Stratford Candidate Off The Ballot Due To Endorsement Violation

STRATFORD, CT — The political party whose leadership sought a special Zoning Board of Appeals election won’t have a name in the race, after the town attorney found the party's candidate endorsement process violated state statute.

“Nobody’s above the law, nobody’s above the rules,” said Lorenzo Elder, who holds the seat that’s up for election and notified town leadership about the violation.

Elder, a Democrat, was appointed in January to represent the appeals board’s second district, filling a position vacated by Paul Tavaras after Tavaras was voted onto the Town Council. A month after Elder’s appointment, Tavaras, also a Democrat, called for a special election, accusing Elder of reneging on an agreement to support certain candidates for the roles of appeals board chair and vice chair. The election for Elder’s seat was set for June 30, and on Feb. 20 the Democratic Town Committee endorsed former councilwoman Emma Brooks as its candidate.

In a letter to town and state officials, Elder claimed the committee made its endorsement outside the state-designated window of March 10 to March 17. Town attorney Bryan LeClerc concurred in a letter to the town clerk, which said Brooks should not appear on the ballot.

Elder chose not to seek the party’s endorsement and instead planned to petition for a primary. He said in his letter that because the petitioning window fell between March 17 and April 15, in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, he was unable to get enough signatures to force a primary, which would have been held May 5. However, Elder did gather the smaller number of signatures needed to appear on the June 30 ballot as a petitioning candidate.

Democratic Town Committee Chair Steve Taccogna said the coronavirus also affected the committee’s ability to endorse Brooks within the designated window, as the committee did not receive notice until March 16 that an endorsement at a virtual meeting would be accepted as valid during the pandemic.

“At this point I don’t see us pressing the issue. I don’t see us contesting anything right now,” he said.

Brooks, too, said she would not challenge the decision, but noted she questioned the integrity of the ruling.

“I will always be a champion for the South End of Stratford,” she said.

The Stratford Republican Town Committee on March 16 endorsed Casimir Mizera for the appeals board seat, which expires in 2022, according to Chair Lou DeCilio.

“They basically shot themselves in the foot,” DeCilio said. “… Now it’s going to be a Republican and a petitioning candidate on the ballot.”