No images? Click here MONTHLY NEWSLETTER Thursday, August 5, 2021: Edition #6 Shawn Daly Dear , What a month it's been! There is so much to share with you I'm not quite sure where to start. It's been amazing to watch the Olympics on television. They say "everyone loves an underdog" and I'm no exception. To watch a country or team beat the odds and achieve success is one of the most satisfying things to see. If you're trying to beat the odds at the Olympics, it's so important to have the right athlete with talent, experience, a winning spirit and the heart of a champion. When you are a Republican candidate in West Hartford running for municipal office, you too are trying to beat the odds. With a 3 to 1 ratio of Democrat to Republican voters in this town, you must have the right candidates with talent, experience, a winning spirit and a heart of a champion if you're going to beat the odds. And that's exactly what we have. The Town Committee has endorsed a group of candidates running for Town Council and Board of Education with talent, experience, a winning attitude and the heart of a champion. See below to read about our candidates for this year's municipal election and learn how you can help them. We will need many volunteers to help get the word out and showcase our candidates! I'm so proud of our Town Committee for taking a leadership role in endorsing candidates that will give us the best chance to win in November. You will be receiving further communications about events where you can meet our candidates, hear their platform and donate to their campaign. Back on Thursday, July 22, we held our Lincoln/Reagan Fundraising Dinner. It's been such a challenge to raise funds during the COVID era. However, our Fundraising subcommittee did an amazing job putting everything together in such a short amount of time. See below for photos and information about the evening. In addition, I want to say a big "THANK YOU" to Chip Kohn and his amazing team at Rockledge Grille. His restaurant was so supportive of our event this year and helped us put things together in a short amount of time. We also had more attendees than we expected and they were so accommodating. When you're going out to dinner, please choose to go to Rockledge Grille and tell them "thank you" for supporting our events over the years! We continue to add new members to our Town Committee. I'm so excited about the desire I'm seeing in Republicans in West Hartford that are interested in joining our Town Committee and getting involved. See below to learn more about our new members and learn how you can join the West Hartford RTC. It's taken a team effort but it finally looks like Ideanomics has started to clean up their property. See below to read about the clean up effort. Also below is an update from our Town Council and Registrar of Voters. For this month, we do not have updates from our Board of Education, or State Central. Please remember, as we head into the elections, we can’t do this without your support of time and financial donations. This allows us to reach more members of our community and share our vision. If you have any questions, feedback or if you need additional information, please feel free to call the West Hartford RTC office at 860-840-7430 or email me at chair@whgop.org. Take care, Shawn Daly
We Need Your Donations Now!With a new party being added this year, competition for municipal elections seats are going to be challenging. Your donations are critical to our continued success and are more important now than ever. Our municipal and state elections are coming up very soon. We need your donations to help get our candidates elected and implement our platform to enhance the resident experience in town. Please click on the button below and help by donating to the West Hartford Republican Town Committee. Any donation amount is helpful and appreciated. Your Contribution Will Make A DifferenceWest Hartford Republicans Announce Candidates for Town Council, Board of EducationThe West Hartford Republican Town Committee has chosen its slate of candidates for municipal office. For Town Council, it has endorsed Mary Fay, Mark Zydanowicz and Alberto Cortes. For Board of Education, it has endorsed Dr. Gayle Harris. “I could not be prouder of our group of endorsed candidates and our West Hartford Republican Town Committee,” said Shawn Daly, Chairman of the West Hartford Republican Town Committee. “For Town Council, our committee focused on endorsing candidates that had a diverse, strong, positive track record for enhancing the resident experience for all West Hartford residents,” said Daly. “For Board of Education, we are thrilled to also have a fantastic, well-qualified candidate with an extensive history of serving our townspeople.” For Town Council candidates, Mary Fay, an MBA and finance senior executive, is the current Republican Minority Leader for the West Hartford Town Council. Joining the Town Council from the 2017 election, she is currently serving her second term. Mark Zydanowicz is currently serving his third term as one of the Republican Representatives of the West Hartford Board of Education. Alberto Cortes, a 20-year public servant and Republican Town Council candidate back in 2019, Alberto formerly served on the West Hartford Veterans Affairs Commission and now serves on the Civilian Police Review Board. Dr. Gayle Harris is a long-time resident of West Hartford and mother of four children. An OBGYN in private practice for over 20 years serving the West Hartford community, she has previously worked as a one-on-one mentor with high school students for the DCF program. “I’m so impressed with this group.” said Mary Fay. “We are all friends and work really well together. It’s a slate of candidates ready to work hard and represent the voters of West Hartford as a solid team. Serving the town that I love has been a terrific honor and responsibility. West Hartford faces many critical issues and I look forward to continue leading and serving with this highly talented and spirited team.” “I’m excited to bring my Board of Education experience to the Town Council,” said Mark Zydanowicz. “As a Republican, I’ve been able to successfully reach across the aisle to get many initiatives accomplished that have kept our public schools some of the best in the state and the country. I can’t wait to do the same with our Town Council.” Alberto Cortes had some concerns with the current direction of West Hartford. “I’m running for Town Council because as a long-time West Hartford resident, I’m concerned with the fiscal climate and public safety issues in our town. With my experience in law enforcement, I know that I can help make significant improvements to our town.” Dr. Gayle Harris joins the slate as a candidate for the Board of Education. “I’m thrilled to be endorsed as a Board of Education candidate for the Republicans,” said Dr. Harris. “My children have attended Jewish schools, West Hartford Public Schools and private schools so, I will bring a diverse and unique perspective to the Board of Education. After serving on various executive boards of area schools, I’m ready to help move West Hartford Public Schools into an even greater parent and student experience.” Current Board of Education member, Liz Wilcox, will not be seeking reelection. “Our Republican Town Committee has significantly grown in just the past couple of months,” said P.J. Louis, Vice-Chairman of the West Hartford Republican Town Committee. “We have a terrific slate of candidates, a rejuvenated town committee and an army of diverse volunteers who are assembled and ready to work diligently to earn every single vote in town, providing a plan with real solutions to the real issues that are affecting our community.” For more details and a bio of each of our candidates, please click on the button below. You can also read an article about our candidates that was published on We-Ha.com by clicking the button below. West Hartford Republican Town Committee Holds Successful Lincoln/Reagan Fundraising DinnerGuest Speaker Themis Klarides Plays to a Packed House at Rockledge GrilleOn Thursday, July 22, the West Hartford Republican Town Committee held its annual Lincoln/Reagan Fundraising Dinner at Rockledge Grille. The tables were full and the restaurant was packed in support of the West Hartford Republican Town Committee and to hear guest speaker, former State House Republican Leader, Themis Klarides. Themis discussed several issues affecting West Hartford and Connecticut residents. She pointed out that Connecticut has the worst unemployment rate in the country and spoke about the hard fight she and her Republican colleagues had to wage to ensure that Connecticut stayed out of fiscal disaster. Themis also provided inspirational words in support of town Republican efforts in West Hartford. Town Council Minority Leader, Mary Fay, also spoke at the event pointing out how, much like Themis Klarides, her fighting spirit will help her win a third term on the Town Council this November. Newly endorsed candidate, Alberto Cortes also spoke at the event. Alberto spoke about his life experience and how his career experience in law enforcement is exactly what West Hartford needs right now given the public safety issues that have grown astronomically in our town. Chip Kohn, owner of Rockledge Grille, has been such an important friend to the West Hartford Republican Town Committee. His staff was able to help put together this amazing event in a very short amount of time. Please be sure to visit Rockledge Grille frequently (as well as his other two restaurants in town, Beachland Tavern and Beachland Smoke) and tell him thank you for his support of Republicans in West Hartford!
West Hartford Republican Town Committee Adds New Committee MembersOn Tuesday, July 20, the West Hartford Republican Town Committee approved the addition of four new members to the organization. Adrienne Maker, Chris Torino and Juan Villamizar are the newest members of the Republican Town Committee. In addition, Carl Donatelli also joined the Town Committee. Carl was a long-time committee member but left the committee last year. We are so glad to have this political veteran back with our Town Committee. Stay tuned as next month we will be providing profiles of our newest members. In addition, we continue to have new townspeople attend our events and we expect to be adding even more members to our Town Committee very soon. See below if you're interested in joining the West Hartford Republican Town Committee.
Ideanomics Finally Hires Landscaping Company to Maintain UCONN PropertyRecently the West Hartford-Bloomfield Health District confirmed that Ideanomics, the current owner of the UCONN property, has contracted with a landscaping company to begin attending to the overgrown grass and weeds on the property. This has been a joint effort between local resident pressure on the Town Manager and the Ideanomics Board of Directors, Republican leadership on various commissions and boards and our elected leadership who have consistently made inquiries and held appropriate people accountable for what has been an eyesore and a public health hazard concerning the UCONN property. Ideanomics announced that they have sold the property but the alleged buyer has not yet been publicly announced. According to the real estate broker for Ideanomics, Colliers International, the sale is expected to be finalized before the end of the year. For more information and to see the article in WeHa.com on the subject, please click on the button below. Town Council ReportI’d like to start by saying thank you to the West Hartford Republican Town Committee, and the executive team for endorsing me for re-election. I’m excited to run with this extremely qualified team. Now, more than ever, we need people who will stand up for our core values and the Constitution! Disappointingly, the majority party on the Town Council, voted to purchase the Saint Brigid property. Both Chris Williams and I voted against the purchase. Per usual, Lee Gold voted with the Democrats. Once again, Lee's "A Connecticut Party," the party of former Governor Lowell P. Weicker who was a divider and father of the income tax, voted to spend more tax dollars to purchase a property that should really have been sold to a private organization. The Saint Brigid campus, like the UConn property, is full of contamination and will need to be demolished. New construction will be expensive. Our party is very concerned with the increase in crime and escalation of the severity of crimes in town. Chris and I have discussed the possibility of a resolution. At the very least, we would like our Democrat legislators to join us in looking at our juvenile laws and making appropriate changes to hold criminals accountable for their actions. "Catch and release" is not working. Now we’ve got coordinated swarms of ATVs and dirt bikes riding recklessly through town. Please click on the button below to see the Hartford Courant article about the recent ATV/motorcycle issue in town. Future items on the docket: removing the overnight parking ban in some dense areas of town, as well as property development proposals. We will need your input on direction on council agenda items, as well as your priorities and where you’d like focus. We also need your participation at public hearings, and letters to the editor. Collectively we can accomplish anything. Please take a look at "The Glastonbury Conservative” Facebook page. This community driven page provides thoughtful, intellectual capital that is focused on crime, free speech, and the prohibition of Critical Race Theory as part of public school curriculum. I'm excited for the campaigns, finishing my term with my friend and colleague, Chris Williams, and beginning fresh in November.
Board of Education ReportThe Board of Education’s last meeting was Tuesday, June 1 and we will not meet again until the first week of September. We’ll update the monthly newsletter once we’re back to our regular schedule. Of course if anything comes up we’ll email the group. Have a great summer!
Registrar of Voters ReportWe are hard at work in the Registrar of Voters office, preparing for the Municipal Elections on November 2nd. Since we typically see less “foot traffic” in our office during the summer months, we use that time to take an inventory of supplies we will need for Election Day, and we organize and prep the huge Election on Wheels (EOW) Cabinets. Each polling location has their own EOW cabinet that is prepared and sealed by the Registrars of Voters and is used to store and secure everything the Moderators will need over the course of the day on November 2nd to run a successful polling location. This process takes weeks and weeks and I’m grateful to Eileen Swanton, my Deputy Registrar of Voters, who takes the lead on this massive project every year. We have also begun the process of determining the staffing for Election Day. If you are interested in working at the polls or working to open and count the Absentee Ballots on November 2nd, please click on the button below to visit the ROV website and complete an application. We pay all poll workers for their time and we provide dinner. It’s a long but rewarding day, and we welcome you to join us. I hope you are all happy and healthy and enjoining your summer! Take care, Beth Kyle State Central ReportNo report for this month Want to See the WeHa RTC Proposed Platform?The objective of the West Hartford Republican Town Committee is to help enhance the resident experience for all West Hartford citizens in an economically sustainable manner while helping candidates get elected who share that vision. If you haven't seen our newsletter before or haven't had a chance to look at the West Hartford Republican Town Committee Platform, please click on the button below to download your copy from our website. How Do I Get Involved?Would you like an opportunity to really contribute to the town? We have a few spots still available for membership on the West Hartford Republican Town Committee. Please click on the button below to see how to join our committee. If you're interested in attending one of our Town Committee meetings, please email our Town Committee Chairman, Shawn Daly at chair@whgop.org and he will provide you with the details. How Can I Get Even More InformationClick on the buttons below to visit our West Hartford Republican Town Committee Website or you can click on the button to learn about our volunteer opportunities or donate to the West Hartford RTC.
|