Andy Blye (left), Facebook; James Waters (center), Facebook; Dan Quigley (right), Facebook;
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In his ill-informed piece “Is a far-right 'takeover' of Greenwich's RTM possible? If so, bipartisan coalition aims to fight it”, Andrew Blye presents a biased perspective along with incorrect information and partisan fear mongering. His story should have focused on the response by mainstream, concerned citizens to a multi-year effort by Democrats to move the town further and further left. The people who stepped up are volunteers who are of several affiliations, and who want to serve our town based on simple values expressed in a web site.
Mr. Blye didn’t understand the data he was given and misrepresented it. The clerk’s office did not receive the number of petitions he claims. There have NEVER been 272 or even 220 petitions. In 2023, there are 330 candidates on the ballot, but 160 are returning candidates who did not need a petition.
Yet the real error is Mr. Blye’s misleading use of numbers. He should have dug a bit deeper (data from
the Greenwich election history). One has to wonder why he did not?
In the six elections (2005-2015) prior to 2017, the RTM averaged 225 candidates for 230 seats. In 2017 that jumped to 292 (including 18 registered write-in candidates). In 2017 there were 80 new candidates who were mostly recruited by activists from local chapters of national Democrat organizations including the local chapters of Indivisible and March-On. These local chapters were set up along with a PAC called “Voices for Democracy” by former Democrat Selectman Sandy Litvak, Joanna Swomley and Nerlyn Pierson, with help from Mareta Hamre and Scott Kalb.
Their purpose was to reshape the RTM by using Trump as a bogeyman to galvanize Democrat women. And reshape the RTM they did, under false pretenses. The result in 2017 was shocking. 73 new RTM members (out of 230) were elected, most pushed by this organized effort by these nationally-funded Democrat organizations. Their false pretense being that this effort would make the RTM “younger.” The result was more Democrat women, but their average age (60) did not change.
Mr. Blye also missed that there are 37 DTC (Democrat Town Committee) members who are now or have served on the RTM since 2017 compared to only 25 RTC members, and there are only ten new RTC members out of the 150 new RTM candidates in 2023, so the RTC is still trying to catch up. Mr. Blye also did not know or forgot to mention that in 2021, Mr. Waters was busy circulating an RTM slate (image at bottom) which included many Indivisible Greenwich members like co-founder Nerlyn Pierson, as well as far-left DTC members Lucy Von Brachel, Scott Kalb, and Matt DesChamps, and Democrat State Reps Stephen Meskers and Hector Arzeno. Conspicuously missing from Mr. Waters’ list were ANY prominent Republicans, including Mr. Quigley, who at the time was Chairman of the RTC. Also missing from Mr. Waters’ 2021 list were even mild-mannered and centrist Republicans.
Clearly, Mr. Waters and Mr. Quigley are political animals mainly concerned with their own re-election. This is attested by Mr. Quigley’s sudden about-face and by Mr. Waters’ strategically changing party affiliation to and from Republican while promoting far-left Democrats (in slates) and Democrat ideals like high-debt, increased taxes, and wasteful spending on his pet projects.
Mr. Quigley’s decided to join the Democrat chorus after being ousted from the RTC in a primary election. Quigley lost by over 30% of the vote in his home district of downtown Greenwich, not least due to his support for state “Affordable Housing” initiatives which he reaffirmed with recent RTM votes.
The Democrats attempts to mislead voters (with fake organizations, like Mr. Waters’ below and misleading signs), pre-dates any new RTC members. Since 2017, Democrats and their media allies have been seeing imaginary red hats everywhere and name calling anyone who disagrees with their policies a “Nazi” or “anti-Semite” (link, link), while feigning distaste for name calling and claiming they are fiscally responsible.
But the real takeaway here is not Messrs. Waters’ and Quigley’s sour grapes or underhanded tactics, it’s that the Greenwich Time is a partisan source, parroting talking points, devoting little space to opposing perspectives, not doing their research, and failing to check the data they present.
It’s only far-left Democrats (some registered as Republicans like Mr. Waters) who find it concerning that there is an upwelling of opposition to attempts to move the Town further left than California.
If you are a sensible voter, and would like to keep Greenwich more as the Constitution State, you should simply ignore anything and everything Mr. Waters and Mr. Quigley have to say, along with much of what is printed in the Greenwich Time.
Homework is spot on