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NORWALK, Conn. Michael Geake says he hesitated when he was asked to run for Common Council last year he had been through it before and didn't want to go through it again.
"It" was not the long hours for little to no pay on the council. "It" was the Democratic caucus.
"I had no intention of running, and this is part of the reason I had no intention of running all the crap I put up with the last time," said Geake, a District B Democrat who served on the council from November 2007 to November 2009.
Geake changed his party affiliation last week, from Democrat to unaffiliated. He will caucus with the Republicans. According to Mayor Richard Moccia, that means that Democrat Anna Duleep is no longer the council's majority leader Republican Doug Hempstead is.
"The majority who caucus together is the majority," said Moccia, who said Robert Maslan, corporation counsel, researched the matter.
Carvin Hilliard, council president, told Monday night's Democratic Town Committee meeting that he had been contacted by Republicans 30 minutes earlier. "Chairmanships are going to be rearranged," he said. "The situations have changed, and there are consequences."
Hilliard said committees will lose one Democrat each, and chairmanships will be lost. Diane Lauricella suggested that council members needed the advice of state Democratic party lawyers. "We have to assist our council because this is really serious," she said. "Our having the chairmanships on all these committees was a way to get our issues around the back of Mr. Moccia. We need to at least help them."
But Nora King said, "At the end of the day it didn't really matter, because you guys weren't voting together anyway."
Duleep asked whether anyone had legal expertise in the matter, as the only information available came from Maslan. Democrats say that their interpretation of the Freedom of information Act differs from Maslan's. Debra Goldstein said, "The minute they allow Mr. Geake, who is currently an unaffiliated voter, not a Republican, into their midst it can no longer be considered a caucus under FOI."
Democrats said they will investigate the matter Tuesday morning. "This all happened in the last four days," said Marc Bradley, Democratic Town Committee chairman.
Moccia said Democrats and Republicans are trading rooms in the council chamber because of Geake's switch, adding that Hilliard will stay council president, as he got votes from both sides of the aisle.
Geake changed his affiliation Wednesday, the day after his wife was one of the losing candidates in an election to decide who would represent District B on the Democratic Town Committee.
Geake said that was "the last straw;" not that she lost, but that Democrats had stood outside the polling place all day and called the then-current leaders corrupt.
"I can no longer be involved with the Norwalk Democratic Party," he said. "They come down here, they interfere with the workings of our district."
Bradley promptly called on Geake to resign. "Mike Geake's decision to desert his party, sell out his constituents and abandon his values is within his right. What is not his right is to tilt the balance of power and alter the will of the voters of Norwalk," he said in an email. "This is not about an individual. This is about the voters of Norwalk. If Mr. Geake feels that he can no longer carry out the will of the voters his constituents than he should do the honorable thing and step down immediately. The voters of South Norwalk and District B deserve no less."
"He can stand there and hold his breath until I do," Geake said. "Until he shows me evidence that all the people voted for me just because I am a Democrat, not because of who I am, then he has no right to say anything."
Geake said last Tuesday's election was orchestrated by Bradley and other leaders in the Democratic Town Committe, so that when he and Carvin Hilliard come up for re-election neither would have the votes to be nominated.
"The leaders of the other districts came down here and decided they would dictate how B was run," he said. "They came down out of the blue, they caught us unprepared. They were all organized and ready to go."
"The election results on Tuesday have nothing to do with Mr. Geake," Bradley said. "Five candidates from District B stood up and ran for office because they want to make their communities stronger. They filed their names. They knocked on doors. They made phone calls. And they won. I understand from Mr. Geake that the sun revolves around the Earth, too."
Bradley called it "a pathetic example of taking your ball and going home." But Geake said, "The Democratic caucus has been dysfunctional for a long time" and the insults to his wife were only the "final straw."
Moccia said Republicans have never had a major disagreements with Geake. "He's always voted in the best interest of his city and not his party," he said. "You never know in a caucus what can happen, but from talking to the caucus members, they're welcoming."
"I'm still going to vote the way I vote," Geake said. "The Republicans know me from last time, they know darn well how I'm going to vote on what issue. They accept that. I won't change who I am just who I caucus with. ... I didn't stop being a Democrat, I just stopped being a Norwalk Democrat."
Correction made, 12:20 a.m. March 15.
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