GOP Fighting Scuttles Walsh Endorsement

Fighting among leaders in the town's Republican party ended late Thursday without an endorsement of James F. Walsh, moderator of the Representative Town Meeting, as the party's choice to be the new Republican selectman.

Sources said the fighting wasn't over Walsh, but rather the process being used to select Walsh and whether rules of the Republican Town Committee had been violated when James Baldwin, the RTC's chairman, held a meeting of district leaders in his Post Road law office Thursday night.

What should have been a five-minute meeting to endorse Walsh as the GOP's pick to fill a seat on the Board of Selectmen that became vacant when Republican Selectman Ralph A. Bowley died April 10 instead turned into a three-hour argument, sources said.

Some district leaders at the meeting in Baldwin's office thought the meeting was "illegal" because the full RTC hadn't been notified of the meeting within the seven-day timeframe required by RTC rules. The rules allow notice of a meeting to be given in less than seven days if time doesn't allow for seven days' notice, but that wasn't the case with the district leaders' meeting regarding Walsh, sources said.

A dispute also arose over why Baldwin wasn't following the process used to fill a seat on the Board of Education that became vacant when school board member Cynthia Foothorap resigned due to illness several years ago.

Some district leaders accused Baldwin of using a different process to fill Foothorap's vacancy because he and other Republican leaders didn't like the candidate Foothorap wanted for her seat. Back then, Baldwin said the district leaders couldn't endorse anyone and sent nominations to the full RTC, which selected Pam Iacono and not Alexa Mullady, who was a former school board member, in a secret ballot, sources said.

With Walsh, Baldwin wanted the district leaders to endorse him, and, in an interview with Fairfield Patch several days ago, Baldwin said Walsh's nomination would then be presented to First Selectman Ken Flatto to be put on the Board of Selectmen's agenda for a vote, apparently bypassing the full RTC all together.

Even though another selectman candidate hadn't come forward, some Republicans believed that the process still should have gone to the full RTC so anyone could throw their hat into the ring. They pointed out that the next full RTC meeting was May 4 - within the 30-day requirement under the Town Charter to fill a vacancy on the Board of Selectmen.

The result of Thursday night's GOP slugfest is that Walsh will be considered May 4 by the full RTC without an endorsement from district leaders.

Republicans Thursday night complained to Fairfield Patch of a "good old boys' club" at the top of the RTC that thought nothing of double-standards for their preferred candidates.

No one else is being considered for the job of selectman so Walsh should secure the full RTC's endorsement at its May 4 meeting. "The issue isn't Jim Walsh. It's the process," a source said.

Meanwhile, it emerged Thursday that First Selectman Ken Flatto preferred Kevin Kiley, former chairman of the town's Board of Finance, as the new Republican selectman and had gone so far as to offer the job to Kiley last weekend, according to several sources.

Flatto's action prompted Baldwin to mention Walsh as Bowley's choice to replace him and the Republican who was backed by the RTC's leadership, supporters of Baldwin said.

Flatto and Selectman Sherri Steeneck, both Democrats, have to approve the Republican who takes Bowley's seat, and Flatto said last week that he hoped to vote on the Republican nominee at a selectmen's meeting set for 4:30 p.m. May 5 in Sullivan-Independence Hall.