Covenant w/Manchester Taxpayers

With less than 72 hours remaining in the effort to elect new leadership in Manchester, the Republican candidates for the Board of Directors and the Board of Education are out in the community, knocking on doors, making phone calls, and asking for your votes - rain or no rain.

 The Journal-Inquirer’s Kim Phillips wrote something of a ‘wrap-up’ piece that is out today, talking about the quality of the campaign run by the Republican Directors and the need for positive, new leadership in Manchester.  The highlights:

“People are not satisfied with the way things are going,” Republican candidate Jeffrey A. Beckman said recently. “There’s a lot that needs to be pulled up - that’s echoed when I go door to door.”

“Republican Town Chairman Wallace Irish Jr. estimated that collectively his director and school board candidates have knocked on between 18,000 and 20,000 doors, and that was with 10 days of campaigning to go.”

“That spirit of bipartisanship is something Republican candidate Robert Desilet said is missing from the board.

Republican incumbent Cheri Ann Pelletier said Democrats haven’t practiced bipartisanship during the last term, instead polarizing the board with divisive issues such as the living-wage ordinance.

The best quote of the piece, however, has to go to Republican Town Committee Chairman Wally Irish, for his comment on the budget: “Budgeting has just gone out of control,” Irish said. “We can’t have a Cadillac budget when everybody drives Chevrolets.”

The following is a letter to the Journal-Inquirer that ran yesterday:

As a registered Democrat, I have had campaign phone calls, visits, and mailings that speak of Herculean efforts by local politicians. If I wasn’t keenly aware of my town’s issues, it would be difficult to determine facts from fiction.

Their team will lead Manchester in the right direction and make the responsible choices for my future and those of my children and grandchildren. I urge fellow Democrats to join me in backing the Republicans.
Barbara Gilbert
Manchester

Yesterday the Hartford Courant ran an article about the Republican candidates for the Manchester Board of Directors properly entitled, “GOP Seeks to End Dems’ Grip on Town’s Board of Directors”.  After 16 years of one-party control, it’s time that Manchester’s voters re-established balanced government by casting their ballots for the Republican candidates this year.  The Dems have become heavily entrenched incumbents and are out of touch with the people.  They voted against allowing citizens to speak at the beginning of every Directors’ meeting.  They postponed the revaluation to the detriment of our residents.  And they have allowed blighted properties to linger, decreasing property values and harming community morale.  Manchester deserves better.

 The highlights of the Courant piece:

“I feel that our team will do a better job leading Manchester. The Democrats have run Manchester’s government for the last 16 years. It is not healthy for the same group to be in control for so long,” Spadaccini said.

. . .

“We’re going to do a lot more of that,” Peak said of the Republican candidates. “We’re going to broaden workforce development through public/private partnerships in town. So, overall, by increasing people’s earning abilities and keeping property taxes down, everybody will be better off.”

. . .

“They laughed at me in 2005 when I talked about quality-of-life issues, and now I’ve got everybody talking about quality-of-life issues,” Pelletier said. “I see the deterioration of my town. I think we’re at a crossroads right now. We can have some change.”