Norwalk’s Independent party endorses 21 candidates, cross endorsing 4 Republicans

NORWALK — Norwalk’s Independent party has nominated 21 candidates, crossendorsing four Republican candidates, to challenge the Democrat and Republican party candidates this November.

The newly reformed party led by former mayoral candidate Lisa Brinton met at the Silver Star Diner on Thursday to formally endorse the 17 Independents and four Republicans. The Independent Town Committee began meeting this spring Brinton said.

“Our priorities are all things Norwalk,” Brinton said.

Brinton highlighted those priorities before announcing the candidates.

“In a nutshell, we want smarter growth, less density, more representative and professional government, and economic sustainability for the residents of Norwalk,” she said.

“That means addressing the current density issues impacting our city’s infrastructure and quality of life — in our neighborhoods, on our roads, in our schools and along our waterfronts — just to name a few,” Brinton said. “We have a lot of zoning going on, but not a lot of planning.”

While still a new party, Brinton said Independent’s voices are already being heard by elected officials, citing the protest she and others made to the proposed four-year mayoral term that was taken out of the city’s charter revision.

“We support updates to the city charter and are pleased with the Independent Party’s role in getting the four-year mayoral term scrapped, but still seek real charter revision that supports our growing city with stronger democratic principles and better management,” she said.

Priorities for the party are more minority party representation, funding for education, zoning enforcement, and accountability for elected officials and city employees.

The party endorsed candidates for 14 of the 15 Common Council seats. Four of those seats are endorsed by the Republican party as well: Richard Bonenfant for At-Large, Trisha Massucco for District A, incumbent Bryan Meek for District D, and Ernie DesRochers for District E.

The other Independent Common Council At-Large candidates nominated are Patricia Venneri Agudow, Anthony Scott Goodwin, Erik Vitaglione and Jo A Bennett. Donna Amalia Smirniotopoulos for District

B, Carl Gerard Cooke for District C, Heather Dunn for District D and Denise Chicatell Brown for District E were also nominated for Common Council.

Three Board of Education candidates were also nominated: Alexandrea Kemeny for District A, Rasheemah Richardson for District B and Nicole Therese Hampton for District C.

A mayoral candidate was not endorsed, leaving incumbent Democrat Mayor Harry Rilling and Republican Vinny Scicchitano as the sole candidates in the race.

Four Constable candidates and two selectmen candidates were also nominated alone with Katherine Price Snedaker for sheriff.