“The challenge is how right can they go without turning off voters in Greenwich? They’re at a fork in the road.”
“I don’t take what happened personally. It’s politics,” he continued, adding that he had met many people and learned a lot during his two years leading the party.
“It’s a little bitter sweet considering what an incredible 2021 Republicans had in Greenwich as a minority party – flipping a state senate seat and sweeping the local municipal election.”
“I think it will be important for the new RTC to stand by and support our current elected officials,” Quigley said, naming First Selectman Fred Camillo, State Senator Ryan Fazio and State Rep Harry Arora specifically. “They have done great work for the community as elected officials.”
The town will run a primary on March 1 for RTC District 1 membership. Five people, each having secured 50 signatures from registered Republicans in the district, triggered that vote: Carl Carlson, Marla Weston, Bill Lewis, Joe Barillo and Lihong Zhang.
Registered Republicans in District 1 will be able to vote in person between 6:00am and 8:00pm at town hall or by absentee ballot. Absentee ballots are available in the Town Clerk’s office. The application is on the Town Clerk website here.
“Whoever gets the most votes out of the 5 elected members and the 5 people primaried them – the 5 highest vote-getters will get elected to the RTC,” Quigley said.
New RTC officers and chair will be elected at the March 23, 2022 RTC meeting.
“There are a lot of good people on the RTC,” he added. “I’m sure someone competent will be chair in the new term.”
“I think this could be a great year for Republicans in the state,” he said. “We could have a really good year, but if we push too far to the right to get candidates elected, it could really derail the process.”
Asked about his plans, Quigley said he looked forward to his work on the RTM Education committee, and planned to continue to share his views through editorials in the local media.