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FAIRFIELD, Conn. More than half of Fairfields voters will choose from a different list of candidates for state offices this November. Whether they will also have to change polling places is still up in the air.
The Representative Town Meeting Redistricting Committee is nearing its deadline to redraw Fairfields voting districts in time for the August primaries. As of its meeting Wednesday evening, the bipartisan committee is still split on the number of polling places Fairfield will have come Election Day.
At some point this committee needs to step up as a committee and as leaders within our caucuses, and try to reach something of a compromise, said committee member David Becker. We keep going around in circles and thats becoming a problem.
The RTM redraws Fairfields district boundaries every 10 years using the latest U.S. Census data and the changed borders of the Connecticut General Assemblys districts. Fairfield experienced a lot of changes at the state level last fall about 51 percent of the towns voters find themselves in a new district for the state House of Representatives.
The redistricting committee hopes to have a plan ready by the August primaries. If not, the registrars of voters will have to maintain 21 different voting lines across Fairfields 10 polling places. Some polling places would hold elections for as many as three different state representatives.
The committee originally split over the number of districts to draw in Fairfield. The three Republicans in the group Becker, Hank Ference and Joseph Palmer proposed a change to eight districts. The change would mean the RTM would shrink from 50 members to 40 and the town would save money by staffing two fewer polling places each election.
Democrats Leonora Campbell, Kevin Hoffkins and John Mitola, said their party wants to keep 10 districts. That would mean less confusion for voters and make it easier for representatives to walk their districts to campaign and to listen to residents, they said.
It disfavors what have been traditionally Democratic districts, where candidates from both sides can walk and canvas, Mitola said. When you make a large district, not only are you representing more people, but its harder to cover.
Mitola suggested last week that the two groups work on a compromise of nine districts. The Republicans drew a new map with nine sections. The Democrats, however, said their party caucus was committed to a 10-district system. Hoffkins also criticized the makeup of the nine-district map, saying it created more heavily Republican districts than Democratic ones.
What we would look to do is to try to do something where theres an even number of districts in a Democratic area, and the same in Republican areas, and maybe one or two districts where its split, so both parties have an even chance to vie for control of the RTM, Hoffkins said.
The Republicans said theyd be willing to consider a different map. But they reminded the Democrats that their decision needs majority approval at the full RTM. The Republican Party controls the RTM, 28-22.
I dont want to be controversial, Ference said. I really dont want us to be at odds here. I want us all to agree.
The committee is scheduled to meet again June 19 at 5 p.m. The full RTM meets next June 25.
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