The Republicans pick their municipal candidates on July 23 - only eight days from now. So far, they have no mayoral contender to take on Democrat Art Ward.Everywhere I go, people ask about whom the GOP might tap to run. The only name that comes up time and again is William Stortz, who has won two mayoral races and lost just one, serving most recently from 2005 until 2007, when he voluntarily stepped down. He also held the post from the time John Leone quit as mayor to go run the chamber of commerce until Frank Nicastro led a Democratic landslide in 1993 that left the GOP reeling for a decade.
The Republicans, it must be admitted, aren't too crazy about Stortz. Some of them positively loathe him. But Stortz is the only Republican in the past quarter century to win the mayor's office - and he did it twice.
Sure, some of the other candidates were hopeless longshots, but some pretty good candidates have tried, too, and come up short, including Mike Werner's bid for a comeback in 1999, Whit Betts' run in 1995 and Ken Johnson's narrow loss two years ago.
It's hard to see why the party can't even find a candidate this year, at least since Johnson pulled the plug on his nascent campaign.
So Stortz may be the one. And the Democrats might wish, in the end, that it was someone else.
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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
42 comments:
I've seen better pictures of Bill.
The comment about loathing is interesting: guess they loathe Ward less.
The rumor is that Bill is waiting for a call asking him to run. The problem is that he has burned too many people in the party and no one will be calling.
If I was a City worker I would be nervous if Stortz was to run and win!
Where is Ron Burns?
If i was a city worker I would not be nervous cuz at least with stortz he is honest about what is his position
Bill knows who he has to call if he wants to run. We are all done chasing. If he wants to run, he should run because he loves his city and wants to serve the hard working tax payers. The GOP is ready to leave that seat empty and hand it to Ward if nobody wants to step up.
Ron Burns is running.
ABJZ: Anybody but Johnson or Zoppo!
While THEY may not want to call Stortz because they "loathe" him, THEY have done nothing in the past 20 months to raise any issues, present any ideas.
Seems like THEY haven't been doing THEIR job to make it easier for any candidate.
Actually, who is the Republican town Chairperson? I can't recall hearing ANYTHING from her or him.
It would be a shame if Ward gets reelected, but even a bigger shame if he goes unchalleged, especially seeing the mess that he has got us in.
Where is opposition, loyal or any other kind?
Stortz is two faced. He plays little boy blue insisting that nobody asked him to run. Then when someone does, and he wins, he tells all those who helped him win to buzz off. He is not a team player after he gets the team to play for him. Besides Bill ...you were asked just as you were in 2007. If you want it come and try to get it.
I would vote for Stortz over Ward - Stortz isn't afraid of lay offs and making decisions for the good of all. Ward only cares about himself and his buddies.
What GOP????
They are a farce and a detriment to Bristol!
Who is even aware as to whom the Chairman is???
Sounds like Mocabee and Schafrick are back with their vitriolic negative comments.
No wonder the GOP is in such a mess.
If I remember correctly, Johnson was Mocabees and Schafricks choice: too bad he got used by them.
Are the Republicans cutting off their noses to spite their faces?
I would have thought that getting Republicans elected would be their key objective.
Guess not, from what I am reading.
The reason the GOP is in a "mess" is due to the fact that it has to constantly placate Bill Stortz.
Mocabee, Schaffrick, Krawiecki and even Bill Stortz have done alot for the local Republican Party and its high time the idiots on this blog either start doing half as much as they have for the local GOP or shut up.
1;27
When and where did the republicans placate stortz?
If I remember, he appointed more rtc members than ever before and the democrats were whining about it.
He has been gone for 2 years now, and the r's are in a bigger mess than ever before.
Its time they found a different excuse.
He is a proven winner, too bad the power grabbers in the party don't like him.
Who else has won as many elections as he has?
The Bristol Republicans are out numbered in Bristol. Even if every registered Republican voted they'd still lose if in addition they didn't get Dem and Ind support. So, if the Dems are so upset with Ward where's the challenger from their own party to primary Ward? Ward wins, Ward wins, Ward wins...
Pretty bad when you win by default. But then again, Ward likes to win that way.
The Dem's are not upset with Ward. If they were, they would have recruited someone to challenge him (and there are plenty of people with big enough egos, so that would not have been hard to do). The labor wing of the DTC is not happy that he stuck them with their fair share of hurt during the budget process, but they're not going to do anything about it.
7:11 am said: Stortz is two faced - ALL politicians are 2wo faced - thatz the nature of the beast.
2:17 said: He (stortz) is a proven winner. Oh yeah, he is a real doosie - WINNER of a No Confidence vote and winner of a brick thru his house
and car window !! Billy boy would be an total idiot to take any political position again EVEN if they handed it to him on a silver platter.
A B S Z = ANYBODY but Stortz or Zoppo - both should stay out of politics forever and have their mouths sewn shut permanently !!
2:39 and 3:10,
Would you fellas like a little cheese to go along with that whine?
1:27 - moccabee and schaffrick have done more TO the local gop than they have done FOR it.
2:39
All the more the reason for the Republicans to back Stortz: HE BEAT an incumbent democrat, despite the scenario you outlined.
What are the Republicans smoking???
Two words: Ron Burns.
Ron Burns hasn't called anybody either: why should he be asked and not Stortz?
Burns was wimp go-along in the council and in the legislature. that is not what we need at this time.
But then, that is whatthe republican powrer seekers want.
Why don't we end this thread here and now.
As long as the current people(Barnes, Krawiecki) are in charge of the party, and Mocabee and Schafrick are in the wings, Stortz won't get asked to anything unless it is a fundraiser.
Those people like the "power" and as long as there isn't a republican mayor, they are the big wheels. Of course, they won't run, but they don't want anybody else to run either. They probably talked Johnson out of running: he probably would have beat Ward this time around.
Sad for Bristol, sad for the political process.
If it isn't, it is Bristol's loss.
7:48 - hopefully, you are not a registered voter?
I know a lot of Democrats who will vote for Stortz just to get Ward out of office. A lot of city workers will do the same thing!
Stortz is so full of it! He knows what needs to be done...he is just to dam lazy to do it himself. Nobody is gonna beg you Billie Boy...everyone knows what it is like to be insulted by you after working for you. You want to be begged...PLEASE BILL GO AWAY..WRITE A BOOK>>>BECOME A LIBRARIAN>>YOUR ELECTED DAYS ARE OVER!
those upset city workers better take their noses out of the sand and look around at the lay-offs and pay cuts in other towns before feeling sorry for themselves - at least they still have jobs.
also better remember that in 1991, stortz pummeled the unions and they have never recovered from it.
If dems are so unhappy with Ward present a dem challenge and primary him. No one really thinks the republicans stand a chance so change if the dems want change they will need to do it themselves....
One of my republican friends is upset with Stortz, and when I asked him why, he explained that he asked Stortz to get him a city job and Stortz told him to apply, but it would be up to the department head to hire the most appropriate person for the job.
That sorta solidified my faith in Stortz
As a former Republican town Committee member, I can recall Mocabee pushing Stortz to announce in December 2006.
When stortz did not capitulate, Mocabee and Schaffrick recruited Johnson, who said he would primary stortz
I read the other day where Mayor Tim stewart of New Britain had not yet announced, but did not read of any threats from their chairman.
Republicans have to learn to stick together if they want to win.
New Britain is even more heavily democrat, but Stewart has done quite well.
Way to go TJ!
That'll teach him to mess with the big boys.
Better than a lashing I would say.
Oviously, the 4:45 poster cannot be a former Bristol RTC member, or else he/she is showing why they are no longer on the Town Committee.
No One recruited Ken Johnson to run for Mayor in 07'. Ken made the decision on his own.
And if you were truly an "insider" with the know it all mouth you would know that Mocabee and Johnson cannot stand each other.
So shut up and stop pretending that you are some sort of player in Bristol politics.
Generally, no single person selects any candidates in Bristol as well as elsewhere. Candidates must seek and recieve the endorsement of the members from the entire Town Committee(TC) in the case of a City wide position like Mayor,treasurer and Bd. od Ed members.
City Council candidates must seek and recieve the endorsement from their respective city council dristicts represented on both the Republican and Democratic TC's.
A chairman can exert influence, if he has any and in this case Mocabee did not exert any influence, whether he had it or not. Stortz was asked repeatly by Mocabee, he would not commit to announcing his re-election, Johnson came out, did what he had to do to secure the nomination. If there had been a tie vote Mocabee would have had to cast the tie breaking vote for either Stortz or Johnson. It never got that far.
1:32
My awareness is different from yours, and I was pretty close to the situation. And you failed to mention Schafrick, who was close to Mocabee and who headed up Johnsons failed council race in 2003.
However, it is all moot: apparently the town committee has not been in touch with stortz, and vice versa.
If they were interested they would have contacted him as they have contacted others who they were interested in.
It would be a shame and a farce for them not to run a legitimate candidate when they do have a shot.
But that is their choice.
Stortz has won more elections than any other Republican, in recent memory, and maybe going back 40-50 years.
Why aren't the Republicans trying to capitalize on that?
The democrats got their wish.
Now I'll bet the republicans are wishing it was someone else.
I find that following, or trying to, the various threads on this site very interesting. Mayor Ward is being criticized by his Republican enemies for taking care of his friends. At the same time, former mayor Stortz is being criticized, seemingly by the same people, (apparently Republicans), for not taking care of his friends (apparently them). I say, you can’t have it both ways.
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