CT Blue

A few days ago I passed along the saga of David Preka, a Republican candidate for Town Council here in Groton, who doesn’t live in Groton. Some might say that he never should have been nominated, and some might also say that bringing this violation of state and local law to the attention of the proper authorities was the right thing to do, but those who say that would have forgotten that rules are only for Democrats. At least, judging by his reaction, that’s what Ken Richards, the Republican Town chair appeared to think. Anyway, there have been developments.

I didn’t point this out in my first post, but it was clear as day that while Richards immediately went on the attack, he made no attempt to claim that the charge was untrue. I did point out that Connecticut has not yet adopted the soon to be universal federal rule that laws do not apply to Republicans. My guess is that subsequent to the article in the New London Day, Mr. Preka consulted a lawyer who told him as much, and also told him that his violation of state law was glaringly obvious, and that he really ought to cut his losses, for:

David Preka has withdrawn his candidacy for Town Council in Tuesday’s election.
…
Groton Republican Town Committee Chairman Ken Richards said by phone Thursday that it was his understanding that Preka had his residence at his business and also has been for months in the process of obtaining another residence in Groton, but Richards said Preka has received so much negativity that he decided to withdraw.

Now, buried in that comment is an admission that the complaint was well founded. If Preka is in the “process of obtaining another residence in Groton” other than a business address in which he never resided, then he in fact does not reside in Groton.

Richards went on to bloviate:

“This situation has truly shown local Democrats will stop at nothing to maintain one-party power in Town,” he added. “In contrast, Republicans have put forward a diverse slate that is committed to putting People over Politics and ending the kind of hyper-partisanship that has defined the current council’s tenure.”

Um, right. There’s no evidence by the way that Democrats had anything to do with filing the anonymous complaint, though even if that were true, it was a well founded complaint. Wouldn’t you like to get Richards under oath and ask him if he would be fine if a similar complaint had been filed only against a Democrat and the town clerk had done nothing? Oh, I forgot, oaths mean nothing to them either.

I can’t let this pass without commenting on Richards claim that the Republicans put forward a “diverse slate”. Here are pictures of their RTM (Representative Town Meeting) candidates. They all seem to share at least one characteristic, although I’ll admit that while they’re all white, they’re not all men.

Here are pictures of their Town Council candidates. Mr. Preka actually has fairly dark skin, but he’s Albanian and that doesn’t really count, does it. (Also, note that the text touting him states that his company is headquartered in downtown Mystic, while he told the registrar that he resided there.

I can’t find a picture for the Dems, but here’s a bit about the roster of nine:

2 white men.

5 women.

3 African Americans

1 Hispanic.

Also, they’re Democrats in the classic Will Rogers sense. Again, I’d like to get Mr. Richards under oath and have him substantiate his claim of hyper-partisanship. There was plenty of division on the all Democratic Council over the last two years, which alone belies any claim of hyper-partisanship.

Sorry. The horse is dead and I keep beating it.