Angry Russo Attacks Planning and Zoning Candidate

A successful petition campaign for Planning and Zoning has led to surprising effects on the position of the names on the September 10 ballot.  Kellin Atherton is challenging Richard Pelletier, Thom Pattavina, Beth Emery, and Catherine Johnson for the Democratic endorsement. This means that mayoral candidate Bill Russo will no longer be on the ballot's Row B with 9 other candidates who are running together with him (Courant article).

In a press release, Bill Russo lashed out at Atherton and Democratic mayoral candidate Ben Florsheim.

Russo, who has petitioned to force a primary election for mayor, implied that there was something  dishonest about Atherton's petitioning to force a primary for Planning and Zoning Commissioner.  Russo said, "We're running an honest campaign ...  in just one weekend we collected signatures for Bill and his slate and earned placement on Row B."

Russo accused Atherton of colluding with Florsheim and playing dirty tricks, "... he's trying to abuse a loophole in the law to be listed alongside Bill's slate for Treasurer and Common Council ... This isn't how we do campaigns here in Middletown."

Atherton said he was surprised to see Russo's angry accusations, "Quite honestly [I was] startled by the tone and demands in today’s press release from Mr. Russo."

Atherton pointed out that the candidates on Russo's slate collected an average of 100 signatures each, qualifying all 9 of them for the ballot, while he and other volunteers collected almost 1000 signatures to qualify just one person for the ballot. He pointed out that Russo's campaign has raised almost $50,000, with an average donation of $380, while he has raised less than $2500, with an average donation of $49.

Atherton said he would not be cowed by Russo, "Working families across our city ... will be strong in the face of candidates with so much money and so much anger."