It was a race to the finish. But the results are in:
Read 'em and weep:
Theresa McGrath: 61%
Shari Cantor: 29%
Kelly Clark: 4%
Diane Mudge: 4%
Clare Kindall: 2%
Of course this is silly, and I couldn't believe that over 315 people actually voted.
My apologies to Essie Labrot, she should have been included in the poll from the start. She might have even had a chance of pulling out a win.
Thanks to all you neanderthals for participating.
I posted this link : http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18956567&BRD=1646&PAG=461&dept_id=11035&rfi=6 on West Hartford Blog this morning from the West Hartford News which I thought was a fair and balanced look at the two candidates running for Town Clerk.
Theresa McGrath has clearly been an advocate for families and children since she arrived here from New York, and she courageously led the battle against the huge tax increase that the Democrats proposed last year, and pretty much helped tip the scale in favor of working families in West Hartford. Since the tax issue has been so contenuous, its put her in the awkward position of being targeted and facing unprecedented verbal assault by pro-tax advocates in a highly uncivilized manner.
The very fact that she is willing to serve the town in any capacity after such tiring and painful experience clearly shows her high level of commitment for residents of West Hartford; it obvious that she cares tremendously for this town, and is willing to take on responsibilities in a non-partisan position.
I only met her once (the story is below in a previous entry). She was very pleasant and remarkably bright. From everything that I've seen of her, I think she'd carry out the role of Town Clerk in a very neutral style, meaning should wouldn't let politics enter into the Clerk's Office.
I'm not saying that Essie would either. I haven't heard much from her in this campaign, I only know that she is a well connected Democratic operative who has been a delegate to the Democratic National Committee - and those aren't slots that they hand out casually to just anyone - these spots go to liberal political activists. I guess I have a concern for why a Democratic operative would be so interested in securing the Town Clerk's position, if not for any other reason than to pull some strings and turn the Clerk's office into the Democrats new base of operations.
Theresa's ideas about facilitating open government, and providing minutes to meetings online seems like a no-brainer to most people since many towns provide minutes to residents so that they can follow actions taken by their officials. Since Essie hasn't commented on this one way or another so I'm going to have to believe she's against the concept. In a large town like West Hartford, there needs to be commitment from our public officials to make policy decisions available to the public.
Lately, it seems that many decisions are being made in a vacuum or in back rooms away from public scrutiny. The only people that fear public knowledge of their proceedings, are those that realize that the decisions they are making might not be in the best interest of the public. This kind of underhanded handling of the town government smells rotten of deceit and dishonesty.
Let's choose open Government, let's choose Theresa McGrath.
