Stratford Democrats cite ‘poor decision making’ after election losses
STRATFORD — Democratic Chairman Steve Taccogna faced pointed questions over his actions in the wake of a disastrous Election Day for local Democrats.
Tony Montemurno, a DTC member, said Taccogna needed to face accountability.
“The buck stops with you,” Montemurno said.
Taccogna received especially sharp criticism over his filing a State Elections Enforcement Commission complaint against former mayoral candidate Stephanie Philips in July, just as the general election was ramping up.
The resulting discussion grew heated at times between Taccogna and several other members. Several Stratford Democrats have said they are not happy with Taccogna’s leadership as a result.
Philips, who was not at the meeting, later said there needs to a change in party leadership. Without naming Taccogna she said the latest election was a reflection of consistently poor decision making.
“This leadership needs to be held accountable. We say that too often. But they need to be held accountable for the performance of this,” she said. “And I know they like to point out that you don’t throw out the coach with one bad game. This is not one bad game. This is more than a bad game. This is losing the series. And the Democratic Party has been set back several years.”
But Taccogna quashed speculation that he has any intention of leaving.
“I won’t be resigning,” Taccogna said.
Philips had mounted a campaign for mayor, but narrowly lost out to Immacula Cann for the party’s endorsement. In August, Taccogna announced he had filed a complaint against Philips based on what he called “strong suspicion” of campaign finance violations in her 2017 run for mayor. Philips issued a statement in response, stating that the committee had favored Cann as the mayoral candidate despite the expectation that the chair would be neutral.
Montemurno said Taccogna was the reason why the party was so fractured in the run up to the election.
“You should be resigning, not putting together another slate. A lot of what happened is your responsibility,” Montemurno said.
Taccogna shot back, telling Montemurno to “zip it.”
Montemurno wasn’t satisfied.
“Alright, that’s a typical Republican,” he said in response.
Other members also took issue about the way the complaint was handled.
Harold Watson, the committee’s former vice chair, also said there needs to be a new leader. He said he was disappointed in the committee since the leaders weren’t listening to other members during the election and the poor results partly reflected that.
“They essentially went off on their own on this, which is partly why we had the results we did,” Watson said.
Taccogna admitted the party hasn’t done too well with bridging internal divisions over the years.
“The Democrats have had a reputation for being divided for a decade. There are some ways in which we’ve built a more cohesive unit. There are other ways in which some of those divisions still remain,” Taccogna said.
Taccogna conceded that the timing of the complaint had been poorly chosen and struck a conciliatory tone in his comments.
“This leadership needs to be held accountable. We say that too often. But they need to be held accountable for the performance of this.”
Stephanie Philips
“To those of you that have decided to vilify me over this, I’m the guy that does this as a volunteer, that signed up for this because I wanted to do good things for the town, as I imagine all of you did also,” he said.
He admitted he can be arrogant and abrasive.
“Those things are all true. And if you don’t like those things about me, I genuinely apologize,” he said.
But at least one member saw an upside to the conflict within the party.
Karen Simon said the exchange between Taccogna and several attendees was good because people could get whatever they were feeling or thinking off their chest.
“It was a tough meeting for Steve. Everybody got it out, it’s time to move on,” she said. “What Steve said at the end is exactly correct. We have to keep our eye on the ball.”
As for Taccogna’s future, the Democratic chair said he doesn’t see himself leaving anytime soon. He said he knew at least one person expressing interest in the town chairman position when a new slate is announced next year.
“That’s me,” he said.