Fairfield Dem switches parties after posts about Capitol events
FAIRFIELD — A Democrat on the Representative Town Meeting has switched her party affiliation to Republican after she shared controversial posts about last week’s events at the Capitol on Facebook.
Tameisha Powell-Dunmore, RTM-6, said she changed her party affiliation to Republican on Monday after she claims she was “berated by some Democrats” for posts she made on Facebook and for supporting the first selectwoman’s Voluntary Early Retirement Incentive Program.
But Democrat officials said the conversations were calm and focused on Powell-Dunmore spreading apparent “conspiracy theories” online.
“All of this because I did not adhere to group think and did what I thought was in the best interest of the town,” Powell-Dunmore said, adding that Democratic officials threatened to “make life difficult for her in town.”
Democratic Town Committee chairman Steven Sheinberg said it is “patently false” that Powell-Dunmore was berated or “threatened by DTC leadership in any way, shape or form.”
“I, along with Vice Chair Cathy Curley, had a very amicable phone conversation with Tameisha the evening of Jan. 8 regarding the conflict between her public Facebook posts supporting debunked extremist conspiracy theories and her role as an elected member of the Democratic Town Committee,” he said.
Sheinberg said Powell-Dunmore told them she did not realize that DTC members are elected Democrats “who agree to support the mission of the organization.” He said he and Curley encouraged her to read the DTC’s statement about the “harmful impact of propaganda, to think about the conflict this presented given the views she was sharing publicly,” and to consider alternatives going forward.
The Facebook posts
In the posts, Powell-Dunmore appeared to support some Congressional Republicans’ objections to certifying the results of the presidential election. She also used a hashtag “Italydidit,” which is affiliated with the debunked conspiracy that an Italian information technology official hacked voting machines and switched votes for President Donald Trump to President-Elect Joe Biden.
“I stand for truth and I value my faith,” Powell-Dunmore said of the posts. “I was very upset about what happened on Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol and I posted information that had been shared elsewhere from Christian news stations.”
She said many of her posts are religious.
Alex Plitsas, the Republican Town Committee chairman, said Powell-Dunmore told him she found last week’s violence to be reprehensible.
“She drew parallels to the $2 billion in damage caused over this past year by mobs across the country who had hijacked peaceful protests,” he said. “She dislikes violence in all forms and finds it morally wrong. The comparison in her mind was the violence, not the cause.”
Plitsas said Powell Dunmore told him she believed that the process to certify the electoral college vote would bring out any evidence of fraud — if there was any. He said she was looking for truth amid a sea of information and was hoping it would help heal the nation.
“The other posts are about her faith,” Plitsas said. “I have no comment on those as that is deeply personal. She seems like a lovely, kind person. She was expressing her thoughts based on information that she had seen and, instead of using it as a moment to talk about it, she felt as though she was pushed aside. I don’t think that is the best way to move forward together.”
Sheinberg said the DTC was “incredibly confused and disappointed” to see the posts, adding they echoed the dangerous conspiracy theories, spread by right-wing domestic terrorists and radical, cult-like fringe groups, such as QAnon.
Jill Vergara, the Democratic Caucus leader of the RTM, said she was not aware of Powell-Dunmore’s Facebook posts until late last week. She said she could not reach Powell-Dunmore until Sunday night. By that time, Powell-Dunmore had already resigned from the DTC.
Powell-Dunmore said she felt pushed out and tossed aside by the same people who recruited her to run for office.
“I was told that I should resign from the DTC because my truths are not their truths and to give my seat back because it belongs to the Democratic Party,” Powell-Dunmore said. “It does not belong to a political party; I was elected by the voters in my district after campaigning on what I believe in.”
Sheinberg said the DTC leadership agreed that she is within her right to share her own individual opinions, but that she was sharing things that were in direct conflict with her role as an elected member of a Democratic Town Committee.
“We also stated that the claims of widespread voter fraud, and the other unsubstantiated conspiracy theories that she had shared online, simply had no basis in fact and that we did not support the sharing of disinformation regardless of political party or religious affiliation,” he said.
Switching parties
Powell-Dunmore said Democratic officials told her she could change her party affiliation, but suggested she resign from her seat. She said she did not want to do so, noting the entire reason she ran for office was to get involved and give back.
She said she had been uncomfortable with the way decisions were made within the Democratic leadership prior to last week. She also said she discerned that her vote to support the town’s early retirement incentive plan might have upset other Democrats.
“The behavior of the Democratic leadership over the last week was the final straw,” she said. “Being yelled at and threatened is out of bounds and inappropriate. I simply will not tolerate being treated that way.”
Vergara said she did not know of anyone berating Powell-Dunmore because she voted to approve the plan. She said she was happy Powell-Dunmore found her voice in that vote, adding she had not participated in the Democratic Caucus all that much before it.
“I had specifically told my caucus for that vote that everybody should vote their conscience,” Vergara said. “My leadership style is not to tell people how to vote. I think that that goes against what we were all elected for.”
Sheinberg said the DTC leadership did not request Powell-Dunmore resign from the organization over the posts.
“We reminded her that she was elected as a Democrat to represent fellow Fairfield Democrats on our town committee, and that her joining our committee signaled her support of the DTC’s mission and the Democratic platform,” he said.
Considering she had just come out against Democratic principles and values, Sheinberg said, and had supported Trump and his “dangerous” belief about election fraud, they asked her whether she could, in good faith, remain a member. He said Powell-Dunmore later resigned.
Powell-Dunmore’s party switch comes two weeks after RTM member Hannah Gale changed her party membership from Democrat to Republican, meaning the RTM is now split 20-20. At the time, Gale said the switch was a result of the Connecticut Democratic Party’s push for legislation to remove the state’s religious exemption for vaccination mandates.
Fairfield’s Registrars of Voters confirmed that Powell-Dunmore changed her party affiliation on Monday.