Democrat Receives Enough Write-ins to Fill Second Ballot Spot

Dan Grant, a Democrat who sat on the Montville Township Committee for 15 years, from 1990 to 1995 and again from 1996 to 2005, received 22 write-in votes in Tuesday's primary election. 21 votes were needed for a Democrat to be given the option to take the second ballot spot in November's general election.

Grant has one week to decide whether he will accept the nomination.

"The clerk tells me I have seven days to decide," said Grant. "So I'm going to take a few days to think about it."

Grant feels that the township suffers when only one party is represented in township committee. The current committee consists of all Republicans.

"Effective democracy takes two robust parties," said Grant. "The other thing that concerns me is that the Democrats only have one candidate."

Mike O'Brien, the only Democrat who ran officially in Tuesday's primary, has known Grant for years and says that he is comfortable with running alone, but is also comfortable with having a runningmate.

"It's not like I'm taken by surprise," said O'Brien. "I knew this was afoot. I never discussed with Dan that we would have a ticket or anything like that…I'm fine with running alone, if someone should be written in, I'm fine with that too…I'll go with the flow."

O'Brien and Grant ran together for township committee in 2007.

"Mike's a great guy," said Grant. "He was prepared to do this by himself, which is a tough choice, so I give him a lot of credit for that."

Grant was twice deputy mayor of Montville Township and also served for 10 years on the planning board. While on committee, he spent many years serving with all Republicans and being the lone Democrat.

"I think that speaks to my ability to play well with others," said Grant.

Grant has been active in the Democratic party in Montville for 40 years.