On Tuesday night the Representative Town Meeting held an election for a new moderator to replace Tom Byrne who retired after holding the position for 26 years.
Neither of the two candidates, Alexis Voulgaris and Brian Raney, are affiliated with a political party.
Voulgaris, who has served as moderator pro tem for four years, won in a vote of 150 to 67. She will be the first woman moderator in the history of the RTM and its first independent candidate.
Per the RTM member handbook, “The RTM is a non-partisan, collegial body,” and ballots do not indicate a candidate’s party affiliation, but there has been speculation that the 230-member non-partisan body is becoming politicized.
In the 2019 election for the RTM, “Fiscal Freedom for Connecticut,” created a scorecard ranking RTM members based on their voting records on issues including the plastic bag ban, mill rate reduction, and For/Against Tolls SOMR. After the subsequent vote some popular longtime members lost their seats.
In 2017, after the election of Donald Trump, a third of the seats on the RTM turned over after a group of women from March On Greenwich organized to field candidates. In all, 79 new candidates with successful petitions earned spots on the ballot.
Last week when the RTC held caucuses to elect members, there was an unusually high turnout of new voters and new candidates. After the caucuses, about half the 62 RTC members were new, and 21 incumbents lost their seats. GFP published the list of RTC caucus winners on Wednesday.
Last month, GFP published a breakdown of votes on Item 8, which concerned whether to refer the legality of a proposed ordinance to the Legislative & Rules committee that originated from Carl Higbie’s petition proposing to override state regulations requiring masking school children.
After GFP published the results from the town clerk’s office, it revealed there was an error in tabulation. In district 9 were votes not reported accurately to the town clerk.
Below is the breakdown of Tuesday’s vote for RTM moderator.
District 1
Voulgaris: Katherine Ashworth, Jillian Aufderheide, Ed Dadakis, Fred Feldman, Lyn Garelick, Alison Ghiorse, Judy Goss, Alanna Hynes, Julia Lane, Brigitte Lee, Fred Lee, Jaysen Medhurst, Dan Quigley, Lihong Zhang
Raney: Carl Carlson, Dean C Goss, William Lewis, James O’Brien, Marla Weston
Abstained or absent: Elizabeth Mills Sanders
DISTRICT 2
Voulgaris: Katherine Lobalbo, Mary Ellen Markowitz, Pragati Soni, Joyce Teevan, Eileen Toretta, Henry Scott Walter
Raney: Duncan Burke, Nancy Burke, Don Conway, Laura Gladstone, Wilma Naninovich, Aldo Pascarella, Erika Walsh
DISTRICT 3
Voulgaris: Louise Bavis, Martin Blanco, Tom Conelias, Ed Lopez, Andrew Melillo, Sylvester Pecora Sr, Adam Rothman, Steven Rubin, Alison Walsh
Raney: Rosalind Nicastro
Absent or abstained: Joan Lowe
DISTRICT 4
Voulgaris: Javier Aleman, Joshua Brown, Ronald Carosella, Andrea Casson, Elizabeth Eckert, Leonard Mackey, Robert McKnight, Romulo Samaniego, Diego Sanchez, Samarpana Tamm, Donald Vitti, Lucy Von Brachel, Bonnie Zeh
Raney: Seth Bacon, Alex Popp, Maria Madeleine Popp
Absent or abstained: Robert Tuthill
DISTRICT 5
Voulgaris: Eric Beiley, Joseph Benoit, Edward Broadhurst, Alison “Icy” Frantz, Paul Kramer, Lucy Krasnor, Lindy Lilien, Paul Olmsted, Charles Parkhurst, Martha Ozizmir Shoemaker, Ashley Smith, Joan Thakor, Peter Van Duyne
Raney: Alison Rogers, Felix Rovelli, Andrew Taylor, Catherine Whitaker
Absent or abstained: Christopher Parker
DISTRICT 6
Voulgaris: Sally Bednar, Tom Byrne, Marilyn Ross Cahn, Robert Carter, Nancy Dearing, Matt DesChamps, Carol Ducret, Daniel Izzo, Coline Jenkins, Brian Maher, John McShea, John Merrill, Stephen Meskers, Tracy Parsons “Grossman,” Kathleen “Kathy” Smith, David Snyder, Mary Tobin, Alexis Voulgaris, Victoria Martin Young
Raney: None
Absent or abstained: Barbara O’Neill
DISTRICT 7
Voulgaris: Debbie Appelbaum, Kimberly Morgan Blank, Ellen Brennan-Galvin, Bill Galvin, Scott Kalb, Anthony Moor, Tara Restieri, Marina Rosin
Raney: Mary G Nanette Burrows, Thomas Cahill, Alice Duff, Elizabeth Betsy Galindo, Hilary Gunn, Lucia Jensen, Beth MacGillivray, Henry Orphys, Valerie Stauffer, Luke Szymczak
Absent or abstained: Wynn McDaniel, Doreen Pearson
DISTRICT 8
Voulgaris: Hector Arzeno, Lisa Becker Edmundson, Peter Berg, Francis Burgweger, Neil Caton, Irene Dietrich, Hannah Doherty, Christine Edwards, Dana Gordon, Myra Klockenbrink, Richard Margenot, Janet Lee Mchon, Cheryl Moss, Kathlen Myer, Jonathan Perloe, Caryn Rosenbaum, Alison Soler, Cory Williams
Raney: Jill Capalbo, Randy Caravella, Adele Caroll, Philip Dodson, Andrew Oliver, Vincent Pastore
Abstained or absent: Molly Saleeby
DISTRICT 9
Voulgaris: Claudia Carthaus, Donna Gaudioso-Zeale, Sarah Haag-Fisk, Elizabeth Porcher Hester, Mark Kordick, Lauren O’Keefe, Joanne Steinhart
Raney: Michael Brescia, Barbara Darula, Patricia “Patti” DeFelice, Betsy Frumin, Carl Griffasi, Anne Jones “Dawson,” Abbe Large, Brian Malin, Brian Raney, Ferdinando Schiro, Jonathan Shankman, Jane Weisbecker, Carol Zarrilli
DISTRICT 10
Voulgaris: Jude Collins, Mareta Hamre, Sandra Harris, Brooks Harris, Katherine Hynes, Steven Katz, Debra Ciampi Kolman, Radhika Patel, Diana Singer, Alan Small, Louisa Stone
Raney: Gerald Anderson, Allyson Cowin, Anne Driscoll, Hilary Haroche, Ramya Hopley, Kara Philbin, Daniel Schreck, Sheryl Sorbaro, Jane Sprung
DISTRICT 11
Voulgaris: Nancy Better, Victoria Bostock, Adam Brodsky, Thomas Devaney, Susan Fahey, Tracy Freedman, Karen Giannuzzi, Dana Neuman, Richard Neuman, David Oliver, Ralph Penny, Nerlyn Pierson, Brad Radulovacki, Cathryn Fineman Steel, Thomas West, Gregory Zorthian
Raney: Laura Darrin, Margaret Heppelmann, Jan Kniffem, Kimberly Salib, Ronald Strackbein
Absent or abstained: Adam Leader, Michael Spilo
DISTRICT 12
Voulgaris: Thomas Agresta, Francia Alvarez, Craig Amundson, Glen Canner, David DeMilhau, Mary Flynn, Barbara Hindman, Mary Keller, David Lancaster, Chalon LeFebvre, Robert May, Ellen Murdock, Jocelyn Riddle, Jane Sulich, James Waters, Andrew Winston
Raney: Jeffrey Crumbine, Paula Legere Mickley, Aaron Leonard, Frederick Lorthioir
Absent or abstained: Abigail McCarthy, Miriam Mennen
NOTE: In district 8 Molly Saleeby’s abstention was omitted and has been added.
See also:
Voulgaris is First Woman RTM Moderator; Lobalbo Becomes Moderator Pro Tem
Wondering How RTM Item #8, “Unmask Our Children” Vote Broke Down?
197 Viewers Zoom in for RTM Vote on Legality of ‘Unmask Our Kids’ Ordinance