Question from Readers: Why would someone change political parties to run for local office?
So this is a question regarding Jeff Vailette, who after a lifetime serving as a Democrat, switched parties to run as a Republican for first selectman. To understand this, we need to look at the makeup of the political parties over the last decade or so.
Branford essentially has two Democratic parties. There is the DTC, the hardcore left, who are geared more toward just electing anyone with a D next to their name.
But it also has a large group of Democrats who are Branford-focused. Think of the chair of the Board of Finance, Joe Mooney, or many longtime Branford residents who nationally lean left but locally don’t really care about party, they just want someone who runs the town well.
That group, over the last decade, ended up supporting Cosgrove. Even if they didn’t the first time he ran, many eventually did, as Cosgrove turned out to be very pro-environment, setting the standard in the state for how we save and invest for climate impacts to the shoreline. Cosgrove never involved national politics, he focused on Branford, and Branford issues, investing in infrastructure and quality of life here in town.
In the last 4-5 years or so, the DTC, the hardcore Democrats, have opposed Cosgrove consistently on a few issues. They public spread false information about multiple projects, including the animal shelter, the Walsh Fields and the police station. And they also fought against the town saving as much money as it has been, calling it over-taxation.
The towns reply has been simple: Trump is in office, and that has caused great uncertainty. Whether one supports Trump of not, we have no idea if Federal funding is going to the state, and if funding the town relies on from the state will continue.
Additionally, we are a shoreline town, and relied heavily on FEMA dollars after major storms Sandy and Irene. We have no idea if FEMA dollars will be there when the next storm comes.
So we have one group that has focused on infrastructure, savings, and being prepared for environmental impacts, and another group who has largely spoken pout against some major project, and has heavily advocated for saving less, and using what the town has saved for longterm issues to offset short-term taxes.
The Board of Finance, with a Democratic chairman and Jeff Vailette as one of its longtime Democratic members, fully supported the Cosgrove approach and worked with him to make Branford the town it is.
While the local Democrats worked hard to get Vailette to run at the top of the Democratic ticket, it made little sense for Vailette to spend the last decade working to increase infrastructure investments and increase savings only to run with the group actively trying to decrease that savings account and who has put out press releases with misinformation on the very projects he supported.
Ultimately, Vailette stood on continuing what Branford has been doing with the team that has been working toward that goal. To that end, the Republican ticket this year has multiple people who lean lean left or were former Democrats, largely because they are voting locally on local issues, and the Cosgrove team has done positive things for the town of Branford, while being very bi-partisan.
Ultimately, very few people choose a political party based on local issues. No matter how you feel about abortion or military spending or Trump, local elections should be about local issues, and keeping Branford the amazing town it has been. But it didn’t get there by accident; Cosgrove has a very specific plan, and that plan has worked well for Branford. Vailette has been part of creating and supporting that plan, and thus it made sense for him to desire to work with a team moving that forward, not with a team actively fighting it.
The Democrats ultimately settled on Josh Brooks, a longtime RTM member, who has been on the same team advocating for saving less, and he remained silent when his party put out press releases with false information on key projects. He has made two key announcements so far: he wants to add police officers to handle speeding/traffic, and he wants to freeze taxes for a select group.
The police officer hiring was already being discussed, and the first selectman cannot designate what area those hires will be assigned to, so his first point doesn’t work. We have a police commission who makes that determination.
The tax freeze has a cost, but more importantly, the town already has a tax deferral program for those who need to offset tax increases. Simply handing out a tax freeze to a select group causes everyone else’s taxes to go up, so it may have a very hard time getting support from taxpayers, especially when a more equitable program already exists.
