Independent Running for Second District Town Council Seat

Though Farmington has far more unaffiliated voters (7,036) than registered Democrats (5,265) or Republicans (4,389), for years the town has had no independent candidates. Until now.

William Baker, a registered Republican, has filed a petition to run for a Second District Town Council seat. He has also filed the paperwork to divorce his party.

Baker, 37, moved to Farmington with his wife and two children 10 years ago, attracted by the quality of the town’s schools. He joined the Connecticut National Guard a month after 9/11 and served off and on for much of the time, returning from Iraq last May. It didn’t give him much time to go to meetings, but he read the minutes online, watched storefronts empty around town and winced at cuts to academic programs. Baker said he became increasingly dissatisfied with the way Town Council members were handling the town’s business, particularly its money.

But it was the last budget cycle — when a Town Meeting restored a slashed budget to its original level — that he felt he needed to get involved.

“I’ve been a registered Republican for the entire 10 years I’ve been in Farmington, but unfortunately, over the last six years I’ve disagreed with the way the party has handled themselves on the elected board. They didn’t do enough to support party values,” he said Wednesday.

Discussions with party leaders brought out the possibility of running for a Board of Education seat, but Baker said he declined.

“I decided I would just run as an independent because I think there are a a lot of people like me who’ve been disenfranchised from their party … I think I have a lot of views that I can use to represent them,” he said.

Specifically, Baker, an auditor with the state of Connecticut, said he’d like to see a change in the economic climate in order to strengthen the town’s tax base.

“I’d like to see the way we do business with businesses changed. … We have established businesses that help bring mill rates down and bring in revenue to support the town and the schools, but businesses are leaving. We’re just not meeting their needs,” he said.

With that, Baker said the Board of Education needs more oversight from the council.

“They’re the governing body. It’s their responsibility to make sure taxes are spent on services for the town.” Instead, Baker said, he sees the salary and benefit accounts for the Board of Education increasing, while services and supplies in the schools have fallen.

“People are getting fewer services yet paying more taxes. I think we need a balance. Members of the Town Council have failed miserably at fiscal policy in looking at how those funds are allocated,” he said.

New contracts are currently being negotiated by the Farmington Education Association and town leadership.

Baker said he knows running on his own may be difficult but he’s already gotten started talking to locals by going door to door to get signatures for his petition. He will face incumbents Patty Stoddard (R) and Charlie Kenison (R) and John Vibert (Democratic incumbent) and Rob Huelin (D).

Anyone interested in running as an independent candidate must get a petition from the Secretary of State and fill it with the signatures of 1 percent of the number who voted in the last election.

To contact William Baker, email williambaker17@comcast.net or call (860) 255-7385.