LETTER: Why the Republicans Really Lost Control of the Town Finance Board

Letter to the editor from Judy Berg, Cos Cob

Please join me in objecting to overly partisan politics in Town government.

Do Greenwich Republicans really think they lost control of the Town Finance Board (BET) because their opponents neglected to amend their candidate filings?  That is apparently what Republican officials want voters to think.

But wasn’t it because voters rejected Republican efforts to make the composition of the Board of Education partisan?

Or because Republicans dumped their excellent, highly regarded BET members Jim Lash and Nancy Weissler, and tried but failed to oust Peter Bernstein from the Board of Education?

And wasn’t it because voters were expressing their dismay with President Trump, whose son was guest of honor at the annual Republican Clambake?

Republican turnout dropped in 2017 compared with prior municipal elections, while Democratic turnout soared.  Many women ran and were elected to the RTM, motivated by a local conservative blogger’s misogynist attacks on women candidates and by the arrest of a prominent local elected Republican who, saying he was inspired by Trump, flippantly groped a female Town employee at Nathaniel Witherell.

Weren’t those the real reasons the Republicans lost control of the BET?

Greenwich Republicans suffered historic losses in 2017 and were thumped again in 2018 when their incumbents lost the State Senate seat and a State Representative seat, both for the first time in many generations.

Meanwhile, the BET Democrats have demonstrated their competency, cleaning up a range of fiscal mismanagement and improving our quality of life while holding down property taxes.

Greenwich voters can reject overly partisan politics and ensure that the BET continues to work productively for the benefit of all residents, by casting all six of their BET votes for the Democrats.

Judy Berg
Cos Cob