October 27, 2009

Dear Fellow Eastonites:

Election Day, November 3, is almost here! We need a strong turnout of Easton Republicans to re-elect our First Selectman Tom Herrmann, Selectman Scott Centrella and our entire Republican slate running for elected town offices.

Tom and Scott have proven to be good listeners and skilled leaders not afraid of making the tough decisions in the best interests of Easton. In fact, the minority Selectman voted with them on all but one occasion during the last 2 years. Prior to being elected First Selectman in 2007, Tom served on The Board of Finance, Region 9 Financial Oversight Committee, The Zoning Board of Appeals and The Senior Tax Relief Committee. By comparison, Tom's Democratic opposition has never served on a town board or commission nor attended any Board of Selectmen meetings during his 6 years in town and only recently joined the Democratic Party. The First Selectmen's office is no place for "on the job training".

Specifically, Tom and Scott have (1) successfully negotiated a creative solution to the long-standing South Park Avenue high-density housing crisis (2) presided, during an economic downfall, over the lowest tax increase of 1.65% since 1994 (3) achieved, along with the Town Treasurer and Chair of the Board of Finance, the highest AAA credit rating ever awarded to Easton by Standard & Poor's and becoming one of only 168 municipalities in the entire nation with this coveted distinction and (4) compassionately supported the Senior Tax Relief Ordinance which now offers more flexible options than any other program in the state to our deserving seniors.

Additionally, recent Connecticut Mastery Test scores (CMT) for Easton students in Grades 3-8 were at record performance levels, ranking Easton students exceptionally well within our 8 town District Reference Group ("DRG").

Mark Pompa replaced Tom Herrmann on the Board of Finance two years ago and is now being targeting by the Democrats who are falsely trying to brand him as being too conservative, out-of-touch and not supportive of education. On the contrary, Mark, a Chief Financial Officer of a Fortune 500 Company, is fair and balanced and, indeed, often the most centrist member of our Board of Finance. Your vote for Mark Pompa is essential for us to maintain control of the Board of Finance.

Derek Buckley, our Town Clerk, has automated this office and cleaned-up a large backlog of documents (which he inherited) while reducing the cost of processing a document by 75%. All vital records have been electronically archived avoiding the cost of an expensive ($750,000) vault. But for the first time in a several years, the Democrats have fielded a candidate for Town Clerk, so please support Derek for another 2 year term.

In closing, we must not be complacent. Your vote will insure another resounding Republican victory - without it, we could lose control of the Board of Selectmen, the Board of Finance and the Town Clerk's office to the Democrats.

Always with the greatest confidence in our party, I remain,

Very truly yours,
Hugh J. Barry
Chairman, Easton Republican Town Committee

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