Election 2003:

Looking Beyond Credit And Blame

Modern political campaigns spend an inordinate amount of energy, money, and time trying to establish two things: credit and blame. Local politics is no exception, and Newtown has come to the closing days of an election campaign rife with chest thumping and finger pointing. As a result, both candidates for first selectman –– incumbent Democrat Herb Rosenthal and Republican challenger Bill Sheluck, Jr –– have been demonstrating remarkable agility in blame-dodging and credit-chasing. To the thoughtful voter, all of it has to seem uninformative and more than a little superficial.

As CEO and president, did Bill Sheluck bear some responsibility for the failure of his New York-based bank services company ten years ago? Maybe, but his resignation and departure from Nationar in 1993 could just as easily have been orchestrated to cover the failings of the board of directors that forced him out. Did Herb Rosenthal bear some responsibility for increased residential property values reflected in a revaluation that led directly to a spike in tax rates this year? Maybe, since the administration of a town is one component that could influence the desirability, marketability, and ultimately the price of homes, but, of course, there is more to it than that. Should Bill Sheluck get credit for defeating an unpopular master plan for Fairfield Hills? Should Herb Rosenthal get credit for landing a pretty good Fairfield Hills deal in the first place? No. No.

In a town that is changing as quickly as Newtown, the complex forces, both negative and positive, that shape what we have come to call “quality of life” are beyond the command and probably even the comprehension of any one man or woman. Ultimately, neither of these candidates on his own will move our town to where it wants to go –– or to some other place. The momentum of this town is guided by thousands of people every day who make decisions affecting our progress as a community. Yes, these people are town leaders, but they are also municipal workers, educators, business men and women, soccer coaches, clergy, scout leaders, retirees, and kids. All of us in some way can share the credit through our actions… and the blame through our complacency.

What we are really looking for in our town leader this year is not so much a promise of success or an autocratic vision of a more perfect world; these are, in the end, just one man’s words and intentions. We are looking for someone to foster and facilitate the remarkable cooperative spirit that arises in every quarter of Newtown when the chips are down and there is work to be done. That is why we are supporting the reelection bid of Herb Rosenthal.

Mr Rosenthal did not single-handedly cut the town’s operating budget by 4.2 percent this year; he did it with the help of scores of town employees who agreed to make do with less in their respective departmental budgets. Mr Rosenthal did not land the Fairfield Hills deal by himself; he did it with the invaluable help of state legislators, attorneys, and various bureaucrats on the state and local levels. Mr Rosenthal did not preserve nearly 1,000 acres of open space in the last two years on his own; again he worked hand in hand with legislators, realtors, private property owners, volunteers, and other elected officials to permanently preserve millions of dollars worth of open space for a local outlay of just $200,000. Consequently, we do not credit him with all of these accomplishments, but we do credit him with knowing how to work with large groups of people with divergent interests to get a job done.

We like Bill Sheluck. He is a thoughtful, articulate, and determined man. Sometimes he is too determined. As we saw two years ago in his dogged efforts to pass five significant revisions to the town charter proposed by the commission he chaired, his political style is decidedly confrontational. A technical flaw in his commission’s proposals would have rushed all the charter changes into being in 30 days, creating chaos just as the town was beginning critical budget deliberations. Rather than working with the selectmen and council members, all of whom favored defeating the revisions in a town vote and immediately recommissioning the charter panel to correct the problem, Mr Sheluck ignored the entreaties to work cooperatively in this effort and campaigned single-mindedly for the passage of all the charter changes despite the flaw. He managed to win support for two of the five revisions, creating further confusion as town officials were required to quickly incorporate a new Board of Finance into the budget process. This is not the kind of leadership Newtown needs right now.

Frankly, we cannot think of any compelling reason to throw Herb Rosenthal out of office. He has demonstrated fiscal restraint. He is committed to stabilizing the tax base through open space acquisition and economic development that provides jobs and services Newtowners actually want. He has a good, bipartisan, working relationship with the Legislative Council and other local boards and agencies, and he is deeply involved in regional and statewide organizations working together to protect the interests of towns and cities. He deserves reelection.