OH WHAT A WEB THEY WEAVE

For a couple weeks now, Democratic Town Committee members have been circulating petitions to qualify for the Democratic Town Committee elections scheduled for March 2, 2010.

Many people that I spoke with were concerned about one of the candidates running for a position on the Democratic Town Committee in the 5th House District. Hartford's Democratic Registrar of Voters Olga Vasquez apparently was on the "Giles" slate and was in the running for a Town Committee seat.

Those that I spoke with, as well as myself, were concerned about a conflict of interest between running as a candidate for town committee as well as being the person charged with administering and overseeing the same election.

The "Giles" slate consists of Olga Vazquez's mother-in-law Juanita Giles, Vazquez's husband Radames Vazquez, Olga Vazquez herself as well as nine other individuals.

Although one would hope that any official that would put themselves in such a questionable position, would have the common sense to remain as "hands off" as possible. The issue of a conflict of interest seems to have become the reality as serious questions are now being raised.

Apparently Registrar Vazquez was responsible for overseeing the petition forms and her office was required to validate the signatures of Democratic voters who had signed the forms. Once the forms were delivered to Vazquez's office, each petition was checked and the signatures were verified and then turned over to the City Clerk to be kept and filed as official documents.

All seemed to go well until a member of the 5th District challenge slate, the "Kirkley-Bey" slate noticed an irregularity in the "Giles" slate's submitted petitions. I have used the names of Kirkley-Bey and Giles to identify the two 5th district slates, only to make it easier to follow.

Apparently Mark DiBella was checking petitions that were already filed with the City Clerk's office and noticed that "section C" on the majority of the Giles' slates petitions were incomplete or not filled out at all. Although a small percentage of the petitions were filled out properly, the majority were not.

That seems to raise the question why Registrar Vazquez would sign some, but fail to sign the rest. Although sources had told me Vazquez said the section wasn't required and had apparently instructed circulators not to complete it, I would think the question has to be asked why you would sign any of them at all if you thought it wasn't required.

After DiBella noticed the error, he requested photo copies of the documents. At approximately 3:50PM yesterday, January 27, 2010, Vazquez and her Deputy Registrar Garry Coleman retrieved the documents from the City Clerk's vault and took them back to Registrar Vazquez's office.

After the documents were received by City Clerk John Bazzano, the petitions, according to an FOI representative, then became public documents. The question then arises as to what right Vazquez had to take the documents from Bazzano's care and control take them back to her office. To most people discussing this today, it is the general consensus that Registrar Vazquez should not even be able to touch the documents in question, especially since she is a candidate, and in light of the allegations of potential irregularities or the perception of a conflict of interest.

Apparently City Clerk Bazzano felt less than comfortable with the direction this was going, and by e-mail requested a clarification from the Secretary of the States Office. One of the staff attorney's that the Secretary of State apparently supervises in her "active practice" of law responded through e-mail to Bazzano's request. That e-mail is posted below.

Theodore Bromley, a staff attorney in the Legislation and Elections Administration Division of the Secretary of the State's office stated that, essentially, if Registrar Vazquez had noticed the problem before the petition deadline, 1/27/10 at 4:00PM, the circulators could have come into the office and signed the forms.

Obviously, since DiBella had copies of the documents and Vazquez did not retrieve them until 3:50PM. ten minutes before the deadline, they were not corrected in time.

In Attorney Bromley's response to John Bazzano, he summarizes that "if this does not happen, however, the petition pages would have to be rejected pursuant to the state statute".

SECRETARY OF STATE STAFF ATTORNEY'S CLARIFICATION
DTC Petition SOTS E-mail

Although Registar Vazquez refused to let anyone review the petitions today, even though they are public documents, other sources provided more information. Apparently the "Gile's" slate petitions may not be the only ones in jeopardy of being disqualified.

The 4th District slate, the "Arena" slate, led by Hartford's Democratic Town Chairperson Sean Arena apparently also has submitted petitions without section "c" completed.

In both cases, any petition forms disqualified would most likely result in the slates not meeting the minimum number of signatures required to qualify for a position on the March 2nd ballot. This would result in the challenge slates in both districts winning by default and promising a major shakeup in the make-up of Hartford's Democratic Town Committee.

This shakeup would have wide ranging repercussions for the Hartford political scene, including whether or not Eddie Perez would be able to garner the party's nomination if he were to choose to run again. With the upcoming trial for Perez on his corruption charges, that is a big if as to whether he will be capable of running.

Again it is a big if as to whether Perez can or will run, but the shakeup would, according to most observers, benefit Town Committee Chairperson challenger Bruce Rubenstein. Rubenstein is running on an anti-corruption agenda and vowing to return integrity to Hartford City Hall.

As of this time no decision has been made by Registrar Vazquez as to whether she will obey the law, or follow in the footsteps of her political mentors, father-in-law
Abe Giles and Mayor Eddie Perez.

It is safe to say though that if Mark DiBella and others have their way, the matter will be on a fast track to be decided by a Superior Court Judge. From what sources are telling me, DiBella and the others have contracted the services of Hartford Attorney Bob Ludgin. For those who don't recall Bob Ludgin, he is a former City Councilperson and comes from the City Hall era when Councilpeople were bulldogs, not lapdogs. The days of council people like John O'Connell and Bob Ludgin.

Although I attempted to contact Registrar Vazquez for comment, she was sequestered in the bunker known as the Registrar's Office in the basement of Hartford City Hall and didn't return my calls. At the same time, her husband was in the Political Strategy Command Center on the 2nd floor, also known as the Mayor's Office, presumably trying to figure out their next move.

As I said in the title, oh what a web they weave. Luckily though for DiBella and the "Kirkley-Bey" slate, Mark DiBella has one thing on his side that the "Giles" slate and the "Arena" slate don't.....the truth. Superior Court judges tend to prefer dealing with the truth and the facts.