| Ned's voting record from his political heyday of 1987-89 is likely buried under dust bunnies in the town hall basement. But fortunately, Greenwich posts many, though not all, of its more recent minutes of the Board of Selectmen meetings online. So I reviewed the available minutes for the last two years.
Has the lone Democrat currently on the three-member Board taken a more independent stance than Ned? The bottom line: among 84 Board decisions, Democratic Selectman Penny Monahan sided with the Republican majority at least 99% of the time! (It may well have been 100%, but the minutes did not indicate who parted ways on the only non-unanimous vote concerning a "no turn on red restriction.") Ned's mere 80% concordance would seem to place him on the liberal end of the Greenwich political spectrum, just as his Republican colleagues have insisted.
These are just some of the hot-button issues on which Selectman Monahan tragically caved to the vast right-wing conspiracy:
- Proposal to establish an off-leash dog park
- Request to hang promotional banner for the Scarecrow Festival
- Charles Street – request for handicapped parking space
- Replacement of the Loughlin Park restroom
Capitulation on public park porta-potties? Is this the best that local Connecticut partisans can hope for? Have we witnessed the end of municipal ideology and the ascendancy of Kumbaya town hall bipartisanship?
To find out, I looked across the state to Simsbury, where Republicans also outnumber Democrats on the Board of Selectmen. Reviewing their minutes for this year, I found that the Democrats unanimously agreed with their colleagues on at least 97% of the 118 Board motions. There were only three motions resulting in dissenting votes, and the minutes did not record the names of the malcontents. (Perhaps it's considered impolite to dwell on such differences.)
But both Greenwich and Simsbury are well-to-do communities with ample resources. Are these comfy suburbs peculiar outliers, happy havens for hand-holding honchos?
For an answer, I turned to a less tony town with a Democratic minority — Groton, where the median family income falls substantially below the state average. On Groton's nine-member Council, the three Democrats voted unanimously with the Republicans 94% of the time on the 49 Council motions this year. None of the dissenting votes were along strictly party lines.
But surely such amicable unanimity is confined to leafy suburbs and small- to mid-sized towns primarily concerned with mundane administrative minutiae. The many controversial and complex issues faced by a larger city with an ethnically diverse population must inevitably spark conflicts that are ultimately reflected in more partisan vote tallies.
Certainly, Danbury's 21-member Common Council must represent a diversity of opinions and personalities. Councilor Lynn Taborsak is a noted feminist and progressive who had a 100% voting record with the CT Citizen Action Group as a state representative. Yet among 164 Common Council motions this year, all seven Democrats voted unanimously with the Republican majority 90% of the time.
Having combed every corner of the state in search of examples of bitter, partisan, town hall discord, I came up short. By Connecticut standards, it seems that Ned's purported 80% agreement with his Republican colleagues would rank him as a bold Democratic maverick. Case closed.
Methodological notes for picky people:
- Greenwich: Counted references to "approved," "unanimous," and "the Board agreed" as unamimous agreement. Excluded procedural actions, such as acceptance of minutes, motions to go into executive session, or deferral of action. Summarized available minutes from July 2004 to June 2006.
Summarized 2006 motions from towns below, excluding motions to adjourn, enter executive session, or accept minutes. Ignored abstentions.
- Simsbury: January through June 2006
- Groton: January through June 2006
- Danbury: January to July 2006
To witness Joe Lieberman's obsessive use of the 80% statistic, see his flip-flop TV attack ad, his his distortion attack ad, the elephant mailer, and the 80% mailer, among others. |
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