Breakdown of the Jan 18, 2022 RTM Moderator Vote – Greenwich Free Press

On Tuesday night the Representative Town Meeting held an election for a new moderator to replace Tom Byrne who retired after holding the position for 26 years.

Neither of the two candidates, Alexis Voulgaris and Brian Raney, are affiliated with a political party.

Voulgaris, who has served as moderator pro tem for four years, won in a vote of 150 to 67. She will be the first woman moderator in the history of the RTM and its first independent candidate.

Per the RTM member handbook, The RTM is a non-partisan, collegial body, and ballots do not indicate a candidates party affiliation, but there has been speculation that the 230-member non-partisan body is becoming politicized.

In the 2019 election for the RTM, Fiscal Freedom for Connecticut, created a scorecard ranking RTM members based on their voting records on issues including the plastic bag ban, mill rate reduction, and For/Against Tolls SOMR. After the subsequent vote some popular longtime members lost their seats.

In 2017, after the election of Donald Trump, a third of the seats on the RTM turned over after a group of women from March On Greenwich organized to field candidates. In all, 79 new candidates with successful petitions earned spots on the ballot.

Last week when the RTC held caucuses to elect members, there was an unusually high turnout of new voters and new candidates. After the caucuses, about half the 62 RTC members were new, and 21 incumbents lost their seats. GFP published the list of RTC caucus winners on Wednesday.

Last month, GFP published a breakdown of votes on Item 8, which concerned whether to refer the legality of a proposed ordinance to the Legislative & Rules committee that originated from Carl Higbies petition proposing to override state regulations requiring masking school children.

After GFP published the results from the town clerks office, it revealed there was an error in tabulation. In district 9 were votes not reported accurately to the town clerk.

Below is the breakdown of Tuesdays vote for RTM moderator.

District 1

Voulgaris: Katherine Ashworth, Jillian Aufderheide, Ed Dadakis, Fred Feldman, Lyn Garelick, Alison Ghiorse, Judy Goss, Alanna Hynes, Julia Lane, Brigitte Lee, Fred Lee, Jaysen Medhurst, Dan Quigley, Lihong Zhang

Raney: Carl Carlson, Dean C Goss, William Lewis, James OBrien, Marla Weston

Abstained or absent: Elizabeth Mills Sanders

DISTRICT 2

Voulgaris: Katherine Lobalbo, Mary Ellen Markowitz, Pragati Soni, Joyce Teevan, Eileen Toretta, Henry Scott Walter

Raney: Duncan Burke, Nancy Burke, Don Conway, Laura Gladstone, Wilma Naninovich, Aldo Pascarella, Erika Walsh

DISTRICT 3

Voulgaris: Louise Bavis, Martin Blanco, Tom Conelias, Ed Lopez, Andrew Melillo, Sylvester Pecora Sr, Adam Rothman, Steven Rubin, Alison Walsh

Raney: Rosalind Nicastro

Absent or abstained: Joan Lowe

DISTRICT 4

Voulgaris: Javier Aleman, Joshua Brown, Ronald Carosella, Andrea Casson, Elizabeth Eckert, Leonard Mackey, Robert McKnight, Romulo Samaniego, Diego Sanchez, Samarpana Tamm, Donald Vitti, Lucy Von Brachel, Bonnie Zeh

Raney: Seth Bacon, Alex Popp, Maria Madeleine Popp

Absent or abstained: Robert Tuthill

DISTRICT 5

Voulgaris: Eric Beiley, Joseph Benoit, Edward Broadhurst, Alison Icy Frantz, Paul Kramer, Lucy Krasnor, Lindy Lilien, Paul Olmsted, Charles Parkhurst, Martha Ozizmir Shoemaker, Ashley Smith, Joan Thakor, Peter Van Duyne

Raney: Alison Rogers, Felix Rovelli, Andrew Taylor, Catherine Whitaker

Absent or abstained: Christopher Parker

DISTRICT 6

Voulgaris: Sally Bednar, Tom Byrne, Marilyn Ross Cahn, Robert Carter, Nancy Dearing, Matt DesChamps, Carol Ducret, Daniel Izzo, Coline Jenkins, Brian Maher, John McShea, John Merrill, Stephen Meskers, Tracy Parsons Grossman, Kathleen Kathy Smith, David Snyder, Mary Tobin, Alexis Voulgaris, Victoria Martin Young

Raney: None

Absent or abstained: Barbara ONeill

DISTRICT 7

Voulgaris: Debbie Appelbaum, Kimberly Morgan Blank, Ellen Brennan-Galvin, Bill Galvin, Scott Kalb, Anthony Moor, Tara Restieri, Marina Rosin

Raney: Mary G Nanette Burrows, Thomas Cahill, Alice Duff, Elizabeth Betsy Galindo, Hilary Gunn, Lucia Jensen, Beth MacGillivray, Henry Orphys, Valerie Stauffer, Luke Szymczak

Absent or abstained: Wynn McDaniel, Doreen Pearson

DISTRICT 8

Voulgaris: Hector Arzeno, Lisa Becker Edmundson, Peter Berg, Francis Burgweger, Neil Caton, Irene Dietrich, Hannah Doherty, Christine Edwards, Dana Gordon, Myra Klockenbrink, Richard Margenot, Janet Lee Mchon, Cheryl Moss, Kathlen Myer, Jonathan Perloe, Caryn Rosenbaum, Alison Soler, Cory Williams

Raney: Jill Capalbo, Randy Caravella, Adele Caroll, Philip Dodson, Andrew Oliver, Vincent Pastore

Abstained or absent: Molly Saleeby

DISTRICT 9

Voulgaris: Claudia Carthaus, Donna Gaudioso-Zeale, Sarah Haag-Fisk, Elizabeth Porcher Hester, Mark Kordick, Lauren OKeefe, Joanne Steinhart

Raney: Michael Brescia, Barbara Darula, Patricia Patti DeFelice, Betsy Frumin, Carl Griffasi, Anne Jones Dawson, Abbe Large, Brian Malin, Brian Raney, Ferdinando Schiro, Jonathan Shankman, Jane Weisbecker, Carol Zarrilli

DISTRICT 10

Voulgaris: Jude Collins, Mareta Hamre, Sandra Harris, Brooks Harris, Katherine Hynes, Steven Katz, Debra Ciampi Kolman, Radhika Patel, Diana Singer, Alan Small, Louisa Stone

Raney: Gerald Anderson, Allyson Cowin, Anne Driscoll, Hilary Haroche, Ramya Hopley, Kara Philbin, Daniel Schreck, Sheryl Sorbaro, Jane Sprung

DISTRICT 11

Voulgaris: Nancy Better, Victoria Bostock, Adam Brodsky, Thomas Devaney, Susan Fahey, Tracy Freedman, Karen Giannuzzi, Dana Neuman, Richard Neuman, David Oliver, Ralph Penny, Nerlyn Pierson, Brad Radulovacki, Cathryn Fineman Steel, Thomas West, Gregory Zorthian

Raney: Laura Darrin, Margaret Heppelmann, Jan Kniffem, Kimberly Salib, Ronald Strackbein

Absent or abstained: Adam Leader, Michael Spilo

DISTRICT 12

Voulgaris: Thomas Agresta, Francia Alvarez, Craig Amundson, Glen Canner, David DeMilhau, Mary Flynn, Barbara Hindman, Mary Keller, David Lancaster, Chalon LeFebvre, Robert May, Ellen Murdock, Jocelyn Riddle, Jane Sulich, James Waters, Andrew Winston

Raney: Jeffrey Crumbine, Paula Legere Mickley, Aaron Leonard, Frederick Lorthioir

Absent or abstained: Abigail McCarthy, Miriam Mennen

NOTE: In district 8 Molly Saleebys abstention was omitted and has been added.