On Tuesday, January 18, the Wallingford Town Council appointed former Town Council member and former Wallingford Democratic Town Committee (WDTC) member Mr. Jason Zandri to fill the vacated Council seat after Democrat Gina Morgenstein resigned mid-term due to the stresses of the job. Mr. Zandri’s appointment resulted in disorder within the town meeting: audience members of the open Council meeting booed, yelled, and many stormed out. The enraged spectators believed that Democrat Ms. Alexa Tomassi, the WDTC’s unanimously endorsed candidate, and the runner up in last year’s election, should have received the seat. Traditionally, in the Council, when a member resigns mid-term, they are replaced with a candidate of the same political affiliation. This is the first year since 1980 that the council has strayed from this convention.
Democratic Councilor, Mr. Vincent F. Testa, began the Town Council meeting with a statement in support of Ms. Tomassi. At the meeting, Councilor Testa encouraged everyone to, “follow the policy, the procedure, and the tradition.” Councilor Testa also argued appointing Ms. Tomassi should be a matter of “common sense,” because she was the recommended candidate of the WDTC and last year’s runner up. As part of his statement to his fellow Council members, Councilor Testa said, “You don’t have to justify it, but if you choose not to follow my nomination, you need to justify that.”
The other DemocraticCouncilor, Mr. Samuel Carmody, echoed Councilor Testa’s sentiment, along with several town citizens. At the meeting, Mr. Carmody emphasized that it was, “the will of the people” to appoint Ms. Tomassi, citing that she had the right resume and energy for the job.
All six Republican councilors were reportedly silent throughout Councilor Carmody’s statements. “They didn’t want to speak on it, because they didn’t really have much to say,” said 2021 Wallingford mayoral candidate Mr. Riley O’Connell ’14. “There was no real legitimate excuse for them to deny her nomination,” he said.
In the end, the motion to appoint Ms. Tomassi failed: both Democrats voted to approve her while the six republicans opposed. The audience was outraged. Notably, gallery members yelled “boo!” and “shame!” Some of the audience stormed out as well. Mr. O’Connell believes their frustration stemmed from shock because many believed that Tomassi would be the appointee. Mr. O’Connell, however, was already aware of the alleged “background scheming” to nominate Jason Zandri prior to this meeting. According to Mr. O’Connell, the whole meeting “was clearly a bunch of backroom scheming and deals. [Republicans] are putting their own political party’s agenda or goals. Above the greater good community and the bulk of the voters in the community.”
The scheming that Mr. O’Connell alleged is in reference to a situation this summer that caused Mr. Zandri to leave the WDTC. Mr. Zandri was on the council for six terms as a Democrat until last year, when the WDTC decided to run a slate of six nominees, even though there were nine democratic candidates interested. Mr. Zandri was one of the three excluded, which he believes to be the product of a prejudice held against him by WDTC Chair Alida Cella. While planning to petition his way into the running for the seat, Mr. Zandri developed a viral heart infection and went into a coma, but he has since recovered.
Now, with the 2022 resignation of former Councilor Morgenstein, Republican Councilor, Mr. Jose Marrone, nominated Zandri, who is considered to be more politically moderate than Ms. Tomassi. Other Republican Councilors expressed their wish to appoint Mr. Zandri, using the argument that he would’ve won in the 2021 election cycle if he had been able to run. Despite the protest of the crowd, when Republicans presented the motion to elect Mr. Zandri, it passed with the six Republican votes and the abstinence of both Democrats.
Ms. Cella, chair of the WDTC, described this as a “gross injustice.” However, Mr. Zandri has felt antagonized by Ms. Cella since before she was appointed chair of the WDTC in 2020. In November 2019, a week before the council election, Mr. Zandri posted on his private Facebook a phrase from the 2018 “Overboard” remake: “Land of the Free, not Land of the Free Lunch.” Mr. Zandri explained that “it was a cool saying in and of itself” and he thought the stereotype “role reversal” in the scene to be interesting. He described the scene as a “rich white male has amnesia, is working as a day laborer, and the Latinx crew chief says it to him.” Mr. Zandri was asked by Democrats to take it down, but he refused.
Mr. Zandri believes the conflict to have been driven by Ms. Cella. Prior to being elected WDTC chair, she commented on his facebook post: “What you posted was a Republican/conservative talking point … Do not continue this battle. It will not go well for you.” Zandri argued that once appointed as WDTC chair, Cella had the power to carry out her “threat” by denying him the ability to run for another term on the council and not endorsing his election. “These were just idle threats from a citizen at the time they were made – as chair she had the power to carry them out,” he explained.
Despite the contentions raised at the Town Council meeting, Mr. Zandri remains determined to honor the people of Wallingford through his service on the council. “I try to get up each day and be the kind of person my kids and my dog think I am. I fail at it, sometimes miserably. I truly believe I will never get there; I will never be as great as they think I am, but I owe it to them to never give up trying. So, I won’t,” said Mr. Zandri.
