The Observer Newspapers |Incumbents Retain Seats

May 9 , 2008

Incumbents Retain Seats

By Rebecca Plevin

Observer Staff Writer

Voters returned Mayor Steve DeBenedittis to a second term in office Tuesday night, and town resident Richard Downer, the only challenger to be elected, won the seat vacated by Harlon Reece, who lost his bid for mayor. Downer will serve on the council with the five incumbent councilmen.

"I think people are satisfied and I think they showed it," DeBenedittis said in a phone interview Wednesday. He said this week's Town Council elections were not a referendum on issues related to illegal immigration. "I think it's more a referendum on our performance over the past two years," he said.

DeBenedittis received 1,313 votes to defeat challengers Reece and Jasbinder Singh. Reece received 940 votes and Singh had 250 votes.

As part of his campaign platform, Reece pledged to heal the divisions created in town by issues related to illegal immigration. He said Wednesday that while many people seemed receptive to this message, "the majority of the people that voted obviously were not."

"I don't know what more we could have done," he said. "I've thought about it, and I don't think there are any 'what ifs' or 'if onlys.' We did our best."

DeBenedittis said it is normal for people to have a difference of opinion on issues like illegal immigration and he believes town residents are moving past the day labor issue. "If there are folks that feel divided, I think a lot of that will go away as the day labor issue continues to become less important," DeBenedittis said.

Singh said he knew by Tuesday afternoon that he did not have a good chance at winning the race. He said he was counting on more people of Indian, Muslim and Pakistani descent to come out to the polls and "they had not shown up in the numbers that I wanted."

Singh said town residents seemed to support his ideas, such as making local government more efficient and applying economic solutions to town issues, but it turned out to be "just really expressions of support, but not actual support."

Downer said he believes he was elected because he has been involved in the town for many years and has past experience on the council. "I tried to put forward a long list of issues I think we need to be addressing, and hopefully one of the reasons folks voted for me is I'm trying to, and will continue to try, to get us to address a lot of pressing issues in town," he said.

Downer said the election was "more a referendum on leadership styles." The results, he said, indicate "satisfaction with the overall leadership style of the mayor." Downer said that though he holds different positions on illegal immigration issues than most of the incumbent council members, "I sincerely hope that that will be put aside."

Vice Mayor Dennis Husch, who narrowly won a seat on council, said the challengers' messages of ending divisiveness and bringing about change were not strong enough to differentiate them from the incumbent council members. "They did not try to identify the real differences of opinions and advance their side," he said. "They had to go with this abstract thing of divisiveness. The only people involved in divisiveness were the people who supported the challengers."

Connie Hutchinson said while not all voters agree with her politics, "they thought I had Herndon at least in my best interest." Hutchinson received the highest number of votes for all council members, and following tradition, the candidate with the highest number of votes is selected as vice mayor for the upcoming term.