OLD LYME — A dispute over who should fill an alternate seat on a town board has sparked the most recent dispute between local Democrats and Republicans, this time over the state’s minority representation rule.
Two days after this year’s election, the local Democratic Town Committee sent a letter to Old Lyme’s Town Clerk requesting that Diane Linderman be sworn in as the third alternate on the Board of Finance.
The letter acknowledged that the Town Clerk Vicki Urbowicz believed a Republican candidate, Maria Marchant, should be seated instead, given a law which aims to preserve political balance on local elected boards.
Local Democrats rejected that legal interpretation.
“Ms. Linderman is legally entitled to be sworn in to fill her elected position,” wrote Democratic Town Committee Chair Kimberly Thompson. “Any refusal to do so would disregard both the voters’ expressed choice and the statutory framework governing minority representation.”
The disagreement centers on how Fred Behringer, a former Republican who ran as an unaffiliated candidate endorsed by Democrats, should be counted. Behringer was the top vote-getter for the seat, followed by Democrat Tom Walsh.
Behringer was also endorsed by the Connecticut Forward Party, say local Democrats, and should not be counted “solely” as a candidate of the Democratic Party. For the purposes of minority representation, they argue, Behringer should count as an unaffiliated candidate.
Under Connecticut law, no single party may hold more than six seats on a nine-member body like the Old Lyme Board of Finance.
The November ballot listed Behringer only in the Democratic row, as the Forward Party did not have its own ballot line in town.
“The fact that the Forward Party did not maintain a separate ballot line in Old Lyme does not alter the legal reality that it is a recognized political party under Connecticut law and publicly endorsed Mr. Behringer as its candidate,” according to Thompson.
The letter went further, citing a U.S Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit decision as precedent and suggesting that the town clerk’s interpretation raised constitutional concerns about the freedom of political association.
“We also note that the minority-representation statute, while historically upheld, raises serious First Amendment concerns when applied in a manner that conditions eligibility for public office on political affiliation,” it stated.
Urbowicz wrote to town attorney Kristi Kelly on Nov. 6 requesting legal advice.
Kelly responded that by her interpretation Behringer should be counted as a Democrat and that the seat should given to Marchant.
Contacted by CT Examiner, Thompson said that Behringer had never been a member of the Democratic Party and that the committee had endorsed him because he had “served admirably” over the past two years.
“Fred very much wanted to continue to serve on the BOF and came to the DTC seeking its endorsement, and noting that he would likewise be endorsed by the Forward Party,” Thompson said. “Believing Fred to be an excellent candidate, the DTC gave its endorsement.”
Behringer was appointed in 2023 to fill an alternate position vacated by Republican Matthew Olsen, who became a full member when Jude Read gave up her seat on Board of Finance following her election to the Board of Selectmen.
Thompson said her party was “surprised and disappointed” to learn of the town clerk’s position on the matter.
“Given Fred’s historical political affiliations and his endorsement by the Forward Party, a nationally-recognized centrist party formed by Republican Christie Todd Whitman and Democrat Andrew Yang, we concluded that the statutory provision did not apply,” Thompson said. “We will not, however, contest the contrary opinion given by the Town Attorney, notwithstanding the fact that this opinion will result in seating a Republican candidate who received hundreds fewer votes than her Democrat opponent.”
The outcome means Linderman will lose her seat as alternate, a position she has held since 2023.
The Republican Town Committee called it an attempt to intimidate the town clerk to seat a Democratic candidate.
“My view is that what the DTC was doing was really not honest,” Randy Nixon, the local Republican chair, told CT Examiner. “They know better than that.”
Nixon said the episode was regrettable given that the need to seek legal advice to resolve the matter had been a waste of taxpayer money.
“It was an attempt at bamboozling the system and we just think it was wrong,” Nixon said. “There’s absolutely no legal precedent to support it.”
The bigger picture
Beyond Old Lyme, minority representation has emerged as a contentious issue in several Connecticut towns this election cycle.
In South Windsor and Branford, Democratic candidates have sued town clerks over what they say is a misapplication of the minority representation rule.
Harrison Amadasun, a Democratic candidate for Town Council in South Windsor, sued the town clerk for applying a provision included in the new charter approved in the November election. Amadasun said that the rule — which reduces the maximum number of majority party members from six to five — should only take effect in the next election and that he should be seated as a councilman.
In Branford, the conflict centered on a Board of Education seat and disagreement over how positions should be allocated under the minority representation statute.
A similar situation could have happened in Lyme, where a rare contested race for first selectman took place.
The Lyme Democrats nominated John Kiker as their selectman candidate and supported two unaffiliated petitioning candidates, Christine Zelek for first selectwoman and Kristina White for selectwoman.
Both Zelek, an unaffiliated voter, and White, a registered Democrat, appeared on a separate line as petitioning candidates on the ballot, not in the Democratic row.
Had all three candidates, all endorsed by the local Democratic party, been the top vote-getters, it could have raised questions about whether seating them all would have violated the minority representation rule. Republican candidate Tom St. Louis raised that concern with CT Examiner when he launched his campaign.
In the end, St. Louis finished second in voting, and sidestepped the problem.
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This story has been corrected to reflect that neither Zelek nor White were formally endorsed