GOP Committee Backs Carney For First Selectman

By Steve Bigham

The 2001 political campaign in Newtown got into gear Monday night when longtime resident Owen Carney announced his intention to run for first selectman on the Republican ticket. The 50-year-old former member of the Newtown Police Department stepped into the political spotlight saying it is time to “see the same old faces out of office.”

Appearing to have the support among many in the local GOP, Mr Carney was unanimously nominated by the Republican Town Committee, which had only a sparse turnout at Monday’s meeting at the senior center on Riverside Road. Others Republicans, however, acted surprised and confused with the process, pointing out that the GOP’s nominating committee never even made a formal recommendation to the full committee.

Mr Carney now begins what he hopes will be an eight-month march to the first selectman’s seat, which is currently held by Herb Rosenthal. Mr Rosenthal is now in the midst of his second term in office and has not yet announced whether or not he will seek a third term in office.

Other Republicans are still welcome to step forward between now and the party caucus in July, according to the town committee.

This week, Mr Carney wasted little time in taking a shot or two at the current administration, which he believes has begun to falter, particularly with regard to Fairfield Hills. He believes the current government has been too “closed and secretive” about what it plans to do with the 185-acre property, should the town decide to buy or not buy it from the State of Connecticut.

“Nobody outside of the in-crowd knows what’s going on,” said Mr Carney, who retired as captain of the police force two years ago.

Republican Town Committee Chairman Marie Sturdevant hailed her party’s candidate as a great man for the job. “I think the town is ready for a change. Owen is fiscally responsible, has management skills, and he knows the town. He knows everybody and he has a lot of support,” she said.

Mr Carney, who lives with his wife, Sue, and two children, Mike, 10, and Lauren, 8, along Berkshire Road, served on the Republican Town Committee during the 1980s.

“I was always working on somebody’s campaign, and I remember telling Marie, ‘when I retire, I’m going to run for first selectman,’” Mr Carney told the town committee. “I had no kids then. Now I have two, so the idea got put on the backburner. But I started discussing the idea with Marie four to five months ago, and I talked with friends. This is something I want to do.”

Mr Carney moved to Newtown in 1972 soon after landing a job with the police department, where he spent the next 27 years. During that time, Mr Carney earned a reputation for his no-nonsense, thoughtful approach and quickly moved up the ranks from patrolman to sergeant to youth officer to head detective and finally to captain, a position which is also considered the department’s deputy chief. As a captain, Mr Carney worked in the areas of budgeting, scheduling, hiring, and long-term planning.

Quieter than the typical politician, Mr Carney says he’ll focus on honesty and openness over political rhetoric. He believes his experiences in police work will help him be a good first selectman. “I don’t say I’m going to do something if I’m not going to do it. I always try to follow through on promises. If I can’t help someone, I’m not going to say ‘I’ll see what I can do.’ You learn the hard way in [the police field] not to make promises.”

Although Mr Carney has received the town committee’s nomination, other Republicans may still join the race. Party caucuses will be in July.

Fairfield Hills is expected to be the key issue during this year’s campaign, and three weeks ago Mr Carney fired an initial salvo in a letter to the editor in The Bee. In it, he criticized Mr Rosenthal for his leadership on the Fairfield Hills matter and disagreed with one proposed idea that would package both the purchase of the 5/6 school and Fairfield Hills into a single vote.

Mr Rosenthal has since stated that he has never taken a position on packaging Fairfield Hills and called newspaper reports stating the contrary inaccurate.

“He claims he was misquoted. He knows what he did say and what he did mean,” Mr Carney said. “Lumping the 5/6 school and Fairfield Hills together is premature. We know about the 5/6 school. We don’t know squat about [the environmental hazards] at that place up on the hill.”

Mr Carney does support purchasing Fairfield Hills, but only if the town figures out a way to handle all the expenses.

“It’s something we need for control over what can go there and for the space needs of the town government. For me to say we have to have this is premature because the estimated asbestos cleanup will cost $10 million. I think it will be a lot more than that, so until we have all the facts, I would not say let’s buy it. But if it’s affordable, I’d say we’ve got to.”

Mr Carney becomes the Republicans’ first candidate for first selectman since Russ Melita ran for the office back in 1997. Mr Melita went on to lose to Mr Rosenthal, who was reelected to office in 1999 when he ran unopposed. The Republicans took a lot of flack for not running a candidate and vowed to never let that happen again.

“I think we have a great candidate. We’re out there to win,” Mrs Sturdevant said.

Mr Carney is currently a member of the town’s Charter Revision Commission, is an active member of the Newtown Congregational Church, and is involved in the Hiram Lodge No 18 of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Sandy Hook.

“I’ve known Owen for many years and have always had a good relationship with him,” Mr Rosenthal said this week.

In response to Mr Carney’s comments about “secrecy” over Fairfield Hills, Mr Rosenthal said almost all the information is out there.

“I don’t know how much more information there can be. The public has as much information as there can be. The only info not out there is very technical information,” he explained.

Both Mr Rosenthal and Mr Carney were present at Tuesday night’s Legislative Council budget meeting at the middle school auditorium.