Tesei Trounces Blankley for 3rd Term

Greenwich First Selectman Peter Tesei overwhelmingly won a third term as the town's chief executive, defeating Democratic challenger John Blankley.

The 42-year-old Tesei will lead the three-member Board of Selectmen whose incumbent members Republican Dave Theis and Democrat Drew Marzullo were re-elected. Including absentee ballots, Tesei's margin of victory of nearly 3 to 1, was 9,101 votes to Blankley's 3,293. Theis received 7,284 votes and Marzullo, 4,818.

The end of a dramatic race for two Republican seats on the Board of Education, retired Greenwich school teacher Barbara O'Neill and businessman Peter von Braun won the four-way race. The Republicans for the first time in more than a decade fielded four candidates for the two available seats - a field that included incumbent Marianna Ponns Cohen. The vote totals were O'Neill: 8,898; von Braun: 7,877, Povinelli: 5,119, and Ponns Cohen 4,331.

Incumbent Republican Town Clerk Carmella Budkins easily defeated the first Democratic challenger she had in 20 years, by more than a 2 to 1 margin. Budkins received 8,186 votes to 3,652 for Stephen Ng.

In the other hotly contested race, incumbent Republican Tax Collector Anthony 'Tod' Laudonia narrowly eked out a win over Democratic challenger Bill Grad. Laudonia received 6,229 votes; Grad 5,601. The pair previously faced off in the 2009 election.

(For a complete tally of votes of Greenwich races, including the Representative Town Meeting races, please see the accompanying PDFs at right.)

Patch will continue to update election results with additional stories and videos from both the Republican and Democratic headquarters.