Democrats Open Office on Main Street

Their election headquarters have been open for some time now but the Newtown Democrats held their official grand opening Sunday, about an hour before the start of the rescheduled Labor Day parade.

"Quite canddily i have lived in Newtown for 20 years and I can't remember the Democratic party having the talent and the excellence and the quality of candidates that we have in this present election," selectman candidate Jim Gaston said.

The Democratic headquarters are on the second floor of 33 Main St. overlooking the flagpole and above a real estate office. The Republicans have an office at 5 Glen Road where . The Independent Party of Newtown held its first .

Gaston, who is on the top of the Democratic ticket, used part of his speech on Sunday to criticize the IPN pledge to cut town spending by 5-percent if its first selectman candidate Bill Furrier and selectman candidate Po Murray are elected.

"One party has made a rather extensive almost grandiose pledge of massive townside budget slashes and claiming no loss of services and they won't tell us exactly or specifically how and where these large cuts will be made," Gaston said. "We deserve to know this so we request the IPN tell the voters now and tell us straight up what town services do you intend to cut."

Furrier and Murray have not said where they intend to make the cuts but have said toward seeing what town expenses could be cut on their way toward making the 5-percent reduction.

In addition, Gaston criticized some Republicans running for office, though he did not specify which candidates, and as a group, referred to them as "our friends."

"The other party, the Republicans, who are our friends – some of the candidates are somewhat closed-lip on strategy," Gaston said. "I want to be clear that is not true for the first selectman, Pat Llodra, who has been out in front and done a wonderful job and kudos to her with she handled (Connecticut Light & Power) and how she handled the hurricane. Fantastic work.

"As well as all of those candidates on the Republican side who have vociferously challenged the Board of Education and the owner-operator fiasco. Some seemed satisfied to rely on their advantage on numbers. That might be smart politics, but that doesn't – but the public doesn't want smart politics. The public wants smart people to represent them and get things done and move the town forward. The Democratic candidates are just those people."

Don Mitchell, a Democrat running for District 2 of the Legislative Council, spoke after Gaston touting his 34 years in Newtown, 18 as the borough lawyer and his involvement with economic, land use and business planning primarily for the borough but also for the town – all of which he said speaks to his advocacy for long-term planning and consistent policies.

"We hear again and again right now 'We need change we need change,' and I'm telling you that vocal outcry sends the wrong message to people that we want to come to Newtown – new residents, new businesses, new economic development," Mitchell said. "We've got plan, after plan, after long range plan. We've have 300 years of planning by the citizens of Newtown and we got to a pretty good place, I think.

"What we don't want to do is reverse course and send out the wrong message, the message that we don't have, as a town, a commitment to consistent policies. We're asking people to come here to invest their business and their lives. Those are longterm plans. If they can't rely on our long term plans, they can't make theirs."

Other Democrats running for office include Eric Paradis, John Vorous and Daniel Shea for the Board of Education; Michael Portnoy, Martin Gersten and James Gaston Jr. for Board of Finance; Paul Lundquist, Michelle Rosenthal, Bob Edwards, Daniel Honan, Daniel Amaral, Rich Boritz and Joe Bojnowski for Legislative Council; Joel Faxon and Andrew Sachs for Police Commission; Robert Poulin and Rudy Pozek (alternate) for Planning and Zoning; Ross Carley and Herb Rosenthal (alternate) for Zoning Board of Appeals; Maureen Crick Owen for Board of Assessment Appeals; and Jim Juliano for Edmond Town Hall board of Managers.