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By Mike Spilo

Brian Raabe seems to be the newly self-appointed Democrat chief blathering officer, joining the likes of Joanna Swomley (of Indivisible Greenwich), and “Republicans” like Mr. Greg Piccininno, who, in 2023, recommended voting for the Democrat Board of Estimate and Taxation ("BET").  Mr. Raabe touts his unaffiliated voter status (and Mr. Piccininno his Republican registration) trying to say, “look I am like you, and I vote for Democrats so you should too.” Such “endorsements” are a common ruse, and like any good Democrat, Mr. Raabe is quick to virtue signal by denouncing anything which looks “Trumpish” to him. It’s always amusing when such “virtuous” folks look in the mirror and somehow see Republicans. 

But you may recall, it was Mr. Piccininno, who “apologized” for his misogynistic posts and online attacks, which were strikingly similar to Mr. Fisher’s and Mr. Hahn’s recent e-mails, which themselves came subsequent to Mr. Fisher’s past anti-Asian online comments. 

For his part, in his recent piece in the partisan Greenwich Free Press, Mr. Raabe imagines Republicans as marching in lock-step, despite the upcoming Republican primary to elect leaders according to the will of the people.  Mr. Raabe seems to have forgotten that Democrats failed to run a presidential primary in 2024, and, that it is the Greenwich Democrats who have ousted several long serving members without a primary.

Also like a good Democrat, Mr. Raabe claims the role of “government, unless it’s gerrymandered and hijacked, is nothing more than the infrastructure that executes accordingly to the will of (all) the people.” Which is more than a little ironic, given that the State of Connecticut has been gerrymandered to the point where the 42% of Nutmeggers who voted for President Trump have no representation in Congress, and CT’s Assembly and Senate Districts have been rejiggered so that this 42% of the electorate has less than 33% representation.  And, of course, our republican form of government is mainly there to protect individuals from the tyranny of the majority.

More recently Mr. Raabe blames delays in field remediation on Greenwich Republicans who have never rejected any funding for the cleanup.  In fact, Mr. Raabe should be looking at fellow Democrat-created red tape. CT’s infamous business unfriendly red-tape includes the 2018 local Anti-Fracking regulations which had to be over-ridden by the State after all road work came to a stand-still in Stamford.

Mr. Raabe is right about one thing: the budget fiasco was unnecessary and can be laid entirely at the feet of Joe Kelly, Harry Fisher and Josh Brown.  That trio are responsible for the Greenwich budget over-runs, which were avoidable.

Mr. Kelly led union negotiations which resulted in a nearly $40 million budget increase over three years.  In back-room parlays with the union president, Mr. Kelly made large concessions, and then led support for the contract at the RTM together with Mr. Brown of the RTM Labor Contracts Committee and Democrat BET member Scott Kalb.  For his part, Mr. Brown has also been serving on the RTM Labor Contracts Committee for many years as union pay in Greenwich has eclipsed private sector pay, increasing much faster than inflation.

The other lynchpin of Greenwich’s spending boondoggle is construction.  One reason for cost over-runs is Mr. Camillo’s appointment of former Democrat Town Committee Chair Tony Turner (who was fined $52,000 for campaign finance violations), and Mr. Kelly appointed Democrat Laura Kostin (who doesn’t even have the support of the Democrats) to run the committee in charge of the largest Greenwich construction project ever. 

Those two Democrats worked with the very same Mr. Piccininno. Together they threatened and broke rules to get Central Middle School built into a hill so that the school roof could accommodate extra solar panels.  These solar panels will never pay back the $15 to $20 million in added construction costs from the offset second floor, and will likely stop working in a few years, like past solar projects and other such vanity “green” projects.  Solar is not a very good idea in Connecticut where it snows and rains, but solar is a priority for the Democrats and their “Republican” sidekicks trying to buy Democrat votes.

So, with a Republican primary scheduled September 9^th, if you’re tired of Greenwich’s ever ballooning budget, and if you would prefer some sensible oversight, head to the polls and vote in the Republican Primary.  But if you want fiscal responsibility, you should avoid voting for anyone recommended by Mr. Piccininno or Mr. Raabe (or the Democrat Voting Moms).

Vote for the level-headed and fiscally conservative team of David Alfano, Nisha Arora, Alessandra Brus, Philip Dodson, John Hopley and Lucia Jansen. Be sure to vote for all six, because as we all learned two years ago, Republicans like Mr. Fisher can be voted chairman by the Democrats.

Mr. Spilo was a member of the Greenwich Representative Town Meeting (RTM), the town's legislative body, from 2002 to 2023, and served as Chairman of the Public Works Committee and the Labor Contracts Committee.  Mr. Spilo also served as RTM Representative to the Central Middle School Building Committee.

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