Incumbent Democrats Nominated to Run in November

The Democratic Town Committee (DTC) held their nominating convention for this year's municipal elections on Tuesday evening in City Hall. The nominations were read by the chair of the DTC, Dan Russo, and in every case rapidly and unanimously approved. For Common Council, Planning and Zoning, and the Board of Education, all incumbent Democrats were nominated to run again. Dan Drew was heartily endorsed for Mayor by the assembled Democratic leaders.

For Common Council, the DTC leadership committee recommended the 8 incumbent Democrats for nomination. Russo mentioned that there were other candidates who wanted to run for Council, but "In light of hard work and excellent service, we felt that the best thing we could do for Middletown and the community was to renominate the incumbents."

Three seats are open on Planning and Zoning, but the incumbents are all Republicans (this includes Deborah Kleckowski, who recently switched to the Republican party). The DTC found the nearest thing to an incumbent in Quentin Phipps, who is currently an alternate on P&Z. In addition they nominated David Boyce and Dan Russo. Because of minority representation rules, the Democrats could win a maximum of one seat on P&Z in this election.

Four seats are open on the Board of Education, and both incumbent Democrat were nominated, Judith Russo and Ted Raczka. Cary Chatham, who was touted as a volunteer on the Drew for Mayor campaign, and Bill Grady, who is an English professor at Middlesex Community College, were also nominated for the Board.

The main event of the evening was the nomination and endorsement of Dan Drew for Mayor. The last Democrat to hold the mayor's post, Domenique Thornton, nominated Drew, praising his selfless service to Ron Klattenberg when he was a candidate for mayor this year, and to Vinnie Loffredo when he was a candidate for mayor this year. She said that when first Klattenberg and then Loffredo decided that they could not run, Drew was the obvious choice.

Thornton's nomination was heartily seconded by Councilmen Bob Santangelo, Gerry Daley, and by Representative Joe Serra. Each of them praised Drew's energy and hard work, and his vision for the future of Middletown. Daley criticized the current mayor for building up the fund balance of the city.

Drew spoke about his concerns for Middletown's future, pointing to Giuliano's proposed budgets and their tax increases as a particular problem for the people he had spoken to in his campaigning. He also made a thinly veiled argument for one-party government, "We need a mayor who will work with all the other bodies in the city."

Drew received a long, standing ovation at the end of his speech.

Dems in Search of New Mayoral Candidate

Democratic Town Committee Chairman Dan Russo is confident that the party will have a candidate to run in the upcoming mayor election. Democratic candidate Ron Klattenberg dropped out of the race this morning because of medical issues.

"There are currently a couple of people evaluating considering a run for mayor," Russo said in a phone interview this morning. "We hope, in the next month, to get a candidate up and running."

"We're very sorry that Ron is not going to run," Russo said. "Ron helped us by getting off to an early start, but we'll have plenty of time to get another campaign in place. And Ron will run for Common Council again and will be active in supporting the Democratic mayoral candidate who does decide to run."

Mayor Sebastian Giuliano said he thought Klattenberg had made the correct decision.

"I was looking forward to the race," Giuliano said. "But Ron had made the right move, and made the more important decision to make sure he stays healthy."

When asked whether he thought he would be running unopposed, Giuliano said that he was sure the Democrats would field a candidate for the race.