With a more than 2-to-1 edge in early voting — and strong leads in all 9 voting districts — Kevin Christie and Amy Wistreich were elected 1st and 2nd selectpersons today. The pair received over half the votes — 53% — in a 3-way race.
With all 9 districts, early votes and absentee ballots counted, Christie and Wistreich polled 4,952 votes. The O’Day/Moore ticket got 3,249 (35%); Rosenwaks, 1,174 (12%).
The Democrats return to power in Town Hall for the first time since 2013. Republicans Jim Marpe (2 terms) and Jen Tooker (1) have been in office since.
Don O’Day and Andrea Moore finished second. The race was not as close as 4 years ago, when Tooker defeated Jonathan Steinberg by 69 votes. As the runner-up, O’Day becomes 3rd selectman.
David Rosenwaks, running on the Independent Party line, finished a distant third.
1st Selectman-elect Kevin Christie. (Photo/Catherine Campagnino)
All 3 1st selectman candidates have Democratic ties. O’Day — who becomes the 3rd Selectman — left the party this year, to become unaffiliated. He was endorsed by the Republicans.
Rosenwaks is also a former Democrat.
Many observers had called the election too close to call. Rosenwaks was seen as a potential spoiler for the Democrats. A lingering question was how O’Day would be treated by both Democrats (for leaving the party), and Republicans (for not joining the party).
Democrats — who have a more than 2-to-1 advantage in registration over Republicans, with unaffiliated voters numbering close to Democrats — led in all other races. They retain control of town boards, including Education, Planning & Zoning, and Finance.
In the closely watched contest for Board of Education, Democratic incumbent Abby Tolan led, with 5,702 votes.
Two petitioning candidates, Stephen Shackelford and Jodi Harris, were next, with 5,668 and 5,657 respectively. Because only 2 Democrats can be seated on the 7-person board — the Town Charter limits one party to a bare majority — Harris lost her race.
Republican incumbent Dorrie Hordon retained her seat on the BOE, with 3,020 votes. The second spot went to Andy Frankel (2,866), who beat fellow Republican Michelle Hopson by 44 votes. Kaitlin Zucaro trailed. Write-in candidate Robert Harrington was last, with 300 votes.
Three Democrats — Michael Cammeyer, Bre Injeski and Craig Schiavone — were elected to the Planning & Zoning Commission. Schiavone also ran on the Coalition for Westport line, and was endorsed by the Alliance for Westport.
The Board of Finance was uncontested. Democrats Elaine Whitney and Allyson Stollenwerck, and Republican Brian Gaines, all won seats.
Speaking at a packed Little Barn celebration, Christie said, “This race wasn’t about me and Amy. It was about you.”
Wistreich added, “We’re ready to get to work.”
Christie then fielded a congratulatory call from Governor Ned Lamont.
His first tasks, he told “06880” reporter Catherine Campagnino, will be “spending time with department heads, and meeting with town boards.” He, Wistreich and other officials will be sworn in later this month.
Wistreich said, “This means so much, because I have been working in land use for Westport for 6 years. This means I get to put the shovel in the grond in some of these projects.”
Kevin Christie (center rear) addresses the Democratic crowd, at Little Barn. (Photo/Catherine Campagnino)
O’Day said the results “reflect the will of the people. I wish Kevin well, and I will do whatever I have to to help him out.”
O’Day and Rosenwaks headed to Little Barn, where they spoke with Christie. The conversations were constructive and affable, said Democratic Town Committee chair Michelle Mechanic.
Complete results, including the Representative Town Meeting (RTM), will be posted tomorrow morning.
(Reporting by Dylan Robbin, Catherine Campagnino, Will Enquist and Zara Saliba)
Congratulations to Mr Christie.
Fascinating election, as it seemed less predictable than any in recent memory.
The early turnout numbers, where registered Democrats, who well outnumber registered Republicans, were voting at a higher rate than Republicans, seemed to be the bellwether.
Assuming that pretty much everyone who voted, voted in the BOS race, it looks like we had a voter turnout of just about 51%, which would be a nice improvement over the 43% in the last election.
We’ll know more tomorrow!
Congratulation Kevin and Amy, and all our top vote-getters! A happy day for Westport and for democracy!
But…
As the Board of Education race shows, it is time to change the charter. All three BOE Democrat candidates received significantly more votes than the closest Republican candidate. However, only two Democrats will be seated instead of the three top vote-getters because of the current town charter.
Charter revision is needed for this and other antiquated provisions.
In the meantime, thank you Westport voters for showing up today!
wow, that is crazy indeed! I was wondering how the Dems got more votes for those positions yet Republicans were declared winners.
100% agree, Toni. It’s like DEI for Republicans.
It would be a good proposed ordinance amendment to take up with the RTM Ordinance Committee, and with the new Kevin Christie administration.
Voters, by a nearly two-to-one ratio, indicated that they wanted Jodi Harris (D -5,657) to represent them at the BOE, over the next highest Republican vote getter, Dorie Hordon (R -3,020).
It seems pretty undemocratic that someone who loses by nearly a 2 to 1 ratio benefits from a guaranteed seat, despite voter opposition, simply because that person ran from an unpopular party that advocates for things that Westport voters say they don’t want.
Westport should rethink and amend its system of guaranteeing each major party a minimum of three local board seats in elections. We don’t guarantee party seats at the state or national level, and never have!!! Why should we as a town value a party over ideas and individual merit?
Elections should be open and fair and based on merit. It should be a free and fair vote based on a competition of ideas. If one party’s ideas are so bad that even their best candidate loses by a nearly 2 to 1 ratio, how is that a merit-based system? For a party (the GOP) that is anti-DEI, it certainly appears that the local Republican Party is benefitting from affirmative action for people with radical or antiquated ideas, which most Westport voters have said they don’t want.
That ‘guaranteed-seats-for- local-Republicans’ approach may no longer be relevant or appropriate, when one party has become the “Party of Trump,” which most Westport voters have repeatedly voted to demonstrate–year after year, election after election, that they simply do not want here.
Why the limit on number of seats for the majority party? Concerns about “Tyranny of the majority” I would imagine. If you don’t happen to be in the majority, I understand those concerns are real.
I agree with someone else that said it though, not clear at the local level why a number of board aren’t non-partisan like the RTM.
It’s 2:43 am and I’m reading about all the victories and I’d like to congratulate the winners. By the way, Trump said he might arrest Mamdani. No this is not a joke.
I echo the congratulations to all the candidates who prevailed yesterday. Ultimately, the Town of Westport was the big winner.
I must also second Toni Simonetti’s observation regarding the need for a revision of the town charter. As I was dumbstruck by the outcome of the Board of Ed race, I found it astounding that a popularly-elected candidate cannot hold an essentially apolitical seat because of provisions in our charter. For many years the League of Woman Voters of Westport advocated for making the Board of Ed non-partisan. Given yesterday’s Board of Ed numbers, it might be good to revisit the League’s position.