Democratic primaries planned in two districts
STRATFORD — Democrats will go to the polls Tuesday to decide who will take ballot spots this November in two north end Town Council districts.
In the 8th District in northeast Stratford, Dick Brown is challenging Dianne Nolan, the candidate endorsed last month by Democratic Town Committee members.
Brown has served in a number of positions in Stratford organizations and politics. Nolan coached the women’s basketball team at Fairfield University for nearly three decades and has been elected to numerous halls of fame.
In the neighboring 9th District in the northwest part of town, former Democratic Registrar of Voters Rick Marcone is challenging Linda Chaffin, the party-endorsed candidate.
Marcone is the former Democratic Registrar of Voters who was hired as a part-time clerk in Town Hall after losing the position in last year’s election. Chaffin is a former teacher who has fought to eliminate plastic bags in Connecticut and to remove polystyrene from schools.
Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. In District 8, voters will cast ballots at Chapel Street School. In District 9, Democrats will vote at Bunnell High School.
More than 200 party members have received absentee ballots, Democratic Registrar of Voters Jim Simon said in a Facebook post Friday morning
— but he advised them against mailing them in if they hadn’t already.
“My advice: it is too late to rely on U.S. mail to get your ballot in before the Tuesday 8 p.m. deadline,” Simon wrote, saying those with absentee ballots should instead use the ballot drop box at Town Hall, across Main Street from the fire station. “It doesn’t matter when the ballot is postmarked; unless it is received by 8 p.m. this Tuesday, it will not be counted!”
Brown and Marcone are former “Democrats of the Year” and former party leaders who have recently criticized its local leaders.
On the day they filed their primary paperwork in Town Hall, both attended a fundraiser for Jim Connor, the incumbent Republican who Brown is looking to
challenge in November, according to photos posted on the Stratford Republican Town Committee’s Facebook page.
In the most recent council election in 2019, Democrats targeted Connor in the 8th District, where they nominated Simon, who came up 41 votes short of a win.
The tally was close, but Connor said he was unable to campaign as hard as previous years due to health reasons. He has vowed to be more of a presence on the campaign trail this year.
In the 9th, the winner would go up against incumbent Republican Bill O’Brien, a Marine veteran and former longtime athletic director at the Sterling House Community Center, in November.