WestportNow: Registrar of Voters Raines Says No to Nomination <read>
The usually routine nomination of a Republican Registrar of Voters was anything but that tonight at a meeting at Westport Town Hall. Judy Raines: complained of “being stabbed in the back.” WestportNow photo
After Bob Zappi, Republican Town Committee (RTC) chairman, praised Republican Registrar of Voters Judith Raines for her eight years of service and motioned that she be nominated for re-election in November—a motion that was seconded—Raines stunned the RTC by saying no.
Instead, she said she had two other individuals she was training for her position, and she called them to the front of the auditorium…
When Zappi told Raines this was not the proper procedure, she persisted. Zappi stood firm saying that the RTC would have to form a search committee.
Raines became teary, countering that she “was being stabbed in the back,” considering how hard she fought for funds for her office during the Representative Town Meeting budget restorations.
“I don’t appreciate being blind sided, Judy,” Zappi told Raines.
He quickly nominated George Underhill, the town’s former tax collector who now serves on the RTM, as a placeholder for the position until the search committee could come up with a candidate for November. It was seconded and approved by the RTC.
