Graphic by Henry Watson ’25
While each local race for each commission and board was important, a lot of attention was paid to the Board of Education (BOE) candidates this election cycle – with particular attention given to how voters would respond to new campaign priorities by Republicans. . In the previous 2021 election cycle, Republican candidates for the BOE captured 42.77%. This year he got 18.81% votes.
Local Democratic Party and Board of Education (BOE) write-in candidate Jill Dillon won a landslide victory in Westport on November 7, 2023. The Democratic Party won the majority of available seats on the city’s major boards and commissions.
“It was a great night for Democrats,” Westport Board of Finance Chairman Danielle Dobbin told Patch. “I am very grateful for the widespread support at all polling places.”
Democratic incumbents Lee Goldstein and Neil Phillips were the party’s biggest local winners for the 2023 election cycle, garnering 6,392 and 6,361 votes respectively for Westport’s school board seats.
On the Republican side, candidates won seats on the Board of Finance as well as the Planning and Zoning Commission, but their two candidates for the BOE—Camilo Riaño and Jamie Fitzgerald—only received about 2,100 votes, while their three opponents averaged 6,000. ,
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If you have to take care of your children, you have to take care of all the children.
– Write-in candidate Jill Dillon
Fitzgerald and Riaño focused their BOE campaign on issues such as graphic books in children’s libraries and practices Westport teachers have with students such as questioning about pronouns.
,[Asking children their pronouns] This is unacceptable,” Camilo Riaño told 06880. “We should not blindly trust ideologically motivated activists who are ignoring what the administration tells them.”
In contrast, Democratic candidates, and especially write-in candidate Jill Dillon, focused their BOE campaign primarily on the budget, redistricting, and ensuring the social-emotional well-being of students.
“If you’ve got to take care of your kids, you’ve got to take care of all the kids,” Dillon told CTInsider.
Source: www.bing.com
