Three Ansonia Republicans Gathering Signatures For Ballot

Three Ansonia Republicans filed paperwork Wednesday to run for the city’s Board of Aldermen as petitioning candidates, the most public flashpoint yet in a years-long rift within the city’s GOP.

They are incumbent Fifth Ward Alderwoman Joan Radin, who was not endorsed for re-election by the GOP​’s town committee last week, and Seventh Ward residents Vinnie Scarlata and Andrew Tkacs.

The trio must now collect and hand in enough signatures by Aug. 9 to appear on the election ballot along with the candidates endorsed by both parties at nominating conventions last week.

Scarlata is currently a member of the Board of Education who was endorsed by the city’s Republicans for re-election to the school board last week. He said he’d probably give up his seat on the school board if elected to the Board of Aldermen.

Tkacs owns a business in Milford and has lived in the city for 27 years. He is new to the Ansonia political scene.

In interviews Wednesday all three said they’re committed Republicans, but that Mayor David Cassetti’s administration doesn’t do enough to communicate with the city’s Aldermen and involve them in the decision-making process.

Radin and Scarlata were much more vocal in their criticism of the Cassetti administration than Tkacs, who said he decided to run once Scarlata, a friend of his, decided to.

Cassetti said the three renegade Republicans’ decision to run independently was ​“too bad.”

“I ran as a team,” the mayor said. ​“They never wanted to be part of the team.”

Republican Rift

Several Republican Aldermen — Radin, the First Ward’s Randolph Caroll, Second Ward Aldermanic President Phil Tripp, and the Fourth Ward’s Richard Kaslaitis — have developed into their own Republican faction on the Board of Aldermen and often butt heads with Cassetti’s administration.

Fissures within the party developed publicly within months of Cassetti sweeping the GOP to power in 2013 after Republicans had spent more than a decade in the city’s political wilderness.

Party insiders say the rift actually extends back to before the 2013 election, when it was revealed after Cassetti first announced his candidacy that he owed thousands of dollars in property taxes. 

The rift within the GOP deepened when Scarlata challenged incumbent David Blackwell Jr. for the Republican endorsement for a Seventh Ward’s Aldermen’s seat in 2015. The infighting became worse when Lorie Vaccaro, a Second Ward Alderman and close ally of Cassetti’s, unsuccessfully challenged Tripp’s presidency on the Board of Aldermen during a party caucus.

During the 2016 budget process, two rival factions aligned with Cassetti and Tripp, respectively, emerged on the board.

The two sides warred most openly last August over which side’s picks would get to fill two vacancies on the Board of Aldermen. They ultimately compromised.

Despite their differences, Republicans had been able to present a somewhat united front in the face of Democratic opposition at election time.

And though three members of the party are challenging the GOP slate, Tripp pledged to support the party’s endorsed candidates after last week’s caucus.

Radin

If she collects enough signatures to make the ballot, Radin will be challenging two endorsed Republican candidates — incumbent Republican Joe Jaumann, who was appointed to the Board of Aldermen last year, and Chicago Rivers, a current member of the Inland Wetlands Commission — as well as Seanna Raslan, who was nominated by the Democrats.

The owner of Lear Pharmacy on Wakelee Avenue, Radin is the most independent-minded of the handful of Republican Aldermen who have been willing to challenge Cassetti’s administration publicly. 

But she said her complaints fall on deaf ears within City Hall.

“If I ask questions they tell me some big story and then do nothing,” she said.

For example, she has frequently criticized the slow pace of progress on the city’s plans to rebuild Wakelee Avenue, the plans for which were announced more than two years ago, but residents are still waiting for construction to begin.

“It’s horrible. It’s horrible,” Radin said.

Talking at her business Wednesday morning, she said she decided to run as a petitioning candidate because Fifth Ward residents urged her to do so after she was snubbed by the city’s GOP last week.

“I was asked (to run) by the people in my area,” Radin said. ​“They were very upset over the fact that I didn’t get the nomination. I must have had 10 people come in the store or call me.”

She declined to comment when asked if she still supported Cassetti, but said she didn’t have any hard feelings over last week’s snub.

“I don’t care. If the people want him and think he’s doing a great job, that’s fine,” she said. ​“What I do or how I vote, I’ll let you know when I go to the polls. I’m going to ask him the same questions I ask all the time. I’m not going to stop saying anything. I’m going to be the same person I was before. Remember, whether I (am re-elected) or not I still have four months to open my mouth.”

Scarlata, Tkacs

In the Seventh Ward, Scarlata and Tkacs will be challenging incumbent Republicans David Blackwell Jr. and Frank DeLibero, as well as the Democrats’ endorsed candidates — Fred Williams and Kevin Blake. 

Blake was the city’s last corporation counsel under the administration of Cassetti’s Democratic predecessor, James Della Volpe. 

Scarlata, who works for Rings End Lumber, said in a phone interview that he’ll always be a Republican, but that he decided to run as a petitioning candidate because, he said, Cassetti’s administration puts its own political interests ahead of the city’s.

“Ansonia hasn’t been first,” Scarlata said. ​“Politics has been first. The administration’s welfare has been first. Never Ansonia.”

He also pointed to inconsistencies in prior announcements made by Cassetti’s administration. For example, the mayor announced at an Aldermen’s meeting last month that HomeGoods was going to open a location in the Big Y shopping center, only to have to walk the announcement back days later when the property’s owner said the new location would actually be inside the existing Marshalls.

“There’s so much disingenuous publicity out there it makes your head spin,” Scarlata said. 

Scarlata vowed to reveal details of what he called the administration’s ​“threats and bullying tactics” as the election campaign develops.

Tkacs, 42, is the owner of Styles International Salon on the Boston Post Road in Milford.

During a brief interview Wednesday — he was busy because a car had driven through a wall of his business earlier — he said he’s been thinking about getting into politics for years but decided to run as a petitioning candidate once Scarlata decided to.

He said he agreed with Scarlata and Radin that the administration doesn’t involve Aldermen enough in making decisions.

“If I’m on (the Board of Aldermen) I’d certainly voice my opinion that we as Aldermen should not be left in the dark with anything going on,” he said. ​“The communication’s really not there.”

A Bridgeport native, Tkacs has lived in the city for the past 27 years.

Tax Issue?

One hiccup for Scarlata’s candidacy — he owes nearly $10,000 in back taxes and sewer fees on his Pulaski Highway home.

Some of the taxes date back to as long ago as 2006.

He also owes three years of taxes on a pickup truck totaling about $500.

He said he neglected his business while serving as chairman of the Economic Development Commission and is now ​“playing catch-up” to repay the money.

He said he’s made arrangements to repay his back sewer fees with a marshal hired by the Water Pollution Control Authority and is now making payments. 

Mayor Reacts

In an interview at City Hall late Wednesday, Cassetti said the voters will decide for themselves.

“When they’ve got to go vote in November, they know which team to vote for,” he said. ​“I’ll be out there campaigning real hard for everybody on my team.”

The mayor also said it’s ​“unethical” of Scarlata to run for two offices — Aldermen and the Board of Education — at the same time.

“Why are you running for two offices?” Cassetti said. ​“He’d have to give up one or the other if he was victorious. But that’s Vinnie.”

Scarlata said he’d probably give up his seat on the school board if he wins an Aldermen’s seat.

The mayor and his advisers said that prior to last week’s caucus, they were trying to cobble together an agreement among the city GOP to nominate all the incumbent Aldermen for re-election.

But when Fourth Ward Republicans elected not to nominate Martin Dempsey, who was appointed last year to the board, in favor of Ed Norman, a former chairman of the city’s tax board and housing authority, the agreement fell apart.

“My understanding is that there was always an intention to challenge Joan that they were not going to act on,” John Marini, the city’s corporation counsel, and also the local Republican party’s treasurer, said. ​“But (that changed) once news of Martin Dempsey being challenged came across.”

The mayor said Dempsey is in the process of collecting signatures to challenge Norman and the other endorsed Republican candidate in the Fourth Ward, incumbent Richard Kaslaitis. The Valley Indy couldn’t reach Dempsey Wednesday afternoon to confirm whether he’s planning a primary run.

The prominent roles in Cassetti’s administration played by Marini and Sheila O’Malley, the city’s grants writer and economic development director, have also drawn the ire of disaffected Republicans.

The two frequently speak for the mayor during Aldermen’s and other meetings. 

Cassetti said he has several advisers he trusts — but that he’s his own man.

“We discuss everything and then I make the ultimate decision,” Cassetti said. ​“I’m the mayor. I delegate to my staff what I would like to see. And they take it and present it.”

The Democratic nominee for mayor, Tarek Raslan, said the more candidates, the merrier.

“I think we do need ask what’s driving the division among Ansonia Republicans, as it seems to have escalated over the last year,” he said in an email. ​“Why did Joan Radin not receive the endorsement as the incumbent Republican candidate?”

Radin needs to obtain 9 signatures by Aug. 9 to qualify for the ballot. Scarlata and Tkacs each need 18.