Greenwich Dems Upbeat Despite Losing First Selectman Race

The mood was surprisingly upbeat at Democratic Town Headquarters on Field Point Road at about 8:15 p.m., shortly after the polls closed — that is, unless you were standing near the tally chart, which drove home the harsh reality: Democratic First Selectman Candidate John Blankley was getting by a three to one ratio, with five of 12 districts reporting.

By 9 p.m., after the final results had come in, it was clear that Tesei had won his third term, and Blankley called to concede. The final count was Tesei, 9,101 votes; Blankley, 3,293, with 35 percent voter turnout.

Despite the crushing loss in the first selectman race, DTC Chairman Frank Farricker’s uplifting post-election speech — laced with humorous anecdotes — kept the torch lit for the Dems:

“Guys, the work never stops in this business — we’ve done what we can tonight. We take our lessons and we move forward,” Farricker shouted to the pumped crowd that had packed into a room in the historic house serving as DTC campaign headquarters.

What's more, the election was by no means a loss for local Democrats: As Farricker pointed out, “there are 15 Democrats who will be taking office come December 1,” including incumbent Selectman Drew Marzullo, who was reelected for another two year term, garnering 4,818 votes.

“We have Bob Brady, Jeff Ramer, Mary Lee Kiernan, Bill Finger, Sean Goldrick and Randy Huffman, who will be sitting on the Board of Estimate and Taxation,” Farricker said. “And a profoundly well-done job by Jennifer Dayton and Adriana Ospina, who will be sitting on what promises to be a very collegial Board of Education.”

Dayton and Ospina received 6,269 and 6,124 votes, respectively, in the six-way race for four seats on the Board of Education (four Republicans, two Democrats, top four vote earners win). They knocked out Republican challenger Anna Saras Povinelli and incumbent Mariana Ponns Cohen, who got 4,331 and 5,119 votes, respectively.

Blankley, an oil and shipping executive and former member of the Representative Town Meeting who moved to town from his native England in 1983, seemed to take the loss well, and even managed to interject some humor into his post election speech:

“A loss is a loss — but I’m still going to be me after this. But after the confidence [First Selectman Peter Tesei] expressed in me, and my company, during the League of Women Voters debate, I fully expect that my company will get a contract,” Blankley joked, referring to a that he’d consider hiring Blankley's technology firm to review the Town's IT practices following the election.

“The whole thing has actually been a lot of fun,” Blankley said of the campaign. “I think the disappointment would have been greater if we had come close and lost — but by these margins, which seem to be ‘regular margins’ [for Greenwich], all that tells us is there is a certain style of thinking, and voting, in Greenwich that will be hard for us to overcome.”

Had Blankley garnered more votes than Marzullo in the Board of Selectmen race, then he would have taken Marzullo's seat on the three member board. Incumbent Republican Selectman David Theis also retained his seat, garnering 7,284 votes.

Blankley said he was happy that he ran an issues-based campaign that brought attention to “the key issues: schools, infrastructure and getting value for our tax dollars.”

“And if I don’t get that contract from the town, perhaps there’s life as an EMT,” he joked, referring to an incident on Monday in which he reportedly administered first aid to a man who had fallen in the Cos Cob Train Station.

Although visibly upset by his running mate’s loss, Marzullo praised Blankley for staying consistent through the campaign:

“It has been an absolute pleasure running with you,” a choked up Marzullo told Blankley. “My only advice in the beginning was, I hope you have some fun. We knew the dynamics going into this, and this is the reality.”

Blankley nodded in acknowledgement.

“He is as good as they come,” Marzullo said of Blankley. “He stood on course and didn’t change — and that should be applauded.”

“It is frustrating — the numbers,” Marzullo added. “But I’m honored and I look forward to continuing what I started to years ago.”

Farricker reminded everyone that despite the disappointing local races, the Democratic Party has made great strides statewide in the past six to eight years, and is poised to build on that momentum next year.

“Six years ago we never ran a candidate for the state legislature, now we have candidates running for every seat — and guys like Ed Kruemich up there in Hartford who are working on redistricting Greenwich in a fair way,” Farricker said. “Six years ago we didn’t have a single statewide elected official. Now we have Greenwich native Jim Himes as our Congressman, Greenwich native Dick Blumenthal as our U.S. Senator, and Governor Dannel Malloy, our neighbor from Stamford and a good friend of Greenwich, who put us on Row A this year.”

“We may have our setbacks at the local level,” Farricker added, “but you can see where this party has gone in the past eight years. We contest every election — and we have guys like Stephen Ng who jump into the race to make sure we’re represented. And we’re a stronger party for it…”

Ng, the Democratic contender in this year’s Town Clerk race (who Farricker referred to as a “rising star” in local politics), lost to incumbent Republican Carmella Budkins, who received 8,186 votes to Ng’s 3,652.

The election also included a tight race for Town Tax Collector, with Republican incumbent Anthony Tod Laudonia, who received 6,229 votes, barely edging out Democrat Bill Grad, who received 5,601 votes.

For full election results, see attached PDF.

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