Write-in eyes disputed BOE seat
Former president of PTO Council running unaffiliated; GOP threatens injunction over election
STAMFORD — Write-in campaigns are generally seen as long-shots — unless the write-in candidate is running against no one else.
That could be the case in one election in Stamford this November for a oneyear term on the Board of Education.
Stephanie O’Shea, a parent of a Stamford High School student and an active member of the school community, announced last week that she has launched a write-in effort for the position, which is otherwise uncontested.
The seat O’Shea is after is currently held by Republican Becky Hamman. She replaced former school board member Frank Cerasoli in February. Her seat is up for election this year for a one-year term, to finish out Cerasoli’s original term.
But the Stamford Republican Town Committee decided not to place Hamman in that race. Instead, the committee put Hamman up against three Democratic incumbents — board president Andy George, Jackie Heftman and Fritz Chery — in a race for three full three-year terms.
Fritz Blau, chairman of the RTC, has said that according to his reading of election rules, Hamman would keep her seat on the board no matter the outcome of the election.
Stephanie O’Shea, former president of the Stamford PTO Council, is running unaffiliated. The city’s Republican committee says it might file an injunction against the election.
But that is not the case, according to Stamford’s Corporation Counsel Kathryn Emmett.
No matter who ends up fourth in the election, the seat currently held by Hamman will be vacated on Dec. 1, the inauguration of newly elected members, Emmett said.
Unless, of course, O’Shea’s effort pays off and she is elected through a write-in campaign.
Republicans cry foul
This week, Blau and others in the RTC said that the one-year election should be canceled.
The crux of their argument is that the city Charter states that a member appointed to the Board of Education in the middle of a term shall run in an election for the seat at the “next biennial election,” which are held in Stamford on odd-numbered years.
“There’s no reason Becky should be running for a one-year term,” Blau said, adding she should be allowed to finish out Cerasoli’s term.
“You can’t take our seat,” he said. “That’s our seat.”
He said the party is prepared to file an injunction against the city if the election is allowed to go on. For the time being, he said the party would not put up a candidate through a write-in effort for the position.
“We’re not going to fight a fight over something we shouldn’t have to fight,” he said.
However, precedent is not on the side of the Republicans.
Four years ago, in an evennumbered year, Democrat Geoff Alswanger won an election for a one-year term.
That seat had been held by Democrat Julia Wade, who resigned mid-term. Wade’s seat was filled through an appointment by Democrat Angelica Gorrio in early 2016.
An election was held in 2016 for a one-year stint to finish out her term. Gorrio decided not to run, paving the way for Alswanger to enter the race and win unopposed in the 2016 election.
Hamman could still win a three-year term this year if she out-polls one of the incumbent Democrats, but the odds are against her in a Democrat-dominated city, during an election year in which participation is expected to be high due to the presidential contest.
Last year’s figures from the Registrars of Voters Office showed 19 percent of the roughly 71,000 registered voters in Stamford were Republicans. Democrats made up 41 percent, while 38 percent were unaffiliated.
Before taking over for Cerasoli, Hamman previously ran for a seat on the board in 2019, finishing in sixth place in a race to elect three board members.
Josh Fedeli, chairman of the Stamford Democratic City Committee, said the RTC clearly made a mistake by not running Hamman in the one-year election.
“They should own up to it,” Fedeli said.
He said the Republican’s claims that the election is illegal has no merit since there is no biennial election when it comes to the Board of Education, in which there is an election held every year.
“This is a Republican tactic, to question the validity of an election,” he said. “There is no reason to do that ... people are already undermining the public faith in the electoral process by claiming there is fraud or it is illegal. That is bad for democracy.”
Republicans have asked Emmett to issue a decision on the validity of the election based off the Charter. Emmett has stated in the past that only certain officials can request that she render an opinion in writing. That list includes the mayor, as well as heads of any city department, board or commission, among others.
With no candidates in the way, O’Shea only needs to garner the most write-in votes to be named to the board for one year — though that outcome conceivably could be changed pending the result of a legal challenge by the RTC.
In order to be considered, she had to file paperwork with the state. According to the Secretary of the State’s website, write-in candidates have until Oct. 20 to register.
O’Shea, a former president of the Stamford Parent-Teacher Council, is running as an unaffiliated candidate, which would allow her to be voted onto the board without knocking off any incumbent Democrats. Because of the city’s majority-minority rule, the school board can have no more than six members from one party. Currently, six of the nine board members are Democrats.
On Monday, O’Shea said she has long considered a run for the Board of Education.
But after she was laid off this year from her job with a publisher of education materials, she decided to give it a try.
“When this presented itself with a one-year term, I thought, ‘Why not? Why not do it?’” she said.
Her task now will be getting the word out, something she has already started to do on social media.
Up until recently, O’Shea was a registered Democrat. She even served for six years on the DCC, choosing not to run for reelection this year.
While she said her values are Democratic, she does not wish to be tied to the party.
“I’m not a fan of the party politics per se,” she said. “Everything is so partisan.”
O’Shea, who is currently the co-president of the Stamford High School parent teacher council known as Friends of Stamford High, or FOSH, will still have a voice on the future of the school system even if she is not elected. She is the only parent on the recently-formed LongTerm Schools Facilities Committee, and also served on the facilities subcommittee of the schools reopening committee over the summer.
O’Shea said she believes Superintendent Tamu Lucero is doing a good job and said the board should put more trust in her.
“She and her team know what’s best right now,” she said.