Republicans chip in to help Democrat's son

Proving that bipartisanship isn’t dead yet, members of the city’s Republican Party agreed this week to donate $600 to help the son of a former Democratic city councilor who needs a new liver.
“Some stuff has nothing to do with politics or party affiliation,” said T.J. Barnes, who heads the city’s GOP.
Matthew Ragaini, son of former Democratic City Councilor Tom Ragaini, was diagnosed with primary sclerosing cholangitis, a chronic disease that can kill the liver. The only long-term treatment is to get a new organ.
Families and friends are holding a $20-a-person fundraiser Saturday raise money to help with the mounting medical and household bills.  Click here for the story.
The Democrats, too, have shown a generosity to the other side. In 2008, they donated $500 to help the family of Derek Jerome, a GOP state House candidate who died during the campaign.
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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

McCauley targeted?

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.

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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

The one contested district

The most interesting part of tonight's nominating convention was the tight contest for the two 2nd District slots.
Newcomer Allen Marko actually racked up the most votes, with 11, while incumbent Kevin McCauley got 10. Former city Councilor Tom Ragaini got nine.
Most of Ragaini's backers sought to give him a leg up by casting "bullet votes" for only Ragaini so that their second potential vote wouldn't add to one of his opponents' tally.
But it turned out that the strategy didn't quite work because, well, three Ragaini supporters also voted for someone else. If none had, the contest would have been a deadlock at nine apiece, leaving it perhaps to the town chairman to break the tie.
Despite the narrow loss, Ragaini didn't sound like he would contest the decision in a primary. He said he didn't want to split the party or hurt its chances.
For those who are really into these things, here's the vote breakdown among the 2nd District's Democratic Town Committee members. I'm sorry that I don't know one name, but if someone tells me, I'll fix that.

78A
James G. Hopkins -- Marko & McCauley
Jeffrey G. Merrow -- Ragaini
Jody J. Trestman -- Marko & McCauley
Jacqueline McCauley - Marko & McCauley
Bruce C. Lydem -- Ragaini & Marko
William M. Wolfe, Jr. -- Marko & McCauley

78B
Allen A. Marko -- Marko & McCauley
John J. Boi -- Marko & McCauley
Christopher N. Roberge -- Marko & McCauley
Sandra C. Stafford -- Marko & McCauley
Kevin V. Lacolla -- Ragaini & Marko
William J. Veits - -Marko & McCauley

79A
Paula L. Positano - Ragaini
Westley S. Hoadley Jr. - Ragaini
Thomas J. Ragaini - Ragaini
Jen Ragaini -- Ragaini
Arthur Brent Cyr - Ragaini
Anthony D. Dell'aera -- Ragaini & McCauley

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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Ragaini pulling out of the 2nd District race

Independent City Council hopeful Tom Ragaini pulled out of the race Wednesday.
Ragaini, a former Democratic city councilor, said he withdrew from the 2nd District contest because “I just don’t want to have any hard feelings” within the Democratic Party.
Ragaini, 54, said his priority is to help the party’s mayoral candidate, Art Ward, get elected on Nov. 6.
“All my heart will be going to helping Art Ward become the next mayor,” Ragaini said.
He said that he “tossed and turned” for a couple of days thinking about whether to drop out of the council race before deciding Wednesday that he shouldn’t continue his independent bid.
Remaining in the 2nd District race are Democrats Kevin McCauley and Bruce Lydem, Republicans Ken Cockayne and Joe Geladino, and independent Mark Blaschke.
Ragaini said that he met with “a lot of Democrats in town” who urged him to pull out to help repair the “little split” in the party that developed during a tough mayoral primary.
“Party unity is the most important thing,” Ragaini said.
Ragaini represented the 3rd District for two years beginning in 1997. He lost a reelection bid in 2001 when Al Myers upset him in a primary.
Ragaini has remained active in Democratic politics. He serves as one of the city’s park commissioners.


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

Ward forces primary fight with Zoppo; Ragaini goes independent

BRISTOL – It looks like the much-anticipated Democratic mayoral primary is on.
“We’re in for the primary,” said city Councilor Art Ward, who filed the necessary paperwork Wednesday to take on the party’s mayoral nominee, Ellen Zoppo.
Ward is the only candidate in either party to round up enough signatures to force a primary.
But both Ward and former city Councilor Tom Ragaini filed paperwork with the city clerk’s office that would allow them to run as independent candidates in the Nov. 6 general election. Ward would be on the mayoral line while Ragaini is eyeing a 2nd District council seat.
Democratic Registrar Bob Badal said he had verified at least 766 signatures for Ward’s Democratic primary filing, 143 more than he was require to file. But he hasn’t finished checking all the paperwork so the excess is likely to wind up higher.
One other candidate, Democratic council hopeful Terry Parker in the 3rd District, filed about 100 signatures, less than half of what he needed to force a Sept. 11 primary against the party’s nominees in the district, incumbents Frank Nicastro and Craig Minor.
Ragaini, who serves as a member of the state Democratic Party’s Central Committee, would be taking on Democrats Kevin McCauley and Bruce Lydem and Republicans Ken Cockayne and Joe Geladino in the general election.
Ward said that voters can expect to see “an issues-oriented” campaign from him that will focus on what’s best for the people of Bristol.
If Ward wins the primary, state law would bar him from also running as an independent on the general election ballot.
But if he should fall short in his bid to snatch the endorsement from Zoppo, he would still be on the Nov. 6 ballot along with Zoppo and Republican Ken Johnson.


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

Armington bows out, Ward wary

The mayoral race just got a little more clear.
Financial planner Rich Armington said Tuesday that after weighing his options, he's decided that “I’m not going to run."
Armington had been eyeing the Democratic primary that may pit the party's endorsed candidate, Ellen Zoppo, against longtime city Councilor Art Ward.
If Ward is running, he needs to file the papers on Wednesday.
But with two candidates who hoped to force City Council primaries -- Tom Ragaini and Terry Parker - struggling to get enough signatures, there's a growing possibility that Ward will forgo the primary and run, as he put it, as "a petitioning Democrat" on the Nov. 6 general election ballot.
Ward said he hasn't made a decision yet. But, he said, if he's the only person seeking a primary, he might give it up in order to save taxpayers the cost of holding the Sept. 11 primary.
Armington said he believed "I had at least a shot" of winning the primary, but after thinking about his many elderly clients, he decided that he owed it to them to keep looking after their money instead of seeking elected office.
"It was gutwrenching to me," Armington said, but "I just can't leave my people."

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

Ragaini running for 2nd District seat

Ragaini seeks City Council seat

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

Ragaini's raking in the cash

Democratic City Council hopeful Tom Ragaini is hitting people up for money these days.
But it's not for his 2nd District campaign.
Instead, he's busy selling tickets to a stag party for his son, Matt, who's getting married in September.
Just this evening, at the downtown corporation meeting at City Hall, he was squeezing Gardner Wright, John Leone, John Lodovico, Frank Johnson and Craig Minor to cough up for tickets. They proved easy marks, tossing cash at Ragaini.
Ragaini makes no apologies, though.
"You know how many stag parties I've been to in the last 30 years?" he asked.
Ragaini, however, has limits.
He said he wouldn't try to hit up lame duck Mayor William Stortz.
Ragaini said he knows that Stortz won't have a job after November so the mayor doesn't have money for stag parties anymore.


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

Ragaini may run in 2nd, too

Former city Councilor Tom Ragaini said Tuesday he's also eyeing a City Council run in the 2nd District. He said he'll decide by late June, perhaps sooner.
Ragaini served as a councilor in the 3rd District until he lost a 2001 primary -- held on Sept. 11th, which made for a distracting day at the polls.
After that, his Upson Street home was shifted into the 2nd District as part of the redistricting needed after Census 2000.
Ragaini, a parks commissioner, has remained active in Democratic politics. He's well-regarded by most everyone.
At this point, two Democrats are already in the 2nd District race: incumbent Kevin McCauley and newcomer Bruce Lydem. For the Republicans, there's only Ken Cockayne so far.