Campbell leads Darien GOP’s return to power

Written by Susan Shultz and Lynsey Santimays
Thursday, 05 November 2009 09:29

The Republican Town Committee headquarters was packed Tuesday night as the Republicans took back the town’s top office after losing it to Evonne Klein and the Democrats six years ago.

David Campbell easily won the first selectman job over Democrat Callie Sullivan, a sitting selectman. Campbell garnered 3,821 (69.3 percent) of the votes to Sullivan’s 1,629 votes (29.6 percent). The Republicans also took back the majority on Darien’s executive board, with Republicans Jayme Stevenson (4,058 votes) and Jerry Nielsen (3,950 votes) leading the selectmen race.

Sullivan’s running mate, incumbent Democrat David Bayne, earned 1,775 votes and the third selectman post. Sullivan, who got the fifth most votes out the six Board of Selectmen candidates, will retain her selectman position.

Independent Chris Noe earned 59 votes, or 1 percent.

More than 5,500 Darien voters turned out to cast ballots during the sunny Election Day. Tuesday saw 43.8 percent of registered Darien voters turnout. A number up from the last municipal election in 2007.

The vibe inside GOP headquarters on the Post Road was one of excitement about the results before they came in. Republican Amy Bell, who worked on the Republican campaign and ran unopposed for a school board seat, said that the election had been “fun” and said she always enjoyed Election Day.

“It is very exciting. I think we’ve done all we can,” she said.

At Democrat headquarters, Democratic Town Committee Chairman John Davis said they were waiting to see what happens but “we are very hopeful for the results.”

The Republican headquarters had a different atmosphere than the last election, where Democrats Klein, Sullivan and Bayne handily beat the Republican candidates.

As the numbers came in, the Republican crowd erupted in cheers. The crowd of more than 100 people was mixed with young and old and became silent as each district’s results were posted on a big board. The GOP won all six voting districts

As the outcome became clear, a shout of “We’re back!” was heard from the crowd.

The outcome was also clear over at Sullivan headquarters after two districts’ results came in. Bayne whispered, “It’s over.”

The room was awkwardly quiet until Sullivan said, “All right, folks.”

Back at the RTC headquarters, David Campbell took the microphone when the verdict was clear and he was declared the winner.

“All I can say is thank you all and I am truly amazed and humbled. It’s been a fun couple of months and I guess the results show,” he said.

He thanked Republican Town Committee campaign manager Susan Marks, and said that Marks had acted as his mother while his real mother was in Florida, to which Campbell’s mother, present Tuesday night, said: “You’re welcome to him!”

Campbell said that Marks had called him each day and managed his schedule, working hard on his campaign.

He also joked that for the future, all calls should be directed to new Selectman Jayme Stevenson, who would take charge going forward.

Stevenson and Nielsen also thanked everyone for their support.

“The support has been humbling,” Nielsen said.

Marks also thanked Republican State Rep. Terrie Wood for being the “start of it all.”

“We’ve enjoyed learning about all the issues and had a great time to getting to know everything,” Campbell said.

He told The Darien Times that he was very excited.

“It is great what we envisioned is happening — and reality is setting in,” he said.

Back at Democrat headquarters, John Davis thanked Sullivan and Bayne.

“It was a very tough race, and nobody worked harder than Callie. She and David left nothing on the table and I thank them for their hard work.”

Supporter Jan Raymond, a Darien Housing Authority commissioner, said that Sullivan’s voice “is going to be more important than ever now. We really, really need your voice,” which was met by loud applause.

Sullivan gave a speech in which said she’d “been here before.”

“Well, I’ve been here before, in 2004, when I had a tough loss, but this time I knew what it was like to lose. I thought this time it would be different because of the issues,” she said, referring to her previous loss to Republican John Ryan for state representative.

“But Darien is a Republican town, and that’s OK, because it is a great town,” she said.

Sullivan said Bayne was with her 100 percent, her husband was with her 110 percent, and her campaign manager, Rachel Martin, was with her 120 percent.

“You don’t get anywhere unless you try. Thank you to everyone,” an emotional Sullivan said.

At approximately 9 p.m., Sullivan and Bayne wove through the packed Republican headquarters that included Planning & Zoning Commission Chairman Fred Conze, departing Board of Ed Chairman John Boulton, Board of Finance Chairman Murry Stegelmann, and Representative Town Meeting Moderator Karen Armour, to congratulate Campbell.

They talked quietly for a while, shaking hands and smiling as the crowd increased.

Noe said on Wednesday that the election turned out exactly as he’d hoped.

“I hoped to get more votes obviously, but after the criminal record came out I’m surprised I got more than one. Clearly there were people who still cast their vote in my direction after all the mudslinging and I’m thankful for their support,” he said.

Noe said for the last few weeks his view has been “Anybody but Callie” to win because he disagrees with her on so many issues, including affordable housing and the current selectmen’s flooding fix proposal at Baker Park.

He said he really enjoyed running, but his current goal is to remain on the RTM.

“The RTM is where I want to be. I can do a lot of good work there. My running was a lot of fun and I did steer the election a little bit. If I had not run, I would have sat back and been disgusted with the election. The issues wouldn’t have come out the way they did. It would have been a lackluster election,” he said.

Noe said the fact that he was willing to risk exposing his criminal record shows he was serious about his efforts. The Thursday evening before the election, Darien Patch, a news blog, broke a story that Noe had previously served prison time for attempted murder while in his 20s.

“I think Darien is going to be a better place,” he said.

As far as whether or not a political rival may have had a hand in exposing his criminal record, he wouldn’t specify.

“What do you think? It had to be somebody desperate. And that wasn’t Dave Campbell,” he said.

Republican Town Committee Chairman Harry Artinian said it was a “terrific win” for the Campbell team and for the Republican party.

“It is clear the voters want to go in a different direction and that this team is the one they believe will provide the leadership in these challenging times,” he said.

He said the results were the work of a great many people who came together because they believed the town needed different solutions to the challenging problems we faced.

“They worked together and they succeeded beyond even their most optimistic expectations,” he said.

Artinian described the margin of the win as “extremely satisfying” and said he thought it might be one of “the largest if not the largest in Darien in a long time.”

It was the largest since the last election two years ago at least, when Klein garnered 65 percent of the vote to win over David Kenny in 2007. Turnout, this year, was up almost 4 percent.

Campbell, whose cell phone voicemail was so full Wednesday morning that it wasn’t taking any more messages, said he and his Republican selectmen were being sworn in on Wednesday at noon so that he and his wife could take a short vacation before taking office on Monday.

“We’re all looking forward to this. Hopefully we’ll do a good job. It’s been fun, totally new and different and it was fun doing it. We’ll see what happens,” he said.

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