At least we know it's "Ellen"

When the Democratic Town Committee picked its mayoral candidate recently, two women who nominated her called her Ellen Zoppo-Sassu.
But when city Councilor Craig Minor got up to second her nomination, he called her Ellen Zoppo.
If you call her house, the answering machine message says, ““You have reached Ellen Zoppo and Peter Sassu” – a message spoken by the candidate.
But on her campaign materials this year, she is identified as Ellen Zoppo-Sassu.
In the phone book, she is Ellen A. Zoppo.
On the voter registration records, however, she is Ellen Zoppo-Sassu, which is the name that will appear on the Sept. 11 Democratic primary ballot.
Her nametag for the Bristol Historical Society, where she works, says Ellen Zoppo. So do the press releases she writes there.
But the minutes of most city meetings call her Ellen Zoppo-Sassu.
However, the minutes of the Roberts Committee that she co-chairs, and keeps minutes for, call her Ellen Zoppo.
The newspapers, including The Bristol Press, call her Ellen Zoppo.
The Democrats’ website splits the difference and sometimes refers to her as Ellen Zoppo and sometimes uses Ellen Zoppo-Sassu.
On the secretary of state’s website, she’s identified in a picture as Ellen Zoppo and in a listing of justices of the peace as Ellen Zoppo-Sassu.
On a campaign page created on Facebook by one of her supporters, she is Ellen Zoppo Sassu, with no hyphen.
So which is it? Who’s right? Who’s wrong?
“I really don’t care,” said Zoppo.
Zoppo said that when she married Peter Sassu, a city police officer, she did not change her name.
But, she said, the city registrar’s office sometime ago put her down on the voting records as Zoppo-Sassu so that is what appears on the ballot as her name, even though it isn’t her legal name.
She said she decided to use Zoppo-Sassu on this year’s campaign materials to avoid confusion. Besides, she said, people like the Sassu family.
Zoppo said she occasionally uses the hyphenated name in dealing with her children’s’ schools because that, too, avoids the confusion that can come from having different last names.
The long and short of it is that she doesn’t mind people using either last name as long as voters can find her name on the ballot.
The Bristol Press, for what it’s worth, will keep calling her Zoppo. It uses less ink.

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Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com