 819

 1,804

Mike France, R

 958

 832

 1,790

Bold = winner.