A former first selectman and the chairman of the Planning and Zoning Commission were both snubbed by the Republican Town Committee as it picked a slate for the November elections, the July 13, 1989 Press reported. Republican Town Committee Chairman Anne Haley reported that the town committee-recommended candidates would not include either Elizabeth Leonard or David Huntoon.
Ms. Leonard, who was a popular first selectman for six years, was seeking a seat on the Board of Selectmen. The committee selected Duncan Hume, a town committee member instead.
Mr. Huntoon, who had been on the Planning and Zoning Commission for dozens of years and had been the commission’s chairman until late in 1987, also got the boot. The committee backing was instead given to Francis J. Martin, formerly a member of the Board of Tax Review. Also passed over were Board of Finance members Jere B. Fletcher and Ronald J. Bossio. Both were first-time members who had completed their two-year terms.
“I’m certainly disappointed,” said Ms. Leonard. A number of committee members asked Ms. Leonard if she could serve in a subordinate role after having been the town’s first selectman. In a telephone interview following the endorsements, Ms. Leonard said, “Any personal pride or personal considerations would be overcome by my desire to serve the town.” When asked if she would seek the nomination at the GOP caucus without the town committee endorsement, Ms. Leonard said she would poll her supporters. In a Gen. Douglas McArthur-like statement, Ms. Leonard added, “when I left office I promised that I would be back….”
Despite the GOP surprises, townspeople seemed more interested in national issues, and in particular flag burning and abortion. Following the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Texas vs. Johnson, in which the court invalidated state court convictions in Texas for protests that included flag burning, a number of residents expressed their views on the need for a constitutional amendment banning flag burning. In an on-the-street interview, Army veteran and chairman of the Ridgefield high school political science and history department Dirk Bollenback said, “ I agree with Justice Breenan in that a constitutional amendment on the flag should not consist of punishing those that desecrate it, no matter how much we deplore the desecration of it.” Veteran Al Pfeifer wrote The Press, ‘Our founding fathers never imagined someone would be so callous as to burn the country’s flag. I’m sure they would have written something into the Constitution to prevent it. Why must everything be spelled out today? The flag expresses our freedom and values. Must we abandon everything for the sake of extremists in our midst? Joy and Courtney Kluess added, “The support of your newspaper for the Supreme Court ruling which upheld flag-burning as an inalienable right surprises and disheartens us. We may as well just discontinue the Pledge of Allegiance in our schools and abandon the singing of the National Anthem. The message in the world is clear. The United States is becoming increasingly lenient to those who would carry out unpatriotic acts against it.”
The commonly caustic John Katz could not curtail a plethora of pedantic p’s in his prose to The Press on Republican John Rowland’s proposal for a constitutional amendment on the flag-burning issue. “John Rowland’s piously pandering to part-time patriots misses the point of what our nation is all about …Very few flags are burned, but many civil rights may be jeopardized if we capitulate to Rowland’s rollover.”
The abortion battle was on as Ridgefield’s pro-choice forces mobilized their ranks. A group of Ridgefielders attended a pro-choice rally in Hartford. “It was heartening to know that the legislators took fire and are planning to do something to prevent the anti-abortion laws that are on the Connecticut books to take effect,” said Ethel Eckhaus of Beechwood Lane. Sandra Silver of Parley Lane, however, predicted large operation rescue demonstrations in front of abortion clinics. She said “there would be hundreds of thousands of people within the next years who will be willing to put their bodies on the line and go to jail so that the bodies of defenseless babies will not be torn from their mothers’ wombs.” “I do see the numbers rising,” said right-to-life believer Amy Spicher of Webster Road. “I believe they’ve been here all along.” In contrast, pro-choice Marjorie McKenna of Silver Spring Road said, “I’ll sign petitions. I was just thinking about sending more contributions to the National Organization for Women, the National Abortion Rights Action League and Planned Parenthood.
Real estate sales were slow and prices were down. The threat of foreclosure had begun to darken a speculative building market that seemed so rosy a few months earlier. The slowdown had made builders cautious about starting new construction. Especially hard hit were builders who borrowed heavily and bought at the market peak in belief that the mid-1980s boom would continue and that their houses would sell quickly. Attorney Rex Gustafson, one of several local lawyers handling foreclosures in town, said “some builders thought they would build a home, and sell it in a couple of weeks … It all depends on how far (the builder) is leveraged out.”