The Greenwich DTC Picnic- Lamont, Himes, Napier, Blumenthal, Bill Grad and more

by: thomashooker

Sun Sep 13, 2009 at 17:48:14 PM EDT

Jim Himes told the audience that he was proud that the congress and President Obama were finally addressing the need for health care reform.  He also excoriated school superintendents for refusing to broadcast President Obama's speech live on Tuesday.  It was good that the town of Greenwich's Democratic Board of Education members were in the audience and were forced to listen to that criticism, because they all supported the superintendent's decision to refuse to broadcast the speech live.  

First Selectman candidate Lin Lavery followed, and emphasized that she will pay far greater attention to our school system that past first selectmen and the current Republican first selectman Peter Tesei.  She also slammed the superintendent and the BOE members for thinking that it was acceptable to block the president of the United States from speaking live to the town's students.  She and selectman candidate Drew Marzullo hit Tesei for the heartless way in which he fired several long-time town employees, having them escorted from town hall by police officers without giving them any time to say goodbye to their former colleagues.

Dick Blumenthal, attorney general and town resident, gave a strong endorsement of Lin Lavery and Marzullo.  

There is a Democratic primary on Tuesday for town tax collector.  For many years Lou Caravello, a registered Democrat, has served as tax collector.  But Lou, who is often referred to as the "mayor of Cos Cob", a neighborhood in Greenwich, is retiring.  He has endorsed a former Republican Rick Novakowski, who just a few short months ago was working assiduously against Democratic candidate Ed Krumeich, and backing Republican Peter Tesei for first selectman. Now Novakowski wants Democrats to punch his meal ticket.  While it seems odd that Caravello is backing him, Caravello is one of that all-too-common breed of Greenwich Democrats who are really Republicans, back Republican policies, and secretly, or not so secretly, support town Republicans.  Our BOE members also fall into that group.  Hence their backing of the move to censure the president of the United States.

Novakowski, facing a see of people with "Bill Grad for Tax Collector" stickers on them, said that he had lost his health insurance when his wife, an employee at Greenwich Hospital, lost her job, and that he was thankful that congress passed legislation making COBRA insurance affordable.  He also praised President Obama for championing health care reform, and said he was proud to have voted for him.  Novakowski talked about the importance of listening to others, and suggested that Democratic support would grow in Greenwich provided they continued to try to listen to others....?  Sounded very much like a recently converted Republican talking like he was still more Republican than Democrat.  Novakowski has stated that if he's defeated in the Democratic primary, he will run as an independent in November.  

Novakowski was followed by (real) Democrat Bill Grad, who stated that he'd worked as a Democrat for many years, including serving as a Bill Bradley delegate to the national convention.  If all things are equal in your mind, he said, give me the benefit of the doubt on my work for the Democratic Party.  Grad also drew a contrast with Novakowski in their educational backgrounds.  While Novakowski only attended, but did not graduate from, what is now Norwalk Community College, Grad is a graduate of Princeton University with an MBA from Stanford.  He said he thought he's a good businessman (he created a long distance telephone company, which he subsequently sold), and rattled off several Stanford graduates who were also prominent in business, including Tiger Woods.

Grad sought to humanize the race, congratulating Novakowski for being civil.  He also pointed out that both of their wives shared a first name and middle name.  Grad recounted how his wife knew him at the age of thirteen, but that she didn't like him. Novakowski's wife remembered knowing him from the age of three. He also knew his wife at the age of thirteen and she liked him.  It was a gentle and gracious moment.

Denise Napier spoke, and told the audience that the state's portfolio had suffered a  17% decline over the past year, one of the worst declines ever.  Yet she put it in context by saying that many endowments and 401K plans had done far worse.  She mentioned that some hedge fund managers in Greenwich had seen their incomes decline from $100 million to $10 million in the last year.  She said that many of us would be quite happy to make do on $10 million. But, she pointed out, that decline means that the state has lost $4.5 million in taxes from that individual.  We appreciate the importance of Fairfield County, and we understand that those hedge fund managers are very important to funding our government.

Ned Lamont gave one of his usual stem-winding speeches, and slammed Jodi Rell.  According to Lamont, "it's hard to get where you need to go if you don't know where you're going."  He criticized Rell for not appearing to want to be governor.  

Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy was scheduled to speak, but didn't show up.  

Late in the day, gubernatorial candidate and state senator Gary Lebeau showed up and spoke to a thinning crowd.

On another note, Greenwich DTC vice-chairman Frank Farricker is being given a column dealing with local politics in Hearst Newspaper's Greenwich Time.  According to sources, Hearst senior vice president Lincoln Millstein said that the newspaper wants to get more involved in the community.  That's rich, since several months ago Farricker tried repeatedly to contact newly arrived publisher Michelle McAbee, but McAbee refused to take Farricker's phone calls, even when she was in her office, and never answered a single one of his emails.  Millstein, who is offering Farricker the column, is the same person who referred to Greenwich DTC chairman Dave Roberson as an "apparatchik", "ever somnolent", and "the Sonny Liston of Greenwich politics", among other nasty epithets.  He's also the same one who referred to the Greenwich Democratic BOE candidates as "bobble head dolls".  

Is Lincoln Millstein finally developing an interest in professional journalism?  The importance of reaching out to all points of view in the community?  Is he beginning to understand how that sort of language by a senior executive warps coverage by its supposedly unbiased staff of reporters?  If so, perhaps Mr. Millstein will finally deal with reporter Neil Vigdor, whom Democrats have widely viewed as biased for many years.

We'll see.