At last month's Democratic endorsements meeting, many supporters of Tom Ragaini's bid to run for City Council in the 2nd District "bullet voted" for Ragaini in a bid to give him a shot at the nomination.
If everything had gone exactly to plan, the result could have been a three-way tie between Ragain, incumbent Kevin McCauley and Al Marko. Had the tie held through three votes, the party chairman, Elliot Nelson, would have cast the deciding vote -- which would have gone to Ragaini by all accounts.
It was, in purely political terms, a good try.
But McCauley's backers held off the effort and Ragaini wound up on the short end of an 11-10-9 vote.
There are many who say that Mayor Art Ward was pulling for Ragaini, pushing town committee members to vote for him.
But Ward and Ragaini both deny it.
Ward said he had no idea that Ragaini planned a bullet vote effort -- even though both men admit they are allies -- and Ragaini said tonight that he never told the mayor.
"It was my idea," he said, and he pushed it himself.
I haven't heard from anyone who got strong-armed by the mayor so for now at least, I guess that's the story.
An interesting footnote, though, is that Ward apparently skipped past McCauley in the normal rotation for having councilors serve as acting mayor for a month.
Since Ward knew he would be away for the August council meeting, he may not have wanted to give McCauley the spotlight.
Making it more interesting is who he did choose to serve as acting mayor: Republican Ken Cockayne, the other 2nd District councilor.
Cockayne held his own at tonight's meeting, acting more like "Sir Ken," as Councilor Cliff Block put it, than his old persona of "Mad Dog."
Still, there are a lot of people around who expect Cockayne to make a mayoral run someday if he can survive the council race. It's possible that Ward showcased the guy who might challenge him in 2011.
We'll see.
Politics is an odd game, after all, and there's no telling what will happen. Heck, it's even possible that McCauley and Ward may wind up as allies.
It was only a year ago, after all, that Ward wouldn't even take Cockayne's phone calls.
Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
24 comments:
Please. Both Ragaini and Ward are really arrogant if they think we believe them on this one. Ward is famous for his grudge list and Ragaini hasn't had an original thought in decades.
Art and Tom played golf all day together and never talked about what Tom would do. Yes I believe that
The mayor and Ragani are certainly not telling the truth. It's obvious to anyone hearing about what went on that night at the DTC meeting was a plot by the mayor, Ragani and their supporters to oust McCauley. It's laughable to think anyone will believe the mayor or Ragani when they say they didn't discuss it together and plan it.
It's pretty lousy when the mayor, who is a democrat, can't "move forward." Let's remember that Ward was going to run as an independent if he didn't win the primary and so was Ragani. Even knowing that these two would abandon the party to further their own agendas, many DTC members supported them and I'm still scratching my head wondering why. No wonder the Democrats are split.
They will stop at nothing to hold onto power in order to get what they want and keep their buddies fat and happy even if it means ousting one of their own, especially if that person refuses to be led around on a leash like Ragani would have been had he beat McCauley. And you wonder why nothing ever changes in this town!
maybe mccauley should assess his own participation - I have heard him talking nasty stuff about the mayor this whole term - takes two.
from what I've heard the mayor's tried to undermine mcauley so often that he doesn't have any room left on his back for the mayor to stab. so much for your "maybe they'll be allies someday".
"from what I've heard"
Grandma always said "never believe anything you hear." The dems have done a great job of pulling their act together and getting over their differences for the good of Bristol...everyone EXCEPT McCauley that is. He's the one who has been doing most of the back stabbing because he answers to a "high power."
It's a grudge stemming back to when all four of the council Democrats supported Zoppo over Ward in the primary two years, and he has never gotten over the snub. Primaries happen all the time, and when the dust settles everyone puts aside past differences and works together to get the winner elected. It happened six years ago when Gerard Couture beat Joe Wilson, and it should have happened two years ago when Ward beat Zoppo, but it didn't because Ward took it personally. He ignored, or in some cases worked against, the Dems on the underticket during the 2007 election, and he'll do it again this year - mark my words. He's been an effective mayor, but he's a Democrat only when it suits his purposes, he uses people, and he is a crappy team player.
What is a bullet vote effort?
Great a Mayor who thinks we are all stupid, and a liar at that. Tom and Ward are buddies, they talked about it. Ward stop lying - be a man for once and admit it.
3:44am - Artie stop your whinning - you got caught at your own game.
Ward hates McCauley - he always has. No big surprise there. But for the mayor to lie he didn;'t have anything to do with Ragaini and the DTC is a ball face lie - big time!!!
Ward is a people user for sure. I heard he can be real NASTY. Guess he isn't the nice guy everyone thinks he is.
McCauley was targeted by Ward & Tom, "behind" the scenes talk. Real nice Artie your true colors are showing. Why not counsel Tom on running indep. like you were with Zoppo.
No one "hates" McCauley. True, he can be annoying, but it'd be pointless to hate the puppet for what the ventroliquist is making him do...
I smell two fat rats - Ward & Tom.
Collins:
I question the logic in your headline.
Could not radical left-wing activist Allen Marko not be the "target"?
What's the matter Steve? Did Ward stop CCing you on his emails?
If Ragaini had been in the third district, then they would have been working to get him a seat there. If he was in the first, then the mayor and him would have been targeting Cliff (again) to take his seat. It was a matter of they thought they had the votes in that district - they were wrong.
Ward has held a grudge against Zoppo backers ever since the last election and he continues to snub them every chance he gets. It is an absolute joke that Ward says he wants to move the party "forward" when he acts like such a child. Ward needs to get over his wounded pride and move on. If he is so thin-skinned, he never should have run for public office. Politics is all about endorsing one candidate over another. Once the election is over, people should move on and work together towards a common goal. Instead of moving forward, Ward, Nelson and Ragaini tried to purge as many Zoppo supporters from the DTC that they could. They are doing the same thing now in trying to oust McCauley. They all need to grow up and start acting like true city representatives. Ward won the election for God's sake - why does he need vindication?
It is amusing that the bullet voting did not work for Tommie "the little political pro" Rags.
Good riddance.
Ward loves being vindictive - its his nature if he doesn't get his way.
Ward is a political wannabe - Must be nice to be able to give a $350 donation to Larson, Guess the Mayor figures he is rolling in money so why not give it away?
WARD, ARTHUR J
BRISTOL,CT 06010 CITY OF BRISTOL/MAYOR 3/31/09 $250 Larson, John B (D)
Ward gives every year to Larson, trying to keep the good ole boys together.
Bring zoppo back please.
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