Letter: Democrats should spare us more Primary elections

Posted 12/13/18

We’ve had a lot of noise in our district since exposure of fraudulent acts committed by former state Representative-Elect Laufton Ascencao. The consequences of his deceit spread beyond his own …

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Letter: Democrats should spare us more Primary elections

Posted

We’ve had a lot of noise in our district since exposure of fraudulent acts committed by former state Representative-Elect Laufton Ascencao. The consequences of his deceit spread beyond his own disgrace, however, falling now on taxpayers.

Bristol and Warren will suffer an estimated $20,000 burden to fund another Democratic primary election and then a special election for the District 68 seat. More outrageous is the potential added expenses of primary and special elections to replace Bristol Democratic Town Councilor Timothy Sweeney, if necessary.

These circumstances should immediately set off alarms among taxpayers. Why must the towns fund a special primary election to the exclusive benefit of the Democratic Party, an election not all taxpayers can participate in because they are not registered Democrats? This is an unethical allocation of taxpayer dollars.

To add insult to injury, the audacity of freshly-reelected officials like Sweeney playing political musical chairs at taxpayers’ expense is unconscionable. Local political hopefuls with ambitions for higher office are exploiting this situation and abusing taxpayers.

Yes, we must hold a special election. But there is no justification for the towns to bear the expenses of a special primary. I call on the Democratic committees of Warren and Bristol to find alternative means of choosing their party’s nominee, other than special primary election, to save town budgets. 

Shawn Mizener
Bristol

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