Fedeli won’t seek reelection as Stamford DCC chairman
STAMFORD — The head of the Democratic City Committee, Josh Fedeli, confirmed Friday that he won’t seek reelection as chair.
Fedeli’s announcement comes two months after an aborted bid for the city’s Fire Commission and one week after Mayor Caroline Simmons instead designated him as her representative on a city board — a position that does not require confirmation.
Fedeli, who has led the local Democratic Party since 2016, said he spoke about his decision at a committee meeting earlier this week. The vice chair of the DCC, Robin Druckman, told The Stamford Advocate she is seeking to take Fedeli’s place. DCC members will vote on their new leader next week.
Fedeli on Friday said that no longer being chair will free him up to work on campaigns for Democratic candidates in the state “in a different way and in a different capacity.”
“There’s just more of an ability for me to be active in politics the way that I want to be — more focused on specific candidates and initiatives than sort of a broader party base,” he said. “I definitely feel I can support Mayor Simmons and her administration and what she’s looking to do in a better way, not as chair. And we have a lot of work to do this year to reelect the governor and (Attorney General William) Tong and all of our constitutional officers, our (congressional) delegation.”
Two months ago, a Board of Representatives panel voted against recommending that he be confirmed as a member of the city’s Fire Commission. During a meeting on his nomination and others, several city representatives claimed Fedeli had a history of intimidating women.
Fedeli described the statements that representatives made about him as “a political hit and a sham,” adding that they had “nothing to do with” his decision to not seek reelection.
“People knew exactly what it was, which is people playing out their political grudges within their official capacity,” Fedeli said. “I think if anybody was exposed in that process, it was those representatives and not me. I stand by my record. I stand by how I’ve gone about being chair over the last six years, being part of the DCC for the last 10 years and how I’ve gone about … being part of the political apparatus of the Democratic Party in the state for more than 15 years.”
Simmons withdrew Fedeli’s nomination to the Fire Commission at his request. Simmons has since appointed him as a member of the Firefighter’s Pension Fund board of trustees.
“Given Josh’s business and fiscal background and his support and advocacy for the Stamford Fire Department, I felt he would be an asset to this important board,” Simmons said Friday.
Fedeli said he had “started thinking about the idea” of not seeking reelection as chair two years ago. But he did run again, holding off a challenge from Sean Boeger, a newcomer at the time.
“It was clear, at that point, that there were things that had to be done — certainly to maintain the DCC and its operating excellence and everything that we had coming up,” including a mayoral election in 2021, Fedeli said. “And there were slate elections in early 2020 that brought a big slew of new people to the DCC, and I had made a commitment to those people that I would run.”
Boeger, who was elected to the Board of Representatives in November, told The Advocate that he will not make another bid for DCC chair.
Druckman was elected to a seat on the DCC, and also elected vice chair, in 2020. The committee’s other officers include Secretary Ginny Fox, Treasurer Jackie Heftman and Parliamentarian David Stein.
Fedeli said he told the DCC’s executive committee in November that he was unlikely to run for reelection.
During his six years as chair, Fedeli said the Democratic Party has grown and “turnout in some of our under-performing districts in the past has trended upward.”
“We extended our majorities on all of the city boards,” he added. “We won all of the elections that were Stamford-only, singletown districts. We executed and got Caroline elected, which was historic and a game changer.”
Simmons is the first woman to win election to the mayor’s office. She won last November by about 1,500 votes over unaffiliated candidate and hometown legend Bobby Valentine.
Registered Democrats are the largest group of voters in Stamford, totaling nearly 32,000. But with almost 28,000 unaffiliated voters and about 13,000 registered Republicans in the city, Fedeli argued that Democratic candidates still need to “earn” their victories.
“We don’t just win elections because there are more Democrats than anybody else,” he said.
During Fedeli’s chairmanship, the “Reform Stamford” faction of the Democratic Party was born. But Fedeli pushed back against the idea that the local party is divided.
“A party divided would not be able to do what we have done electorally,” Fedeli said. “I would say that there are some factions here, but I barely call them Democrats.”
The DCC has 40 members, with two members representing each one of 20 local districts. Democrats become members of the committee by collecting a certain number of signatures from fellow Democrats in their district. An election takes place if more than two people have collected the necessary number of signatures.
Elections will be held Tuesday in Districts 3, 16 and 18. There is also a Republican election in District 13.